Rendering Industry Prioritizes Research By David Meeker, PhD, MBA Director of Research, Fats and Proteins Research Foundation Late in 2013, the Fats and Proteins Research Foundation (FPRF) surveyed the rendering industry to gather information to precisely articulate rendering industry research needs. Each year, FPRF re-examines its requests for proposals intended for researchers in order to attract and fund the most productive and highest value projects. Responses from renderers strongly support the current portfolio of research projects, but also suggest a few areas that need additional research. Of course, FPRF’s ability to expand its research portfolio will depend on financial contributions from current and new members. FPRF invests research funds in two ways. First, any research institution can compete for research funding by submitting “at-large” proposals during two selection periods each year as has been done since the foundation’s beginning in 1962. FPRF also has a continuing relationship with Clemson University for support of the Animal Co-Products Research and Education Center (ACREC). At-large research is aimed at potential researchers who are encouraged to design projects that solve a significant problem in the rendering industry, improve product safety/ quality, invent chemical or biological modifications to increase value, or conduct nutrition studies to improve the utilization of rendered products in animal diets. In recent years, FPRF has focused work on aquaculture, swine, and poultry nutrition to fill gaps in the current knowledge necessary for diet formulators, including critical work on nutritional characteristics of rendered products. The use of rendered products in pet diets has been identified as a new research emphasis to augment the extensive work in feeding rendered products to livestock. The highest priority at ACREC over its first 10 years has been to provide data that will support validation of cooker operations and thermal death times of Salmonella, Clostridium, and other feed/food safety hazards. FPRF has also invested funds with ACREC researchers to improve plant operations such as wastewater cleanup and odor remediation. The significant investments over the years at ACREC have resulted in a critical mass of scientists and experience on rendering issues that encourages unique multidisciplinary experimental design. Surveys tend to focus on current problems. For example, many responses to the latest survey related to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and how it may impact the rendering industry. Sometimes, a researcher may have an idea for a project that was not articulated as a high priority by the rendering industry. FPRF will consider such “out of the box” proposals, but a compelling case needs to be made for FPRF to shift intended priorities. Following is a summary of the answers received to the survey questions. What are the biggest issues facing your company where FPRF research would be helpful? Industry image: Counter the 1. public perception that rendering is a smelly, polluting industry that is unwelcome even in industrial sites. Communicate the positive environmental, sustainability, and public health aspects of rendering. 2. Regulatory pressures related to food safety, environment, worker safety, and health. 3. FSMA compliance techniques and resources, such as a. data to support hazard analysis for things such as mycotoxins and drug residues; b. data to further validate the conditions of rendering as a preventive control of biological hazards in rendered products as well as related products (i.e., feather meal, blood meal, and used cooking oils); c. quick tests for regulated Salmonella serotypes to accommodate a “hold and test” practice; d. quick methods for identifying/measuring pesticide/hazard chemicals in raw materials and finished fat; and e. recall implementation strategies. 4. Improving quality and product safety in the face of more stringent regulations and customer demands. 5. Increasingly stringent Environmental Protection Agency discharge standards leading to additional wastewater treatment technologies. 6. Handling dissolved air flotation solids (also called secondary protein nutrients). 7. Maintaining current volumes and identifying new raw material streams. 8. Effects of slaughterhouse microbial intervention chemicals on rendered product stability. 9. The need for more effective stabilizers in rendered meals and fats. 10. More effective processing methods for liquid materials such as blood, stick water, and sludge. 11. On-site odor control. 12. Process improvements to enhance productivity, reduce cost, or increase values. 13. Contamination from plastics, animal identification tags, rumen boluses, animal implants, etc. 14. Theft of recyclable used cooking oils. 15. Variability of nutrient profiles in rendered products. 44 April 2014 Render www.rendermagazine.com
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