Using restaurant food waste as feed for Nile tilapia production

More than 40% of human food produced is wasted and much of it in restaurants. Two 8‐week feeding experiments were performed to evaluate the suitability of using restaurant food waste to supplement commercial feed (CF) in the aquaculture of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus. In the first experiment, five feeding regimens in which CF was substituted by waste‐based feed at 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of daily offering were evaluated. Results show that 25% of the CF can be replaced with waste‐based feed without any significant effect on survival, growth, feed conversion, hepatosomatic, viscerosomatic (VSI) indices, haemoglobin, haematocrit and total plasma protein (TPP). In the second experiment, seven feeding treatments were evaluated in which daily offerings of CF were alternated with waste‐based feed in 6‐day cycles. Results suggest that replacement between 25% and 33% is feasible without significantly affecting survival or growth. Again, no significant differences were observed in growth, feed conversion ratio, VSI, haemoglobin, haematocrit and TPP. Findings suggest that around 25% replacement of CF with Lebanese restaurant waste‐based feed can be utilized in the culture of O. niloticus thus improving financial returns of farmers while reducing the environmental impact of food waste.