Food waste (FW) is described as the loss of food that occurs at the end of the food chain. This loss of food results in a loss of resources such as labour, water, energy, and land that were used in production, as well as losses for retailers and customers. Exorbitant amounts of food are wasted worldwide as a result of differences in food production, transportation, and consumption.

Have you ever thrown away food that you didn’t eat? Most people do this all around the world but throwing away food can actually harm the environment (including greenhouse gas emissions, eutrophication, and acidification). One way to reduce this harm is by turning the food scraps into animal feed. Turning food waste into animal feed is one way that can contribute to the creation of a circular economy as well as the achievement of sustainable development. This not only helps the environment but also makes livestock production cheaper. Different technologies have been developed to make a safe and healthy animal feed from food waste.  Several processing techniques, including dehydration and/or drying, pelleting, extrusion, fermentation, silage production, etc., can be utilized to convert food scraps into animal feed. In order to transform a certain type of FW into an acceptable animal feed, these processing technologies are either combined or used independently. Appropriate heat treatments can make recovered feeds safe for animals by deactivating potentially harmful bacteria and/or viruses that may be present in these types of feeds. This helps us to get rid of waste by giving animals a new source of protein and recycling the discarded food waste.

Overall, using food waste as animal food is a good waste management idea that provides food security and preserves the environment. So, next time when you have some leftover food, remember that it could be turned into something useful instead of being thrown away.

Reference:

Nath PC, Ojha A, Debnath S, Sharma M, Nayak PK, Sridhar K, Inbaraj BS. Valorization of food waste as animal feed: a step towards sustainable food waste management and circular bioeconomy. Animals. 2023;13(8):1366.