Valorization of wastes and by-products from the meat industry

Meat animal waste and by-products are produced and lost or wasted along the entire meat supply chain from initial agricultural production to final human consumption at the household level. Food losses refer to the decrease in edible food mass throughout the part of the supply chain that specifically leads to edible food for human consumption. Food losses take place at the production, postharvest, and processing stages in the food supply chain. Adding value to meat by-products or animal waste for high-priced ingredients, biologics, and food delicacies offers new opportunities for the meat industry on a global scale. It is no longer acceptable to dispose of or discard meat animal by-products and wastes without thoughtful consideration of converting these raw materials for economic benefits for new products development and functional ingredients with significant added value. It is desirable to process all by-products into valuable products, for human foods, pet foods, animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, or fertilizer, and lately for biodiesel generation. New technologies and uses for meat by-products have been developed around the world but most often they are difficult to be implemented. Adding value to meat by-products implies a degree of innovation that makes a by-product that could be considered as waste useable as a raw material subjected to further processing into edible food items desirable to consumers or inedible products with economic profitability. While increasing animal meat for food production is paramount to meeting the future global demand for high-quality protein, challenges remains to reduce meat animal waste and by-products by tapping into the potential to use research and innovation for adding value to animal by-products far beyond their usual profitability. Efficient solutions must exist along the whole meat supply chain, for reducing total amounts of food lost and wasted.