Production of single species derived meat and bone meal - The development of laboratory-scale rendering (LSR) technique

Restrictions on the use of meat and bone meal (MBM) in animal diets as a re sult of the BSE crisis have resulted in a need to implement traceability pr ocedures to identify and classify the origins of MBM, To facilitate the dev elopment of such methodologies, a laboratory-scale rendering (LSR) procedur e was developed for the production MBM of known background under controlled conditions using of-fal and bone material from single species. Each step o f the rendering process was simulated to provide a realistic representation of a commercial rendering operation, on laboratory scale. Cross contaminat ion between the species was prevented by using an intensive cleaning routin e. Proximate analysis of the LSR-produced MBM showed that it compared favou rably with typical output from commercial rendering plants.