Australian company Food Recycle has developed new technology that can transform commercial food waste from venues such as cafés into animal feed.
The development comes as part of the brand’s mission to create a circular economy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“Food Recycle’s patented production process delivers on sustainability, circular economy, and food security outcomes. There are other processes out there, but they typically only deliver partial benefits because they use food waste to create a secondary process. Food Recycle takes the next step and uses food to produce food,” says Food Recycle CEO Norm Boyle.
The patented procedure aims to enable the efficient processing of food waste from a range of commercial environments with large waste output such as cafés, restaurants, abattoirs, farms, and processors. It includes approaching each food stream individually, analysing it, and then storing the waste as separate ingredients.
According to the company, the technology has the capability to convert two tonnes of food waste into one tonne of complete feed suitable for poultry, pigs, and aquaculture. It also eliminates biosecurity risk while preventing the generation of methane gas.
As part of the production process, a series of rigorous trials were conducted with layer hens, prawns, barramundi, and aquaponics. These tests were executed by CSIRO, Western Sydney University, and the University of New England, and demonstrated the workability of Food Recycle’s process.
“The trials show that the technology works. Food waste is taken out of landfill, put back into the food chain, with Food Recycle’s animal feed producing larger, healthier hens and eggs, and fish, for example,” says Norm.
“We wanted to get the science exactly right before scaling up, and we’ve got the data to showcase the technology’s success using an evidence-based approach.”
Located in Sydney, the start-up was established to create technology to help tackle food waste on a global level. To produce its patented and patent-pending technology, the brand has collaborated with scientists across Australia to create its forward-thinking waste conversion solution.
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