Horse Feed Palatability Enhancers

Sep 08, 2025

Many horse feeds contain starchy flavours and binders - sweeteners and added flavours to entice horses to eat the feed. The disclosure of these on feed labels varies. Sometimes they aren’t mentioned at all. Sometimes they appear under different names such as natural flavourings, fruit derivatives or palatability enhancers. When they aren’t clearly named, you don’t know exactly what’s in the feed.

Mostly these ingredients are not of concern to horse owners, but when it comes to low GI feeds, it’s useful to know the actual ingredients so you can assess their sugar-spiking impact. These ingredients are mostly high GI, so you need to know about them - what is in the feed and how much - so you can assess the blood sugar impact (the glycaemic load).

Common flavour enhancers are molasses and apple-based or grape-based flavourings. Molasses has the added advantage that it contains beneficial trace elements and acts as a dust suppressant. Apple and grape flavours are often listed as apple pomace or grape pomace.

Apple Pomace

Apple pomace is the pulpy by-product left over after juicing apples. It typically includes:

Apple skins
Pulp and fibre
Seed fragments
Residual sugars and juice

It’s high in fibre, but it also contains residual natural sugars, including fructose, which can elevate the NSC (non-structural carbohydrate) content of a feed, depending on the amount and processing. Because it’s a fruit by-product, it has a higher glycaemic impact than typical fibre sources like beet pulp or soy hulls.

Why it’s used

Improves flavour (most horses love the taste)
Adds bulk and fibre
Can reduce feed production cost

Grape Pomace

Grape pomace is the residue left after pressing grapes for juice or wine. It contains:

Grape skins
Pulp
Seeds
Occasionally small amounts of juice

It’s less common in horse feeds than apple pomace, but it’s used in some feeds or supplements for palatability or antioxidant content. However, it can also add sugar and NSCs - especially if not well processed or if used in larger amounts.

The Problem in Low-GI Feeds

These pomaces are often not clearly named on the ingredient list or are labelled vaguely. If you don’t know how much is in the feed, it’s hard to assess whether a feed is truly low-GI, especially when full NSC values aren’t disclosed.

What to Look For Instead

If your horse is metabolically sensitive or prone to laminitis, you might want to avoid feeds that rely on fruit by-products for palatability. Look for flavouring alternatives like:

Alfalfa / lucerne chaff
Linseed meal
Herbal blends
Natural oils (flaxseed, sunflower, etc.)

Our Position: Ultra Low GI Uses Minimal Molasses

Our Ultra Low GI horse feed uses molasses, but in very small amounts - 2.5% max. We’ve written an article about this - check it out here: Molasses in Modern Horse Feeds.

GI vs GL - Glycaemic Index vs Glycaemic Load

GI tells you the sugar-spiking impact of an ingredient. But if only a small amount is consumed, then the impact is lower - which is where glycaemic load (GL) comes in.

GL considers both the GI of individual ingredients and their quantities. So when 97.5% of a feed like our Ultra Low GI consists of fibre-based and oil-based ingredients with minimal NSCs, the overall blood sugar impact remains extremely low despite the presence of molasses.

As an analogy, a single grain of sugar has a very high GI but effectively zero GL - the impact of a single grain of sugar on a person’s blood glucose level is insignificant.

In a feed like our Ultra Low GI, dominated by ultra-low GI ingredients such as soy hulls (reported GI around 7) and oil-rich seeds, the tiny amount of molasses - 2.5% max - has a negligible impact on the overall glycaemic load.