ARS | Publication request: RENDERED PRODUCTS IN THE AGE OF TSE'S: II. RESEARCH ON ALTERNATIVE APPLICATIONS

Submitted to: World Congress International Society for Fat Research
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 10, 2005
Publication Date: September 25, 2005
Citation: Marmer, W.N., Garcia, R.A. 2005. Rendered products in the age of TSE's: II. Research on alternative applications [abstract]. World Congress International Society for Fat Research. p. 9.

Technical Abstract: The widespread proscription against using processed animal proteins, especially meat & bone meal (MBM), in animal feed has challenged researchers to develop alternative applications for these products of the rendering industry. Public distrust, even when the materials are derived from animals "slaughtered fit for human consumption" (Category 3 in Europe), has impacted the market for all rendered products, including the other stream from the rendering operation, tallow. Nonfeed uses for tallow, however, are well developed, but such is not the case for the proteinaceous stream. Simplistically, MBM might be regarded as just another agricultural protein convertible into those products most often associated with soy protein, gluten, zein, and collagen-adhesives and films, for example. MBM, however, is a complex feedstock, a composite of thermally denatured material. It bears 10-12% animal fat, which can be removed by extraction and subsequently transesterified into biodiesel; direct transesterification of the intact MBM is an alternative. The bone content may be decreased by mechanical separation. The protein may be extracted by alkaline or enzymatic treatment, resulting in a solubilized protein hydrolysate. Specific treatments of this sort are proposed to inactivate transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) prions, and application of those specific treatments may be appropriate to raise the level of public acceptance of MBM-derived products. The protein hydrolysates may be modified by crosslinking or derivatization or used directly as components of fermentation media. Intact MBM may be crosslinked into composites, alone or with other proteinaceous feedstock. Finally, there is energy value to MBM, which may be recovered by direct combustion or by fermentative conversion to biogas. An overview of research activity to these ends will be presented.