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RENDERING
Diverse raw materials from different meat industries are just one of the external factors renderers have to deal with during processing
Pressing matters Suppliers of rendering equipment are focusing on energy efficient plants which meet current safety standards, while yielding the highest amount of raw materials, with the screw press being a central element in the rendering process Lennard Münch
32 OFI – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
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The rendering industry has recovered from the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or so-called mad cow disease crisis of the 1980s and 1990s, in which the main affected nation – the UK – had to slaughter four million head of cattle to contain the outbreak. During the crisis, 177 people died in the UK after contracting the human equivalent of the brain disease – Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (vCJD) – and British beef was banned from export to numerous countries around the world, with some bans remaining in place until as late as 2019. The BSE crisis led to new regulations including the removal of specified risk material from the food supply chain and the separation of fallen stock and animal by-products into different risk categories. Since then, stricter regulations have challenged the rendering industry to adapt its processes. From today’s perspective, it is even more important to operate an energy efficient plant which meets safety
standards but also yields the highest amount of raw materials. Suppliers of rendering equipment have focused on how to arrange the best setups of conventional machinery and their reliability. A second step in this ongoing development is the automation of plants and how to steer them towards greater energy efficiency. There is no perfect process or automisation system because external factors such as constantly changing raw material, temperatures and handling issues are so diverse. Therefore, constant monitoring and correct planning of service intervals are very important. Yields increase when servicing is scheduled regularly, according to press and spare parts manufacturers and service providers Rosedowns and Serptec, part of the Desmet Ballestra group.
Focus on screw press
The screw press is a central element in the rendering processing as it takes a
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13/09/2021 13:54:32