Skip to main content
European Commission logo print header

New technology and pilot process for recycling residual packaged fo od products for producing high-quality dry pet-foods

Deliverables

The developed process will allow profit from food by-products that are, at present, dumped, burned, or being (in some cases) used for low quality applications. The final product of the process will be a high protein pellet pet-food, which due to its nutritional characteristics will be suitable for commercialisation in the high quality, premium and super premium markets, giving a high added value to the processed by-products. During the 25 months of the project's duration, it was necessary to overcome many phases. Firstly, it was realised that an important step of characterising the by-products was to determine its availability, classification, composition, processing requirements, physical state, role in the formula, etc. This step followed the establishment of a set of logistics for the collecting and reception of the by-products, which has included the development of equipment necessary to support the collecting, that can be used for diverse applications. The development, construction and assembling of the pilot plant has included many steps and sections. A separate line for the processing of fresh and frozen meat by-products was developed, which required much innovation, and met with complete success. This line allows the transformation of meat by-products into a cream type product, which can then be mixed with other solid ingredients. The injection process for the cream of meat with the remaining ingredients is a very important part of the project's development. An extrusion system has been developed, integrating two conditioners and one extruder. The extruder has a very special design that allows one to inject the cream of meat with the other solid ingredients, obtaining a final pellet product. Complementary additions to these two sections have been, installations for the reception, mixing and dosing of the solid ingredients of the formulae. Also, the drying and cooling of the pellets have required the development of a new drying and cooling system. A new technology for the coating has also been applied. All the installations have been complemented with the development of instrumentation systems for the on-line measuring of the moisture content, and for the measuring of the density and physical quality. The pilot plant has been provided with a complete automation system, which needed to include special control procedures to guarantee the safety of the production process.

Searching for OpenAIRE data...

There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE

No results available