Optimizing Silage Strategies for Sustainable Livestock Feed: Preserving Retail Food Waste

Vicky Garcia Rodriguez, Layton Vandestroet, Vinura C. Abeysekara, Kim Ominski, Emmanuel W. Bumunang, Tim McAllister, Stephanie Terry, Luis Alberto Miranda-Romero and Kim Stanford ()
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Vicky Garcia Rodriguez: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
Layton Vandestroet: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
Vinura C. Abeysekara: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
Kim Ominski: Department of Animal Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
Emmanuel W. Bumunang: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada
Tim McAllister: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Center, Lethbridge, AB T1J 4B1, Canada
Stephanie Terry: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lethbridge Research and Development Center, Lethbridge, AB T1J 4B1, Canada
Luis Alberto Miranda-Romero: Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Texcoco 56230, Mexico
Kim Stanford: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB T1K 3M4, Canada

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: In Canada, approximately 11.2 million metric tons of avoidable food waste (FW) is produced per year. Preservation of a greater proportion of this FW for use as livestock feed would have significant environmental and socioeconomic benefits. Therefore, this study blended discarded fruits, vegetables, and bakery products from grocery stores into silage to assess the ability to preserve their nutritional value and contribute to the feed supply. Two treatments for reducing the water content of FW were evaluated, sun-dried (SD) and passive-dried (PD), and compared to control (C) using laboratory mini-silos over 60 days of ensiling. Although dry matter (DM) was increased by 1–5% for PD and SD, respectively, up to 41.9% of bread products were required to produce a targeted silage DM of 38%. All mature silages were high in crude protein (15.2 to 15.7%), crude fat (6.0 to 6.3%), sodium (0.48 to 0.52%), and sugars (0.95 to 1.53%) and were low in neutral detergent fiber (6.2 to 7.6%) as compared to traditional silages used as livestock feed. Mold and other signs of spoilage were visible on FW, but mycophenolic acid was the only mycotoxin above the limit of detection in material prior to ensiling. Plate counts of molds and yeasts declined ( p < 0.001) by 5–7 log colony-forming units (CFU) over 60 days of fermentation and were not detected in mature silage. All silages were aerobically stable over 20 days. This study indicates that FW can produce good-quality silage but approaches other than SD and PD are required for increasing silage DM as insufficient bread products may be available for this purpose in all batches of FW.

Keywords: silage; food waste; livestock feed; fruit; vegetables; bread (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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