Chicken feed made of food waste could slash costs and emissions
New research from the University of New England (UNE) has revealed using food waste to create commercial chicken feed would not only save the Australian poultry industry an estimated $500 million a year, but it could reduce the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions by at least five percent. In collaboration with Food Recycle Ltd. and Poultry Hub Australia, a team of UNE researchers led by Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Dr Amy Moss and Dr Thi Hiep Dao, studied the impacts of feeding hens a waste-based diet using discarded food scraps from businesses such as breweries, hospitals, nursing homes, and hospitality venues. Using a patented production process owned by Food Recycle Ltd., the waste was converted to a granular powder that was suitable to be fed to poultry.
After rigorous testing, they found egg quality remained high and did not impact the health or welfare of the animals.
The full study has been published in the fifth most-cited journal in the world, Scientific Reports, and can be viewed at the link below.
