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Title: CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTH AMERICAN MEAT & BONE MEAL RELEVANT TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF NON-FEED APPLICATIONS

Author
item Garcia, Rafael
item Rosentrater, Kurt
item Flores, Rolando

Submitted to: ASABE Annual International Meeting
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/3/2006
Publication Date: 7/9/2006
Citation: Garcia, R.A., Rosentrater, K.A., Flores, R.A. 2006. Characteristics of north american meat & bone meal relevant to the development of non-feed applications. Proceedings of the Annual International Meeting, American Society of Agricultural Engineers. Paper No. 066158.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Unmarketable animal tissues are typically processed by rendering plants, which transform them into meat & bone meal (MBM) or similar products. MBM's traditional use as animal feed has become increasingly threatened, but MBM has potential for non-feed applications. Development of new products and processes is hindered by lack of reliable data on many of MBM's chemical and physical properties. MBM samples as well as data on raw materials and processes were collected from 19 rendering facilities in the U. S. and Canada. A large majority of the raw material was tissue from cattle, swine and poultry. All facilities surveyed practiced continuous dry rendering; 89% of the facilities use continuous cookers and 11% use falling film evaporators. MBM is high in protein (44.6-62.8%, mfb), but this protein is poorly soluble; at pH 7, solubility ranged from 2.20 to 7.22 %. Among all samples, the particles' median geometric mean diameter was 387 micro m. The median density of MBM particles was 1.41 (g/ml); median density of MBM in bulk ranged from 0.50 g/ml when loose-filled to 0.68 g/ml when packed. pH values of the samples ranged from 5.89 to 7.19 and samples containing the most cattle raw material had the highest pH. Thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity values for both loose-filled and packed MBM are reported, as well as CIE L*a*b* color values. Differences in raw materials and rendering processes result in considerable variation in the physical properties of MBM, and any process designed to utilize MBM will have to accommodate this variation.