Bright Feeds Converts Food Waste to Nutritional Animal Feed
Bright Feeds has built a high-tech facility to turn commercial food waste into meal for animal feed.
- 40% of the current food supply in the U.S. is wasted, equating to $ 161 billion in economic cost
- 95% of unused food ends up in landfills or incinerators
- 10% of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere originate from methane produced by food in landfills
These stats, and their horrifying implications, inspired Bright Feeds to jump into action. Their innovative food waste recycling solution, when at capacity, is equivalent to removing 33,700 cars off the road every year.
Founded just two years ago, the company has made incredible strides in their bid to reduce our environmental impact. The new high-tech processing facility uses a series of sensors and computer algorithms to turn various combinations of commercial food processing waste into a uniform meal for animal feed. The sensors measure everything from protein and fiber to ash content. An algorithm-driven software solution then controls the blending and mixing processes to create a consistent feed with consistent nutritional value.
This proprietary technology can accept a wider variety of food waste than other food recycling alternatives which are limited to dry, grain-based bakery products. Bright Feeds can accept vegetables, fruit, and other wet waste.
This feed has already been distributed to a first batch of customers whose feedback suggests the waste-based meal runs on the order of 20% cheaper than conventional feed ingredients like corn and soybeans.
This first high-tech processing plant opened roughly 7 months ago, but with the incredible growth of the company, Bright Feeds is already looking to expand further. They are now looking to build a second processing plant, one located nearer to sources of commercial food waste and potential feed mills.
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