Why are vegetable oils used in animal feed?
The addition of vegetable oils to animal feed is to produce high energy diets for certain intensive livestock enterprises. Fats and oils, such as those used in cooking, contain essential fatty acids. These essential fatty acids occur in all living organisms, including plants, and are used to bind ingredients of compound animal feed together. A level of fatty acids in the diets of animals is essential since some unsaturated acids cannot be synthesised by the animal. Most animal diets contain comparatively low levels of fat, but supplementation with fat or oil is sometimes made.
