What is choline chloride?
Choline is a quaternary ammonium compound that the body uses to build phosphatidylcholine (lecithin) and sphingomyelin in cell membranes, the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and betaine. Choline chloride is its stable, water-soluble chloride salt and is produced industrially for the feed industry.
Choline is often listed with the B vitamins, but unlike true vitamins it is needed in gram rather than milligram quantities per kilogram of feed, and animals can synthesise part of their requirement in the liver. Because this synthesis is often not enough, especially in young animals, choline is routinely supplemented.
What does choline do in animal feed?
- Broilers and turkeys: supports growth and feed efficiency; deficiency is associated with perosis (slipped tendon) and poor leg development in young birds.
- Laying hens: helps export fat from the liver as lipoproteins, which is relevant for liver health and egg production.
- Pigs: required for growth in piglets; in sows it is commonly included in gestation and lactation diets.
- Dairy cattle: most dietary choline is degraded in the rumen, so rumen-protected choline is used around calving to support liver fat metabolism.
- Aquaculture: an essential nutrient for many farmed fish and shrimp species.
- Metabolism: after oxidation to betaine, choline acts as a methyl donor and can partly spare methionine.
Forms of choline chloride
- Choline chloride 60% (or 50%) powder: the liquid adsorbed on a vegetable carrier (typically corn cob) or on silica. Silica-based grades usually flow better and are often preferred for premixes.
- Choline chloride 70% or 75% liquid: an aqueous solution sprayed into feed in mills that have liquid dosing systems.
- Rumen-protected choline: coated or encapsulated forms for ruminants, designed to pass the rumen and release choline in the small intestine.
- Natural sources: soybean meal, rapeseed meal, fish meal and other ingredients contain choline, but their contribution and availability vary.
How is the choline requirement assessed?
Requirements depend on species, age, production stage and diet composition. Nutritionists take into account the choline already supplied by raw materials, the level of methionine and betaine in the diet (both can reduce the need for choline as a methyl donor) and whether the animals are young and growing fast. Supplementation is then set to cover the gap, following the manufacturer's label and the applicable local regulations.
Choline chloride and premix stability
Choline chloride is strongly hygroscopic and alkaline. In concentrated vitamin premixes it attracts moisture and can accelerate the loss of sensitive vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin K₃ and some B vitamins. For this reason many producers add choline separately at the feed mill or keep vitamin and choline components apart, and when choline must be in the premix, the formulation, carrier choice, packaging and storage time are planned with this in mind.
Quality criteria
- Active content: declared choline chloride content (for example 60% or 70–75%) and choline content.
- Moisture: important for powder grades because of the product's hygroscopic nature.
- Carrier type and particle size: affect flowability, dust and mixing uniformity.
- Trimethylamine (TMA) and odour: higher residual TMA indicates lower quality and gives a fishy smell.
- Heavy metals, packaging integrity (moisture-proof bags) and a certificate of analysis (CoA) for each lot.
CTF Premix and choline chloride
Choline chloride can be included in CTF Premix's vitamin, vitamin-mineral or custom premixes according to the customer's formulation, with the carrier, inclusion rate and stability of the other vitamins taken into account by our technical team. All premixes are produced at our Ankara facility under ISO 9001:2015 and GMP, every lot comes with a certificate of analysis, and lots can be traced through the batch verification page on our website.
This page is for general information. Inclusion rates and product choice should be decided with a nutritionist, taking into account the species, the feed formulation and the applicable regulations.