Maximize profit and value with bones raw material

The consumption of fresh meat is increasing globally every year. This means that slaughterhouses, as well as meat and fish processing plants, produce an enormous amount of beef, pork, poultry and fish bones as a side stream to their core business. This growing amount of category 3 bone residue, among other waste materials, has considered as one of the significant environmental challenges that the food industry is facing today. Every year the global slaughter industry produces 130 billion kg of animal bone residues. More than 10% of this waste is generated in the EU. After slaughtering, one animal produces about 18 weight% bone residues of its total live weight¹. Instead of utilizing valuable bones material commercially, those have been usually considered as and treated as slaughterhouse waste and are disposed in landfills and rendering plants.

EU legislation² for food safety rules for the processing of animal by-products, i.e., all bone residues from slaughterhouses must be disposed of by rendering. However, current large-scale rendering method has three main fundamental effects of slaughterhouse, food production and farming industries. These are high costs, raw material loss, and unsustainability of processes. Rendering plants are commercial bodies that charge service fees for disposing of animal waste. Therefore, rendering fees are by law imposed extra costs for the slaughter industry. For example, in 2017 in Finland meat producers had to pay at least 0,18 €/kg for disposal of bone residues.
After rendering, part of this waste is usually reused as meat and bone meal for animal feed, fertilizers and bulk pet food ingredients. This procedure is costly due to the disposal fees for bones represent a significant expenditure expense for the slaughtering, meat and fish processing industries.

The added value of bones should also be seen in terms of their nutritional content as those are a source of nutritionally valuable natural collagen protein and other vital minerals as well as fat, that could make full use as ingredients for nutritious foods, pet foods, pharmaceutical and cosmetics well as biodiesel and fertilizer industries.

The significance of this concerned challenge indicates the fact that utilization of raw materials which are now disposed of as waste is on a loop and recognized as one of the key principles of the Circular Economy Package³ of the EU adopted in December 2015.

To overcome this growing challenge, the food industry is forced exploring new technologies for ways to improved utilization of bone ingredients into high-demand end products on the market and obtain a higher yield for them.