Grant: Alliance Grants

Spent hens are laying hens that are disposed at the end of their egg-laying cycle. The Canadian Egg Industry has to replace ~35 million hens every year. Processing spent hens into whole carcass for ethnic markets or use as pet foods are labor intensive, and are not viable economically. Consequently, most birds are disposed often at the farmers' own labor, land and facilities; in addition to paying millions of dollars each year, bird disposal leads to environmental pollution, animal welfare concerns, and loss of high-quality meat protein. Spent hen has been a long-existing challenge facing the egg industry due to a lack of a profitable method of disposal. Our decade long research supports the potential of value-added uses of spent hens, but most approaches are based on first extraction of protein, which is costly and also suffers from a low yield of extraction. A viable and efficient approach to reclaim readily marketable ingredients from spent hen is yet to be developed. The overall goal of the project is to develop an industry viable approach of valorization of spent hens, contributing to circular economy and environmental sustainability; specifically, this project will upcycle three readily marketable ingredients, fat for food/feed use, hydrolyzed muscle proteins as sport nutrition and as a supplement, and hydrolyzed collagen as a natural health product, directly from spent hen carcass. This project will provide the Canadian egg industry with a sustainable alternative to dispose spent hens, other than a liability to the industry. In addition to generating a new revenue source for the egg industry, a profitable section of value-added spent hen processing will also help eliminate environment impact associated with spent hen disposal, and thus enhance the positive image of the egg industry as environmental stewards.