The project was set up in August 2012 to transform food waste originating from the fruit, vegetable and dairy processing sectors into feed in both an economical and environmentally friendly way.
“Fruit and vegetables have the highest wastage rates of any food. This amounts to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labor and capital.
Noshan is trying addresses these challenges by recycling those waste streams into bulk feed, but also producing functional feed ingredients that will lead to high added value products.
However, one of the main focuses of the project is to evaluate which novel processes and technologies are needed to convert food waste into feed in cost effective way while keeping energy and water consumption to a minimum,” said NOSHAN scientific coordinator, Montse Jorba, who is based at Spain’s LEITAT Technological Center.
Database of feed ingredients
NOSHAN involves research centers, a university and companies from six EU countries plus Turkey.
For the past two years, the team has been assessing the value of various types of waste, and building up a database of potential feed ingredients. By the time the project ends in 2016, the researchers expect to know the best technologies for extracting and upgrading each waste type.
Safety is guaranteed through an intensive monitoring process, covering everything from raw waste to the final product, said Jorba.
Functional feed ingredients
She told us the ability to derive functional feed ingredients and bioactive compounds from the various waste streams through using a low cost and energy efficient process is a project priority.
NOSHAN researchers are about to begin pilot scale trials to investigate the efficacy of functional fibres and peptides in terms of product quality but also in improving the performance, health and welfare of weaning pigs and poultry, said Jorba.
Job creation
The team hopes the project will lead to new jobs in waste collection, treatment plants and feed manufacturing in Europe.
“We foresee multiple positive impacts for the EU feed industry and adjacent sectors, through enhanced competitiveness, the capacity to innovate and to transfer excellent science and technology based solutions.
The viability and feasibility of the technologies and feed products that come out of the initiative will be verified by Nutrition Sciences, the Belgium based partner representing the industrial feed sector, the Turkish economic consultancy, EKODENGE, as well as VERTECH from France and KIM from Spain,” added Jorba.