Grant: Alliance Grants

Satisfying the increasing global demand for food with a high protein content is a global challenge, given the planet's finite resources, the environmental impact of increased livestock production, and other current and future food sustainability challenges. Increasing output from existing resources but mitigating the negative impact of such livestock production and utilizing alternative/novel protein sources could address this challenge's supply side. In Western culture, it's generally not common to process or use spent hens (old female layer birds, which have completed their egg-laying cycle) for food due to their low meat yield, tough texture, and less desirable consumption. Additionally, the presence of brittle and tiny bone fragments makes industrial meat production more expensive and technically difficult (Fan and Wu 2022; BIOB, 9:43). Thus, most spent hens are euthanized on farms or in processing plants, then buried, composted, incinerated, or rendered into oils and protein meals used for animal feeds or pet foods. (Fan and Wu 2022; BIOB, 9:43). Recently, industry-academia had a brainstorming session between the Egg Farmers of Canada Research Committee (EFC) and academic researchers and industry leaders to address the knowledge gaps on the topic of Flock Management (EFC Industry-academia end-of-flock management session summary report, Dec 20, 2023). The Committee identified research gaps in understanding the properties and functionalities of spent hen meat, as well as valorization options, aiming to transform the end of lay hen into a commodity itself. To address this, we propose research focused on transforming spent hen meat into diverse and valuable meat products (patty, emulsion, restructured, snack) combined or not with texturized vegetable protein may help alleviate the valorization issues of spent hens. This initiative aims to improve the sustainability of laying hen production in Canada, reduce animal waste, and provide nutritious and tasty alternative meat products to culturally diverse Canadian consumers.