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By Biocat

Each year more than 1.3 tons of food scraps are wasted around the world, according to data from the FAO. Although part of this waste is used as fodder for feed or compounds, most of it is treated as waste and has a significant negative impact on the environment due to the greenhouse gasses it generates.

The Leitat technology center, based at the Orbital 40 science park in Terrassa (Barcelona), is coordinating the European Noshan project to research the process and technologies needed to use food waste for feed production. In addition to Leitat, other participants include the Catalan foundation KIMBcn and 10 innovative-technology and feed-production companies and benchmark technology centers from Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey. The budget for the Noshan project is €3 millions and is funded through the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program.

The project will classify the main types of waste generated throughout the food chain, from production to the consumer. It will also determine the possible presence of microbial and chemical contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides and other hazardous elements. This will allow participants to identify the food waste with the highest potential and create a database of valorizable waste.

On a technical level, Leitat will develop technology to obtain active peptides to be used as functional ingredients in feed and encapsulation technology to verify that additives for animals can withstand the process to convert them into feed.

The project expects to obtain two types of products: ingredients derived from food waste to be used as a substitute for main ingredients in feed (which are currently obtained from various crops like soy beans) and functional ingredients or active ingredients to use as additives in feed.

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