Animal protein rendering is a process whereby waste animal tissue is converted into stable, edible food at a rendering plant. Rendering can generally refer to any sort of processing of animal fats into something more useful or it can more specifically mean mean rendering animal fats into things like lard.
Most of the materials used in the rendering process comes from a slaughterhouse but it can also include restaurant grease, leftover trimming from a butcher shop, meat from grocery stores that has expired, animal carcasses from roadkill, etc.
This meat/material can be the bones, fatty tissue, offal or internal organs, or even entire carcasses. The typical sources include pork, beef, poultry and sheep.
Rendering animal meat does two things at the same time: it dries the material as well as separates the fat from the bone. There are 2 resulting products of the rendering process: a fat commodity and a protein meal. The fat commodity can be yellow grease, choice white grease, tallow, and more. Protein meal examples include poultry meal, meat and bone meal and more.
Rendering plants such as ours typically handle different substances like blood, hair, feathers, etc. but dealing with these is different than what is referred to distinctly as true rendering.
So rendering plants use animal waste to make grease, high-protein meats, bone meal, tallow and more. Certain plants are referred to as "edible rendering plants" - these use animal waste rto make proteins and fats for consumption. These rendering plants are under the oversight of the Food Safety and Inspection Service. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There are three main methods of processing: grease processing, batch rendering and tallow processing.
In tallow processing, animal fat trimmings are rendered by grinding the trimmings down and them melting in a huge melt tank. The fat cells are put through a disintegrator to rupture them and be broken down. Then the edible, broken down fat is separated from the useless, inedible sludge in a centrifuge.
Batch rendering is the system where bone meal is created. It crushes animal trimmings down into smaller parts so that they can be cooked more easily. When done cooking, the trimmings are separated - the liquid fat drips through a percolator drain pan while the protein solids are sent through a screw press, removing any remaining fat. The solids leftover (protein solids called crackling) are then sent through grinding and screening processes to create meal.
Finally, grease processing is the process where restaurant grease (cooking grease) gets recycled. First it goes through a screen to filter out solid materials. The grease is then heated up and put in a tank where the grease, water and solids and separated. The materials are then put in a centrifuge where the last of the solid and water are removed.
This is really just an overview of the entire rendering process and many specifics were left out. Many rendering plants do things differently as well. But we hope this was an informative look at the rendering system as a whole. If you ever have questions or want us to write about different topics like this, please let us know!
Most of the materials used in the rendering process comes from a slaughterhouse but it can also include restaurant grease, leftover trimming from a butcher shop, meat from grocery stores that has expired, animal carcasses from roadkill, etc.
This meat/material can be the bones, fatty tissue, offal or internal organs, or even entire carcasses. The typical sources include pork, beef, poultry and sheep.
Rendering animal meat does two things at the same time: it dries the material as well as separates the fat from the bone. There are 2 resulting products of the rendering process: a fat commodity and a protein meal. The fat commodity can be yellow grease, choice white grease, tallow, and more. Protein meal examples include poultry meal, meat and bone meal and more.
Rendering plants such as ours typically handle different substances like blood, hair, feathers, etc. but dealing with these is different than what is referred to distinctly as true rendering.
So rendering plants use animal waste to make grease, high-protein meats, bone meal, tallow and more. Certain plants are referred to as "edible rendering plants" - these use animal waste rto make proteins and fats for consumption. These rendering plants are under the oversight of the Food Safety and Inspection Service. and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
There are three main methods of processing: grease processing, batch rendering and tallow processing.
In tallow processing, animal fat trimmings are rendered by grinding the trimmings down and them melting in a huge melt tank. The fat cells are put through a disintegrator to rupture them and be broken down. Then the edible, broken down fat is separated from the useless, inedible sludge in a centrifuge.
Batch rendering is the system where bone meal is created. It crushes animal trimmings down into smaller parts so that they can be cooked more easily. When done cooking, the trimmings are separated - the liquid fat drips through a percolator drain pan while the protein solids are sent through a screw press, removing any remaining fat. The solids leftover (protein solids called crackling) are then sent through grinding and screening processes to create meal.
Finally, grease processing is the process where restaurant grease (cooking grease) gets recycled. First it goes through a screen to filter out solid materials. The grease is then heated up and put in a tank where the grease, water and solids and separated. The materials are then put in a centrifuge where the last of the solid and water are removed.
This is really just an overview of the entire rendering process and many specifics were left out. Many rendering plants do things differently as well. But we hope this was an informative look at the rendering system as a whole. If you ever have questions or want us to write about different topics like this, please let us know!
