Feeding pigs food waste does not affect meat

Pigs fed with sweet feed had slightly more belly fat Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

Giving pigs food waste to eat has no influence on meat quality, according to Swiss researchers who fed pigs chocolate, pasta and breakfast cereals.

This is a promising solution for reducing food waste, the agricultural research centre Agroscope said on Monday.

For the study, which was published in the scientific journal animal, researchers from the University of Milan and Agroscope replaced 30% of the grain in the feed of pigs of the “Schweizer Edelschwein” breed with either savoury foods such as pasta, bread and snacks or sweet foods such as chocolate, breakfast cereals and biscuits.

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All 36 pigs remained in good health throughout the entire trial period, the researchers wrote in the study. Growth performance, i.e. the rate at which a pig gained weight, was also unaffected, the study showed. The total fat content of the pork also remained the same. However, pigs fed with sweet feed had slightly more belly fat.

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The food waste fed to the pigs belongs to the so-called former food products, as specified in the study. This includes processed food that is not suitable for human consumption owing to logistical, manufacturing or packaging errors. In contrast to catering waste, these former food products may be fed to pigs.

Common pig feed consists largely of soya and grain. Up to 70% of the grain harvested worldwide is fed to animals, the authors wrote. At the same time, around a third of the food intended for human consumption is wasted. According to the study, feeding some of this wasted food could reduce the environmental impact caused by food production.

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