| Summary: |
The complete valorization of by-products from the meat products manufacture is a high priority, not only because of the high quantities generated, but also, they represent an economic, health and environmental problem. As a by-product one considers the fats, bones and protein constituents (e.g. rind and greaves), which represent a total animal weight of 50-70%. The competitiveness of this industrial sector largely depends on the technological innovation, new products development, and on a high capacity to adapt to market evolutions. It is essential to generate value for all the interested parts, not just for customers, valorizing their satisfaction and fidelity, but also internally, concerning the companies processes, through efficacy and efficiency in the procedures, searching for improvements opportunities and following the best practices and innovations in the sector.
To answers these questions, this project aims to develop real solutions, efficient and feasible, to reduce the by-products from the meat processing industry and adequately manage them, in order to obtain high value added products that can be commercially valorized. This way, this project is focused on the following main areas: (1) Valorization of meat fat through the definition of a biodiesel production process; (2) Valorization of protein constituents of byproduct (e.g. rind and greaves) using anaerobic digestion with biogas production; (3) Valorization of the animal bones for applying in biomaterials (e.g. in the human bones regeneration). |