FIELD REPORT
Potential to produce poultry feed from food wastes The annual food waste in Australia is estimated at 7.5 million tonnes with the majority disposed of in landfills. This not only causes significant economic loss but also has a negative environmental impact. This study aimed at investigating the possibility of recycling food waste into feed for poultry. requirements. Microbial contamination, free fatty acids, oxidation and nutrient digestibility need to be considered before valuable recycled food wastes can be used as a feed source for poultry.
Introduction
T.H. Dao1, V. Jayasena2, D. Hagare2, N. Boyle3, M. Rahman4, R.A. Swick1 1 School
of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Australia 2
Western Sydney University, Australia 3
Norm Boyle Consulting Services, Australia
4
College of Engineering, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia
10
Nutrient contents of various waste streams were evaluated. The food waste collected from the services club and restaurant contained the highest levels of crude protein and crude fat (404 g/kg and 278 g/kg, respectively) while crude protein and crude fat content of food waste originating from bakeries and fruit-vegetable growers were 100 g/kg and 43 g/kg, respectively. The findings indicated that the blended material had an excessive Na concentration (6.5 g/kg), low Ca content (1.0 g/kg) and high/low concentrations of other nutrients relative to broiler grower feed requirements. Further studies are required to investigate the blending of waste streams with other nutrient sources to meet nutrient
- field report -
Food waste refers to “the discarding or alternative (non-food) use of food that was fit for human consumption - by choice or after the food has been left to spoil or expire as a result of negligence”. It is estimated that the global economic loss caused by food waste is US$ 1 trillion annually. The wasted amount of cereals, root crops, fruits and vegetables, fish, oilseeds, meat and dairy products in the food industry has been estimated to be between 20 to 50% each year. In Australia, the annual wasted food has been estimated to be 7.5 million tonnes equivalent to a loss of US$8 billion in 2014. The Australian national food waste report in 2016 showed that the quantity of food waste sent to landfills was greater than any other disposal system in 2014-2015, representing 58% of total food waste generation. When food is wasted, the costs related to the production, packaging, delivery, selling and preparation of that food is also lost. Furthermore, food waste ending up in landfills can cause serious environmental impacts. Some authors indicated that recycling of food waste as wet or a dry pig feed resulted in better environmental and public health outcomes than other food waste disposal methods such as composting and anaerobic digestion. As the world’s
