Food waste disposal in Dutch livestock husbandry

The main objective of agriculture is food production, which is based fundamentally on plant material. Only part of this, however, is acceptable as food. The remainder, being byproducts or wastes, is generally transformed into food through animals. Because of everchanging technology and because of the wish to utilize as many byproducts/wastes as possible, the research effort in this field is strong in Dutch agricultural research.Byproducts/wastes are very important ingredients in compound feeds in The Netherlands. Compound feed mixtures make up about 50% of all feeds, but nearly 60% of the compounds consist of food wastes or byproducts. This is considerably more than in other EEC countries.Food waste application in The Netherlands fundamentally has no legal restrictions. In recent years, however, some exceptions have been made to avoid any risk of toxicological contamination of food. Those regulations are kept in line with EEC policy in these matters. Based on voluntary cooperation, the Dutch feed industry, farmers organizations and agricultural research have issued feed tables, providing a firm foundation for safe application of high-quality byproducts/food wastes in Dutch livestock husbandry.Some examples of promising new food wastes, e.g. dried poultry manure, are mentioned.