Opportunities for creating a circular economy in the Australian poultry industry

Approximately one third of the world’s food production is ultimately wasted. Current estimates suggest that the amount of land used to grow food that is wasted is greater than twice the landmass of Australia, and Australia itself wastes a landmass larger than the state of Victoria. With over 2 billion people suffering from food insecurity, an estimated world population of 9.7 billion by 2050, and ongoing detrimental environmental damage caused by industrialisation, there is ever increasing motivation to develop new and effective strategies to maximise efficiency in utilising the world’s available natural resources. In order to begin planning, an understanding of the present is required. Over the last 25 years, the idea of recycling food waste as animal feed on an industrial scale has become a focus for many researchers and agricultural industries. In particular, the poultry industry is well situated to take advantage, as it is an industry that already uses by-products and is intensive in nature and often integrated. A literature review was conducted to compare existing studies on the amount and value of wasted food and resources, the nutritional composition of various streams of food waste, and its potential application as poultry feed. This review explored global studies, ultimately focusing on an Australian context; a country in which poultry is the highest consumed protein source per capita. Many causes of food waste were identified, as well as several emerging strategies to combat this. While nutritional variability is a commonly noted issue, the consensus among researchers is that, depending on the source, food waste could feasibly be used to substitute conventional ingredients such as corn and soybean meal in poultry diets without production loss, with likely economic advantages.