Handling Food Processing By-Products
In many facilities, by-products are created along-side the food being processed. By-products can be costly to dispose of and represent a potential revenue stream if they can be sold to other businesses. Even if by-products are not sold, but given away to other businesses, your facility may realize cost savings in terms of disposal costs. MnTAP provides the following resources to help you learn more about by-products and determine what management methods might work best for your facility.
Resources
- Fact Sheet: Food processing: source reduction and waste management (2011). As landfill and wastewater treatment costs increase, your company will benefit by using an alternative for reducing and managing food processing by-products.
- Fact Sheet: Feeding Food Processing By-products to Livestock (2009). Eliminating food by-products from your liquid and solid waste streams and sending them out for reuse as livestock feed can greatly reduce your disposal costs.
- Reference List: Livestock Producers Accepting Food By-products (2010).
- Fact Sheet: Composting and Landspreading Food Processing By-products (2010). Composting and landspreading are environmentally responsible alternatives to landfilling that can be economical for managing food processing by-products.
Case Studies
- Restaurant Cuts Disposal Costs by Reducing and Recycling Solid Waste (2008). Through its recycling program the Thunderbird Hotel and Convention Center eliminated food waste, cardboard, glass, aluminum and steel containers from the Dumpster.
- Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Co-op Reduces Waste and Saves Over $500,000 (1997). With the help of a MnTAP intern, Southern Minnesota Beet Sugar Cooperative reduced lime use and lime waste by 22,000 tons a year.
- Supermom’s Saves $235,000 Yearly by Reducing Waste (2004). Supermom’s has substantially reduced their solid waste, introduced energy and labor efficient technologies and reduced water treatment costs.