Food & Drink
all, food is a resource, so more effort should be utilised to keep valuable nutrients in the food chain. An alternative approach is the recovery and specialist recycling of surplus foods that are unsuitable for human consumption, so that they can be transformed into animal feed. This ‘closed loop’ methodology enables one ‘waste’ product to be transformed into another, bringing measurable economic gains to businesses, long- term benefits to the environment, and circularity to the traditional linear food chain concept.
PRODUCING HIGH ENERGY ANIMAL FEED
The strictly regulated process works by recovering starch-rich produce from the food manufacturing or retail sectors. Biscuits, bread, breakfast cereals, crisps and confectionery all provide a source of high quality fats, sugar and carbohydrates. So – after being carefully checked for their safety, traceability and therefore suitability – they can be processed and converted into a nutritious animal feed. This improves the quality of livestock products that people subsequently eat, and supports the sustenance of animals and people. To strengthen the resourcefulness of this approach, the packaging waste that arises from this process, can also be streamed and extracted for recycling. Very much a sophisticated manufacturing process, there is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all’ system – different animal feeds are produced according to variable end customer requirements. Computer-generated and controlled formulae ensure the right raw ingredients are selected from the stockholding, and blended to create the cattle, pig or chicken feed that the customer has asked for. The finished products can even suit feed compounders, blenders and home mixers.
KEEPING IT SAFE
To safeguard the wellbeing of the animals, and because anything designated for feed use will ultimately re-enter the food chain, strict adherence to regulations is essential. These production factories are, by law, deemed ‘Feed Business Operators’, therefore they must be compliant with Feed Hygiene Regulations EU 183/2005. However, quality control actually begins before the waste even reaches the recycling premises. Hygiene standards at the disposal stage are therefore very important. Products no longer intended for human consumption, and which may be destined for farm animal feeding, must be kept entirely separate during transport,
Surplus foods can be transformed into animal feed
storage and dispatch to and from a supermarket returns depot or food manufacturing plant. Accreditation by the Feed Materials Assurance Scheme (FEMAS) certifies the recycler’s full material traceability from source to supply, and provides peace of mind that quality standards have been upheld.
Food safety can also be maintained through Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems, which prevent the mixture of any non- food waste and ensure feed materials are free from chemical or microbiological impurities. In some food production facilities, surplus food intended for animal feed use is stored and handled on the same site as inedible or prohibited produce such as meat, which cannot be used in the feed. In these cases, there must be physical separation of permitted and non-permitted ingredients, ideally in completely different buildings, and detailed record-keeping. Sealed and clearly marked surplus food containers are then collected and returned using specialist vehicles. These wagons operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This facilitates the continual flow of stockholding and the quick turnaround of finished animal feed, which is then delivered directly to the compounder, blender or farm.
IT’S GOOD TO BE DIFFERENT
Because every food production site is different, a bespoke audit of the location, manufacturing facility and various production processes, should be carried out. A tailor-made surplus food handling facility can then be installed to suit, with quality controls built- in accordingly.
With a number of sites located throughout the UK, SugaRich alone is able to market approximately 500,000 tonnes of animal feed per year. And, encouragingly, the value of this closed loop practice is being increasingly recognised, by small organisations as well as large corporations. This should further increase
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the momentum with which food manufacturing and retail firms adopt a more resource-efficient approach to food ‘waste’.
After all, the benefits are numerous. This approach can ensure better waste hierarchy compliance, save money and reduce the environmental impact that would otherwise be caused if the food was incinerated or left to biodegrade. The UK’s target to halve edible food waste by 2020 can also not be ignored. However, with ever-more innovative thinking and continuing progress by the industry, the country’s ultimate ambition of zero food waste sent to landfill could in fact become a reality. ■
For more information visit:
www.sugarich.co.uk
SugarRich’s Paul Featherstone
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