Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Japan is turning uneaten food scraps back into edible food
DNYUZ ^ | August 20, 2024 | Staff

Posted on 08/20/2024 8:47:19 AM PDT by Red Badger

Recycling food scraps back into food you can eat sounds disgusting at first. But I’m sure everyone hearing about Japan’s way of tackling waste would want to know how the process works and how the resulting food tastes. It turns out the process is not disgusting at all once you get to learn about it. It’s ingenious, and everyone should be doing it. Spoiler alert: people don’t aren’t being fed the liquid mass that results from fermenting food scraps with this technology. Instead, pigs get the liquid ecofeed, and then people ultimately eat the pigs.

The technology aims to fix two of Japan’s biggest problems: pollution and food waste. That’s because Japan imports two-thirds of its food and three-quarters of its livestock feed.

Moreover, Japan is the world’s fifth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and burning food waste contributes to the problem. Japan wants to cut emissions by 46% by the end of this decade and become carbon neutral by 2050. Recycling uneaten food scraps into pig feed can help with that.

The clever process seems like a no-brainer once read the BBC’s story of Koichi Takahashi and his idea. A veterinarian by training, Takahashi created the Japan Food Ecology Center to tackle the food waste problem and help save the environment.

The idea behind the Japan Food Ecology Center isn’t just to take uneaten food scraps and shovel them into a trough for pigs. Instead, the company processes the scraps using a techique Japan is famous for: Fermentation.

Takahashi worked with the government and researchers to develop his lactic acid-fermented liquified feed for pigs. The end product has a shelf life of 10 days without refrigeration. This is possible by lowering the pH to 4.0, a level where bacteria can’t survive.

The feed is “pale and watery,” and it tastes like sour yogurt.

As for the quality of the feed, the researchers developed a formula that’s optimal for pig growth and meat quality. The initial version slowed growth and produced fatty meats. Interestingly, farms that buy the feed can ask for specific customizations to meet their needs.

Takahashi’s factory processes around 40 tons of food waste per day. It comes from various places, including supermarkets, department stores, manufacturers, and local convenience stores. Incinerating food waste is more expensive than recycling it, and that’s why these businesses prefer to work with Takahashi’s company and others like it.

Interestingly, Takahashi has not patented his technology, so anyone can replicate it. Some 1,000,000 tons of ecofeeds are produced a year from all of Japan’s food waste recycling facilities. Takahashi’s company accounts for only 35,000 tons of that.

Recycling food in this manner is also a profitable endeavor. Takahashi wanted to prove that environmental efforts like food recycling do not have to be too expensive to pursue. As for the farms that buy the feed from his company, they pay half the price of conventional feed.

The resulting pig meat is growing in popularity in Japan because it’s both “delicious and sustainable.” Ecofeed-grown pig sales generate $2.3 million in annual revenue. That might not be that impressive in the grand scheme of things, but Takahashi’s idea could be easily replicated.

To put things into perspective, Japan throws out 28.4 million tons of food annually. It’s spending some $5.4 billion a year on waste incineration, 40% of which is uneaten food scraps.

The report also notes another benefit of creating food waste processing plants like the Japan Food Ecology Center. In addition to generating 70% less gas emissions than importing conventional feed, Takahashi has adapted his processing plant to convert some of the resulting methane into energy he sells back to the grid. The energy his food recycling plant produces can power 1,000 households per day.

Finally, the powdery black substance that results from energy conversion is turned into fertilizer that’s rich in nutrients.

The post Japan is turning uneaten food scraps back into edible food appeared first on BGR.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Business/Economy; Food; Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: asia; food; japan; recycling
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last
To: al baby

I use leftovers from meals at least once a week here, and very often, twice a week. Very little goes to waste. I’m astounded by people who thinks leftovers are gross. In my house, they are turned into very tasty meals. I was raised that way, and I’m still using the techniques I learned from my parents.


21 posted on 08/20/2024 10:11:16 AM PDT by FamiliarFace (I got my own way of livin' But everything gets done With a southern accent Where I come from. TPetty)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

This new technology is only several hundred years old.


22 posted on 08/20/2024 10:29:49 AM PDT by Maelstrom (To prevent misinterpretation or abuse of the Constitution:The Bill of Rights limits government power)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

It’s good that this is being done commercially.

That amount of food waste is appalling.


23 posted on 08/20/2024 10:34:10 AM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

We do the same here. Pigs and chickens are amazing food recyclers....


24 posted on 08/20/2024 12:46:21 PM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Hard pass for me, but if it’s helping to feed them, and they’re willing, go for it Japan!

All scraps around here go to the chickens, the compost piles or to house dogs.

The hunting dogs get no scraps but DO get the occasional Milk Bone from me. They’re already on some pretty expensive, balanced kibble. The Mule likes Milk Bones, too. ;)


25 posted on 08/20/2024 1:06:01 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bubba_Leroy

Same here.


26 posted on 08/20/2024 1:08:01 PM PDT by Tax-chick (Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Diana in Wisconsin

They are doing something we used to call ‘Slopping the hogs’....... I guess that’s ‘new’ to Japan.........🙄


27 posted on 08/20/2024 1:08:46 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

Bottom line: They’re feeding (processed) kitchen scraps to swine, then eating the resulting pork.

This will be familiar to American farmers.


28 posted on 08/20/2024 1:09:55 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

This is the exact process for making silage for cattle you take a mass of material inoculate it with acid.making bacteria and ferment it till it’s PH4 or less then it just sits there waiting to be feed.

There was a episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike went to a pig farm in the desert outside Vegas where they were trucking in food scraps from all the Vegas buffets they conveyor belt it from dump trucks to a giant pressure cooker where they heated it till 225F for a few hours the sludge that came out was then with much comedy loaded into a cart and deposited into pig feeding troughs they went nuts for it.


29 posted on 08/20/2024 1:11:28 PM PDT by GenXPolymath
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

Also unsold produce from grocery store and edible garbage from restaurants.

We’ve been doing this for 200 years.................


30 posted on 08/20/2024 1:11:58 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger

I think “we” (the human species) have been doing it for a lot longer than 200 years. Medieval European peasants would surely recognize the concept ... probably swineherds for as long as swine have been herded would recognize it.


31 posted on 08/20/2024 1:14:58 PM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

If it is good for the pig you’ll soon be eating, then skip the middle pig and feed it straight to the human.


32 posted on 08/20/2024 1:27:30 PM PDT by bgill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
Hog Farmin' ain't for SISSIES!


33 posted on 08/20/2024 1:41:27 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: ansel12

One of “Dirty Jobs” best segments was about making pig food from Las Vegas table scraps.


34 posted on 08/20/2024 2:07:34 PM PDT by fella ("As it was before Noah so shall it be again," )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: fella

Yup Mike Rowe on the skid loader was comedy gold. That and the conveyor belt of doom with all the hand picked out nasty things people put on their plates.


35 posted on 08/21/2024 1:40:33 AM PDT by GenXPolymath
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: GenXPolymath

My personal Mike Rowe favorite…snake researcher:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu6huF9KE1Q


36 posted on 08/21/2024 2:27:35 AM PDT by USAF1985 (Joe McCarthy is a hero...he was absolutely, 100% correct! (Let’s go Brandon!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-36 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson