TEMPERTON REPORT FOCUSES ON POULTRY CARCASSES

Posted 7 June 2004

The full utilisation of poultry carcases within the UK poultry industry will be the main focus of the report of the 12th Temperton Fellows next week, organised by Harper Adams University College, Shropshire.

Paul Foxcroft, Commercial Director, and Stephen Woodgate, Technical Director, of the Prosper De Mulder (PDM) group, will become the joint 12th Temperton Fellows on June 14, 2004, at the Farmers Club, London. Their report, entitled Full Utilisation of the Poultry Carcase, will examine the handling and processing of poultry by-products.

The Fellows explained: “Approximately 900 million broilers per year are produced in the UK, of which a significant proportion (approximately 45 per cent) is not eaten directly as food. As a result, poultry by-products are produced, amounting to around 900,000 tonnes a year.

“The handling and processing of poultry by-products is an integral part of the food chain. The stringent legislative controls required to safeguard human and animal health as well as responding to new environmental pressures is an onerous responsibility for the industry. To meet these ever increasing legislative demands a high level of both professionalism and efficiency is required from all sectors of the poultry by-products industry.

“As a result of meeting these legislative requirements, poultry by-products are currently a direct economic burden to the industry, representing a significant cost to the poultry processor.”

But, say the Fellows, economic improvements will be seen if legislation concerning animal feeding restrictions for poultry-derived materials is modified to bring it more into line with the rest of the world.

“Further economic improvements are likely from some of the current R&D initiatives. Outside the UK/EU, legislative controls on all aspects of by-products from handling and processing to environment and use restrictions are far less onerous.

“As a result of these differences, the value of poultry by-products in the USA and Thailand are significantly higher than in the UK. This difference may close in the future if there are changes to agriculture/feed/food legislation in these countries, which brings them more in line with the UK/EU.

“However, social and cultural differences in Thailand (and the rest of the far-East) with regard to food ensures that their poultry industry will probably always receive higher values for what we in the UK/EU consider to be poultry by-products.”

Ends.