Once more food waste is in the news as prices rise and our future looks uncertain. Unfortunately we have educated generations of younger people into believing that if the 'sell-by' date on food is passed it immediately becomes poisonous and a danger to life! How often have you selected a perfectly edible item and on reaching the checkout have been informed that they can't sell it because it's out of date? Anyone over a certain age knows with certainty that this is nonsense and a waste of perfectly good food. I see there are murmurings in some quarters suggesting that supermarkets should have a section designated as 'buy at your own risk' and I fully approve. I was taught by my mother to use my eyes and my nose and that a layer of mould on top of home-made jam was 'just penicillin' and only needed skimming off. After all we welcome the mould in blue cheese and relish the taste. I grew up healthy with no allergies and suspect that this healthy attitude to food had something to do with it!
When food is regarded even by me as waste it still has a value. There was a time when we allowed the collection of waste food from school kitchens, institutions and and hotels to be boiled and converted into pig swill, a valuable source of nutrition. In 2003 the European Union banned the use of swill in response to the Foot and Mouth outbreak of 2001. It would have made far more sense to continue its use but inspect the processing of it far more rigorously. Instead it now has to be either incinerated or dumped in landfill, each of these is bad for the environment. Marshall's at Bradley ran a successful pig-feeding operation for years based on regular collections of waste food which was boiled with skim milk and ground barley to make a lovely porridge that smelled good enough for human consumption and the pigs loved it. I used to deliver skim milk to them and saw the operation and it was a lovely use of a valuable resource.
Modern production control methods and recording are routinely used in the dairy and food processing industries and there is no reason why the same technology can't be used in pig feeding. One thing is certain, it would make economic sense for the industry as the prices of feed rise and pigs are fed on food diverted from the human food chain.
There is another precedent, the concept of the 'cottage pig'. At one time it was common for a family to keep a pig or some hens and feed them all the food waste from the house with the addition of some cereals. Once a year the pig was killed and salted and the resulting bacon and ham kept well and was a valuable part of the diet. I have been the recipient of bacon from this source during my life and it beat the shop version hands down! Waste not want not!
The cottage pig.
