| Hardcopy Reference: |
2007 Banff Pork Seminar |
| Title: |
A Decision Tree for Co-Product Utilization |
| Author(s): |
Smits, Coen and Reinder Sijtsma |
| Publication Year: |
2007 |
| Reference: |
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| Country: |
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| Summary: |
The aim of this paper is to describe a decision tree for judging the economical value, safety and applicability of new co-products. The risk assessment of both the supplier and the co-product is an essential part of the analyses for decision making. Co-products from the agro-food industry do play an important role in modern animal and fish nutrition. Total feed consumption by the livestock and aquaculture industry in the 25 EU countries (EU-25) is estimated to be approximately 450 million tonnes per year. Besides 270 million tonnes of home grown cereals and forages, farmers use about 140 and 40 millions tonnes of industrial compound feed and purchased straight feedstuffs, respectively. The major reasons for using co-products in animal feed are related to costs, availability and nutrition value. Pigs and in particular ruminants are capable to convert fibrous components into valuable nutrients finally resulting in high quality animal products, such as milk and meat. As a consequence, many co-products can be fed to those species, even high-moisture co-products. The latter is feasible because of the existence of sophisticated liquid feeding systems, especially designed for the feeding of high-moisture co-products. Nevertheless, the use of co-products in animal feed certainly has its limitations. Many species show physiological constraints which require a more specific nutritional approach and some co-products require appropriate risk management. Increasing awareness in both the food and feed industry and continuously improving risk management strategies, such as the NuTrace® program (Nutreco, Boxmeer, The Netherlands), have proven to be effective to reduce the number of incidents. These measures and the reform in the European food and feed legislation, including the implementation of the General Food Law, the Hygiene Regulations and other legislation addressing quality, safety, health and environmental protection, make it possible to use co-products from the agro-food industry in a sustainable way. A logical start of the process is to introduce the product and the supplier. In the first step information is gathered about the supplier, product composition, production process, available volumes, some major quality aspects and indicative prices for assessing the technical-economical feasibility. Finally, the economical feasibility is assessed in a least-cost formulation exercise. If the results demonstrate that the co-product is financially attractive, time is invested in the risk assessment. If not, there will be a ‘no-go’ for the co-product. In the next phase a questionnaire has to be filled, which functions as a checklist for the risk assessment. The quality assurance program of the producer is reviewed and critical control points of the production process, the product and the logistics are defined. After approval by the responsible quality manager and nutritionist, the purchase department is informed that there is green light for the supplier and the new co-product. The last step is to judge whether the co-product is technically and economically worthwhile to use in animal studies. Resources to asses the quality and risk of a new material may be limited, but in principle all steps in the decision tree have to be taken by a pig farmer that is offered the new co-product as a single ingredient. In many cases, the feed company, the supplier of the co-product and other authorities provide the information and advice that is necessary for decision making at farm level. |
| Abstract: |
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| Database: |
Production |
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