When we examine sustainable practices in animal agriculture, recycling food waste and animal by-products into feed emerges as a particularly promising approach. Rendered animal protein meals aren’t just waste utilization—they’re nutritionally dense ingredients providing excellent sources of calcium, phosphorus, high-quality protein and essential amino acids that animals require for optimal growth and health.
Technical Director (Americas)
Anitox
The global food system faces the challenge of sustainably managing animal by-products while ensuring biosecurity and reducing environmental impact. Rendering provides a viable solution by transforming inedible materials into valuable resources such as protein meals, biofuels, and animal feed. The North American Renderers Association reports that around 31.4 billion pounds of animal byproducts are recycled and reused annually. Globally it has been estimated that 217 million metric tons of raw material are produced annually (Meeker et al., 2020). This process supports the circular economy by repurposing organic materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and minimizing landfill waste.
HOW RENDERING REDUCES WASTE AND ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Rendering processes animal by-products using heat and mechanical separation to extract valuable proteins and fats. Research from the past five years has demonstrated significant environmental benefits:
• Meeker et al., 2022 reported that rendering in the U.S. and Canada reclaims carbon from 31 million tons of animal byproducts annually.
• Xu et al., 2022 demonstrated through life cycle analyses that biodiesel and renewable diesel from rendered fats can achieve 79-86% lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to petroleum diesel.
• Giovoni et al., 2023 found that replacing 11-16% of energy-rich feed crops with rendered materials could save up to 27.8 million hectares of soil and 137.8 cubic kilometers of water.
When we examine sustainable practices in animal agriculture, recycling food waste and animal by-products into feed emerges as a particularly promising approach. Rendered animal protein meals aren’t just waste utilization—they’re nutritionally dense ingredients providing excellent sources of calcium, phosphorus, high-quality protein and essential amino acids that animals require for optimal growth and health.
The inclusion of animal fats in feed formulations serves dual purposes: they deliver concentrated energy while simultaneously enhancing palatability, making feeds more appealing to livestock and thus improving consumption patterns.
THE ROLE OF SUSTAINABLE PROTEIN MEALS IN ANIMAL AGRICULTURE
Circular feed focuses on reducing nutrient loss and improving sustainability in animal agriculture by recycling nutrients through animal feed. This enhances efficiency by utilizing ingredients unsuitable for human consumption, ensuring valuable nutrients are not wasted. The proximity of raw material sources to feed mills and livestock operations minimizes transportation emissions and costs, making the system more sustainable. Co-products from agricultural processing reduce the need for additional land use, lowering the overall carbon footprint of animal feed production. By optimizing digestibility and nutrient absorption, circular feed principles ensure minimal waste while maximizing animal health. Sustainable protein meals from rendering contribute to this cycle, improving feed efficiency and reducing environmental impact.
RENDERING AND FOOD SAFETY
Processed animal proteins and fats undergo heat treatment that eliminates harmful bacteria and pathogens, making them safe for use in livestock and pet feed.
The efficacy of this process is well-documented in the scientific literature. For instance, research by Laban and Anwer (2014) demonstrated impressive microbial reductions: 99.96% decrease in total bacterial load, 99.99% reduction in coliforms, complete elimination of Campylobacter species and a substantial reduction in Salmonella prevalence from 70% to merely 10%.
Controlling and neutralizing bacteria such as Salmonella is a crucial aspect of rendering for food safety. Thermal processing effectively neutralizes bacteria at that moment in time. However, strict sanitation practices are essential if producers are to ensure that rendered ingredients remain contaminant-free up until the point of use.
It is this requirement that results in producer use of chemical mitigants such as organic acids. They add another layer of protection to support their biosecurity initiatives but are themselves limited because they may not be 100% effective, and crucially, do not give residual protection to the treated product, and thus prevent recontamination post-application.
Feed Sanitizers, on the other hand, such as Termin-8 and Finio have been shown to effectively control Salmonella and provide long-term protection against recontamination for at least 14 days. When tested against an organic acid blend under a challenge model in rendered matrices, feed sanitation demonstrated a higher level of Salmonella control at considerably lower inclusion rates (Jones et al., 2015).
(Finio versus an Organic Acid blend)
As the global population grows, ensuring sustainable food production becomes increasingly important. Livestock requires high-quality protein sources for optimal growth, and sustainable protein meals help meet this demand. These meals, derived from rendering and plant-based sources such as soybean or canola meal, maximize nutrient utilization while minimizing waste. Rendering is an important component of sustainable animal agriculture – but maintaining biosecurity of rendered matrices up until the point of use is critical.
About Jose Ramirez
Jose Ramirez has over 35 years of experience in the feed, poultry and swine industries. Following his completion of a degree in agricultural science from the University of Puerto Rico, he went on to further his education with an MBA in Technology Management. As Technical Services Manager for the Americas, Ramirez aids producers in understanding feed as a fomite and works alongside leading producers to implement effective feed-source pathogen mitigation and milling efficiency strategies.
