Animal Processing Industry Research Articles

The Achilles heel of the U.S. food industries: Exposure to labor and upstream industries in the supply chain

AbstractThe modern‐day food industries are part of a complex agri‐food supply chain, where food production has become efficient yet potentially vulnerable to supply chain risks. The COVID‐19 pandemic is a testament to that end. This article measures and identifies the U.S. food manufacturing industries' vulnerability to upstream industries and labor occupations by (a) calculating a food industry's diversification of intermediate input purchases across upstream industries, (b) quantifying the relative exposure of food manufacturing in a given industry and location to upstream input suppliers and labor occupations, and (c) estimating each food industry's gross output elasticity of inputs. This article also explores geographic heterogeneity in food industries' vulnerability. Among our results, we find evidence that the animal processing industry's output is relatively vulnerable to production labor, consistent with the observed disruptions to the meatpacking sector during COVID‐19, which were largely caused by labor issues. Our results may help academics and practitioners to understand food industries' vulnerabilities to upstream industries and labor occupations.

The Achilles Heel of the U.S. Food Industries: Exposure to Labor and Upstream Industries in the Supply Chain

The modern day food industries are part of a complex agri-food supply chain, where food production has become efficient, yet potentially vulnerable to supply chain risks. The COVID-19 pandemic is a testament to that end. This article measures and identifies the U.S. food manufacturing industries' vulnerability to upstream industries and labor occupations by (i) calculating a food industry's diversification of intermediate input purchases across upstream industries, (ii) quantifying the relative exposure of food manufacturing in a given industry and location to upstream input suppliers and labor occupations, and (iii) estimating each food industry's gross output elasticity of inputs. Among our results, we find the evidence that the animal processing industry's output is relatively vulnerable to production labor which is consistent with the observed disruptions to the meat packing sector during COVID19, which were largely caused by labor issues. Our results may help academics and practitioners to understand food industries' vulnerabilities to upstream industries and labor occupations.

COVID-19 Shows the Need for a Global Animal Law

The pandemic COVID-19 ─ which is a zoonosis ─ illustrates how problems of global nature and proportions stem from human use and abuse of animals and therefore underlines the necessity of a global law approach. The social, ecological, and economic consequences of animal exploitation, notably (but not limited to) agriculture, range from human poverty to transnational organised wildlife crime, to global warming, and of course to animal suffering. Not the least, the danger of the outsourcing of animal-processing industries and research facilities to animal cruelty havens and the threat of a regulatory chill on the national level suggest that the regulatory response to animal issues needs to be global. The Office International des Epizooties (OIE) could be transformed into the institutional hub for such an approach. The contribution also addresses and refutes the challenge of cultural and legal imperialism that is mounted against such a global law approach. It suggests to develop further the One Health paradigm for containing the pandemic and for combatting future zoonoses. The paper concludes that a critical global animal law approach will be helpful for overcoming the COVID-crisis and is generally warranted for transforming human─animal interaction.

Electrocoagulation treatment of swine slaughterhouse wastewater: effect of electrode material

A slaughterhouse is one of the main sources of wastes in meat establishments where animals are killed for consumption as food products. Slaughtering animal processing industries generate a large volume of wastewaters containing very high concentrations of organic matter. In this study, the effect of various electrode materials on the electrocoagulation efficiency was investigated for the treatment of swine slaughterhouse wastewater. These electrodes include pure aluminum (Al), pure iron (Fe) and combination of aluminum – iron (Al – Fe). The performance of these electrodes was investigated in terms of electrocoagulation time, COD removal, electrode consumption, and current density. Additional parameters were also checked before and after treatment such as conductivity, turbidity, BOD, oil and grease, TSS and settleable solids. All electrodes gave more than 90% COD removal however, the pure aluminum electrode is the most efficient (97% removal). It also gave the least electrode consumption. Furthermore, the most efficient current density and time were found to be 25mA/cm2 and 100 minutes respectively. Overall the electrocoagulation treatment of swine slaughterhouse wastewater was successful in terms of reduction of all the parameters considered.

Techno-economic feasibility of waste biorefinery: Using slaughtering waste streams as starting material for biopolyester production

The utilization of industrial waste streams as input materials for bio-mediated production processes constitutes a current R&D objective not only to reduce process costs at the input side but in parallel, to minimize hazardous environmental emissions. In this context, the EU-funded project ANIMPOL elaborated a process for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) biopolymers starting from diverse waste streams of the animal processing industry. This article provides a detailed economic analysis of PHA production from this waste biorefinery concept, encompassing the utilization of low-quality biodiesel, offal material and meat and bone meal (MBM). Techno-economic analysis reveals that PHA production cost varies from 1.41 €/kg to 1.64 €/kg when considering offal on the one hand as waste, or, on the other hand, accounting its market price, while calculating with fixed costs for the co-products biodiesel (0.97 €/L) and MBM (350 €/t), respectively. The effect of fluctuating market prices for offal materials, biodiesel, and MBM on the final PHA production cost as well as the investment payback time have been evaluated. Depending on the current market situation, the calculated investment payback time varies from 3.25 to 4.5years.

Biomediated production of structurally diverse poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from surplus streams of the animal processing industry

For commercial success, enhanced poly(hydroxyalkanoate) (PHA) production must address both material performance and economic aspects. Conventional PHA production consumes expensive feedstocks dedicated to nutrition. Switching to carbon-rich (agro)industrial side-streams alleviates industrial disposal problems, preserves food resources, and can be economically superior. Processes developed in the recently performed EU-FP7 project ANIMPOL resort to lipid-rich surplus streams from slaughterhouses and the ren- dering industry; these materials undergo chemical transformation to crude glycerol phase (CGP) and bio- diesel. The saturated biodiesel share (SFAE) counteracts its applicability as a biofuel but, in addition to CGP, can be converted biotechnologically to PHAs. Depending on the applied microbial production strain and the selected carbon source (SFAE or CGP), thermoplastic short chain length PHA (scl-PHA), as well as elastome- ric to latex-like medium chain length PHA (mcl-PHA), can be produced from these inexpensive feed stocks. The article illustrates the biotechnological conversion of animal-based CGP and SFAE towards poly(3-hyd- roxybutyrate) (PHB) and poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV), respectively, by Cupriavi- dus necator strain DSM 545. SFAE conversion towards mcl-PHAs consisting of various saturated and unsatu- rated building blocks by two pseudomonades, Ps. citronellolis DSM 50332 and Ps. chlororaphis DSM 50083, are also shown. Together with the kinetics of the bioprocesses, the results from the characterization of isolated samples of these structurally diverse biopolyesters are compared; data demonstrate the high versatility of biopolymer properties making them applicable in various fields of the plastic market. In addition to the need for inexpensive carbon feed stocks, the article points to further hot spots of the PHA-production chain that must be considered in order to lower the overall PHA production costs, and to enhance product quality. The benefits arising from multistage continuous cultivation production set-ups, namely high-throughput pro- duction of PHA of predefined composition and constant quality, are especially discussed. Finally, contempo- rary approaches towards environmentally and ecologically sustainable PHA recovery from biomass are summarized.

Protein hydrolysates from animal processing by-products as a source of bioactive molecules with interest in animal feeding: A review

Industrial processing of livestock, poultry and fish produces a large amount of waste in a solid or liquid form that can either be destroyed or be used to make compost, biogas or other low-added value products. However, the by-products from animal processing industries have a potential for conversion into useful products of higher value, such as protein hydrolysates, with interesting applications in animal feed. Low amounts of animal protein hydrolysates included in aqua-feeds may enhance growth rate and feed conversion of farmed fish and crustacean. Animal protein hydrolysates may also be incorporated in diets to enhance the nonspecific immunity of fish. As well, these hydrolysates can be used as a good source of amino acids for newly weaned animals. Protein hydrolysates from animal by-products including antimicrobials, antioxidants, opioid-like and/or other interesting bioactive molecules have promising and interesting applications on companion and production animals. By-products from animal processing industries are therefore a promising source of bioactive peptides of considerable interest for animal care, always within the framework of the existing legislation. Possible drawbacks and future trends of the use of animal by-products and/or production of protein hydrolysates from those materials are also discussed.

Integrated Planning for Poultry Production at Sadia

Sadia Concórdia SA, the largest poultry producer in Brazil, processing over 300 million chickens and 11 million turkeys a year, has increasingly used mathematical models since 1990 to improve decision making throughout its production chain. It has saved more than $50 million over a three-year period, as a result of (1) better conversion of feed to live bird weight; (2) improved utilization of birds to produce more than 300 products classified by weight range, taking into account weight variations between and within flocks; (3) almost 100 percent fulfillment of daily production plans with increased output of higher value products; (4) greater flexibility and reduced lead time in meeting market demand; and (5) timely and wide ranging studies of different price and demand scenarios. This original and pioneering use of operations research and management science approaches in the poultry industry is also adaptable to diverse production practices and applicable to other animal-processing industries.