I was just told by an company-affiliated individual that any supplement using dicalcium phosphate as an ingredient includes, in access of 2000 mg/kg of iron and that many U.S. products omit iron within their nutrient labels due to differing state regulations. Does anyone know if this is true? if it is, then my horses have been getting a lot more Iron in their diet than I anticipated: 16 Fe: 1 Cu to be exact, when the label lists no iron:eek:
I’ve been trying to learn more about nutrition here and there. Ingredients is something I haven’t delved into much yet. I’m interested in learning more about it and this was something that caught me rather by surprise.
Calcium phosphate is CaHPO[SUB]4. Just calcium, hydrogen, phosphorous and oxygen. It may be possible for it to contain trace amounts of other things.[/SUB]
I’d be curious who it is that said this, since it seems there are a lot of weird ideas out there. Just because its on the internet doesn’t mean its true.
I was emailing a Canadian company (you can message me for specifics if you want, but I don’t want to mention company names here) for a custom supplementation similar to the nutrient levels in the one I usually get (usually get mine in the states because price is best, but looking for backups with the borders being shut down) and I specifically requested little to no iron in it for my horses, as one has DSLD. The response back was that my current supplement ingredients, in fact, does have iron in it due to the dicalcium phosphate used, but is not listed due to differing label regulations between the U.S. and Canada. However, an excess of 2000 mg/kg iron is quite a lot to not be listed, if that is true. That means that my horse’s are not nearly getting the amount of Copper and Zinc needed to maintain balance, but hooves have looked better than ever on the current supplement 
.
I also looked up the chemistry, couldn’t find anything on this specific topic and couldn’t understand how this is possible, but I would really be interested in understanding it further. The only thing I can think of is if the phosphate component used to make dicalcium phosphate is from an iron component, such as ferric phosphate.
Just because something contains iron doesn’t mean the iron is bioavailable.
Even if it was 100% bioavailable, 2000ppm is 56mg Fe in 1oz. How much dicalcium phosphate are you feeding?
Nutrients don’t have to be listed of they are not an added ingredient. That would be especially hard if intrinsic levels vary based on the source of the ingredient
I found this study, looking at various mineral levels in commercial dicalciuim phosphate:
"Iron Iron levels (Table 5) were variable, ranging from 20 ppm (phosphate 1) to 11,100 ppm (phosphate 3), and averaging 7,515 ppm. The highest Fe levels were observed for phosphates 3,7, and 8 (11,100, 9,900, and 11,000 ppm) and these levels would not be toxic for poultry, because the maximum tolerable Fe level (NRC, 1980) for poultry is 1,000 ppm in the complete diet, or 50,000 ppm in a P source used at a dietary level of 2%. However, if available biologically, these levels could furnish the bird’s requirements of Fe, estimated to be 80 ppm in a complete diet by the NRC (1994).
AH, thank you JB 
I’m actually a bit embarrassed because seeing the 2000 Fe my eyes bulged out and I completely forgot to convert it :lol: to mg per serving. If it were 100% available, at 2000mg/kg of Fe, then it would be around 170mg Fe per 85g. I’m not sure how much dicalcium phosphate is in my regular supplement, but it is the first ingredient listed (horsetech high point-grass/ mixed hay) with a few minor tweaks to fit my hay better.
I also really appreciate your time in looking up a study! I’ll be reading it in more detail, once I have a bit more time
Been there :lol:
When I first saw the level of iron in tested beet pulp (go check equi-analytical), I was like :eek: :eek: Then someone walked me off that ledge and said a lot of it is probably dirt/inorganic iron, and unavailable. Made sense :lol:
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