Within the two last decades, food waste has become a serious problem that has to be quickly overcome. As the average food waste produced by an adult can reach 20 kilos per month, turning food waste into animal feed could be, apart from using it through composting, one of the best ways to deal with the food waste all over the world.
Advantages of food recycling through animal feed
If using natural plant extracts for animal nutrition such as Nor-Feed, Animal Welfare, Animal feed supplements, Animal feed additives is good for livestock feed, transforming food waste into animal feed plays also a great role that address the main issues of animal health. And it seems not to be the only advantage that could be drawn from that practice. In fact, turning food waste into animal feed could be beneficial in many ways. Transforming agricultural waste into animal feed would pop up new opportunities for farmers. Green jobs in waste collection, processing plants, and animal feed manufacturing would also be created. An idea which can be a salvation for rural areas where growth is slower than in town and where the animal feed sector remains an important element of economic growth. For instance, with the food waste turned into animal feed, cattle farmers will naturally save money from buying animal feed. If food waste is focused on animal feed, it will also reduce the pressure on landfills. Composing animal feed through food waste also hides potential economic growth in one specific country. And last but not the least, recycling waste food to make animal feed would consequently reduce methane emissions from fruits and vegetables to lower carbon footprints. To go deeper, turning food waste into animal feed plays a great role in the chunking out of livestock emission.
Consumers waste…industries too!
If it seems to be universally known that consumers waste unquestionably food each time that they eat, consider also the fact that industries are also big wasters. If the waste of raw materials, vegetables and fruits by farmers is always at the forefront, that of industries should not be hidden. In fact, food waste come from industrial bakeries, chocolate or biscuit factories. About 20,000 tons of leftovers are yearly bought from the food industries, undergo crushing within an industrial productor of animal feed and become feed component for animal feed. But why are they thrown? Pralines, for instance, cannot be sold if they are not entirely full. The broken waffles do not also interest the customers. These production failures generate waste apart from the consumer’s choice to make it. So in a way, veal, cows, pig and poultry also eat bread, pralines and waffles.
How to utilize food waste into animal feed?
As it is a simple and easy method, everyone is able to feed the animals directly. In fact, everyone is able to give for free the wasted food that they no more need to the farmers to give them to the animals. These first can select the waste food before feeding the animals. But for the swine, no need to do so as they belong to the omnivorous animals ‘category that eat everything.
These wastes are rich in both protein and energy but also in many other nutraceuticals. In fact, while considering their nutritive value, the waste food can be used either as roughage or as a protein source in the concentrate mixture. And most of these lost wastes are highly appreciated and palatized among livestock. For instance, concentrate feed mixture for ruminants such as cattle, sheep, goat, etc. shows up to 50 per cent of the bottle gourd waste (pulp). And nutraceutical limonin extracted from kinnow juice waste has been proved to auspicious results as growth promoter for poultry.
But some studies have rallied the experts to the conclusion that feeding animals directly with the food waste may impact on their health. To cope with that, the process of getting the food to the animals should first be controlled by a social entity in charge of collecting and sorting these waste foods before giving them to the farmers. The waste has then reached a new step on its way to wealth.