World Grain - May 2023 - 38

FEED QUARTERLY OPERATIONS
CONVERTING
food waste to feed
Researchers seek ways to utilize it as a feed ingredient
by Nelsa Beckman, Phillip Lancaster and Chad Paulk
Food waste often is considered any food that was not used for
its intended purpose and has otherwise been discarded to a
landfill. In 2010, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)
estimated that the amount of food waste accumulated in the
United States accounted for 30% to 40% of all food produced
annually, equaling approximately 133 billion pounds or $161
billion worth. This food waste contributes to greenhouse gas
emissions as well as using resources that could have been
used elsewhere such as freshwater, labor and oil.
A 2009 study calculated that the amount of food waste generated
had increased almost 50% from 1974 to 2003. To counteract
this surge, the EPA and USDA developed an initiative to
reduce waste in half by 2030. This initiative included a Food
Waste Recovery Hierarchy that outlines alternative uses for
food waste that divert it away from landfills. One of the alternatives,
after preferably either reducing the source or donating
it to food banks or shelters, is to convert it to animal feed.
To begin approaching this problem we must acknowledge
that there are several steps along the food supply chain before
it is acquired by the end consumer. The supply chain allows
food to spoil or become damaged at several points such as
manufacturing, transportation, or just sitting on the shelf at the
grocery store for too long. Therefore, we must look at reducing
waste at multiple stages.
Based on a report by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance
(2014) and a study done by Dou et al. (2016), the percentage
of food waste that is converted into animal feed decreases as
38
it moves further down the supply chain. The manufacturing
or processing sector converts 80% of its food waste to animal
feed while only about 5% is discarded to a landfill. This is evident
in diets that feed mills mix every day by using soybean
meal, bakery meal, dried distiller's grains from ethanol production,
brewers' grains from the brewery process, and multiple
ingredients from the meat and rendering processes such as
tallow and meat, bone, and feather meals to name just a few.
However, when we consider retail and restaurant sectors,
only 12% and 1% of their total waste is converted to animal
feed while 45% and 97% is sent to landfills, respectively. This
leaves a large opportunity to divert that food waste away from
disposal areas and upcycle it for a greater use.
Nutritional characteristics of food waste
To understand the handling characteristics and nutritional
properties of food waste, a preliminary study was conducted
at Kansas State University collecting food waste from a student
dining center over the course of six weeks (Beckman et
al., unpublished). This waste included any food that could not
be reheated, repurposed, or donated to a local food pantry and
mainly came from the buffet line.
Examples of this would be salad bar fixings, pasta, scrambled
eggs, desserts, and hamburger patties. They found that
food waste contains a moisture content as high as 70%. This
poses a problem as it creates an ideal environment for rapid
spoilage, mold and bacterial growth.
May 2023 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
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World Grain - May 2023

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