University of Minnesota animal science professor and extension educator Dr. Gerald Shurson is working on a study that could help eliminate the growing problem of human food waste in America. Shurson says across the country many animal scientists and entrepreneurs are searching for solutions to address the growing problem of food waste.
Up to 40 percent of American food supply goes to waste each year, food makes up the largest category of waste in the United States, according to the Ecology Center. One solution to this problem that is being studied is to turn this food waste into animal feed using thermal processing. Britannica.com defines thermal processing as the combination of time and temperature required to eliminate a desired number of microorganisms from a food product.
Dr. Shurson says, “If we’re going to feed a growing population of people, we must first do a better job at preventing food waste and ultimately the food waste that can’t be prevented must be recycled to the highest possible value, which is feeding it to animals.”
On top of being a professor and an extension educator, Shurson focuses on research including life cycle assessments of feed ingredients, biosecurity of feed ingredient supply chains, applied swine nutrition and management, and nutrient recycling.
Many resources including energy, protein, phosphorus, and water are invested into growing a hog to market weight. “When you invest so many resources into producing a pig that’s at market weight, and it doesn’t go for human consumption, that’s a tremendous loss of not only income and revenue for farmers, but also valuable nutrients that could have been consumed by hungry people,” Dr. Shurson adds.
Studies have shown considerable results in proving that the feeding value of several food waste origins is equal to, or exceeds, traditional ingredients like corn and soybean meal for pigs. Repurposed food waste could go from an enormous environmental burden to a valuable resource in pig diets or possibly other livestock feed sources.
This process of upcycling would come from byproducts with valuable nutrients produced by grain milling, meat packing and milk processing industries in order to create pig feed.
For more information on upcycling human food waste into animal feed from University of Minnesota Extension: https://twin-cities. umn.edu/news-events/upcycled-animal-feed-creates-sustainable-solution-food-waste
