Food Recycle CEO Norm Boyle (pictured) co-founded the company with his son Nathan Boyle to tackle the global problem of food waste. Food Recycle has patented and patent pending technology to convert any commercial food waste into high-performance animal feeds for industries including poultry, pigs, and aquaculture.

Australian company, Food Recycle Ltd, has developed technology to turn commercial food waste into animal feed, leading to less waste in landfill, a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and contributing to a circular economy.

After successful trials with layer hens, prawns, barramundi, and aquaponics, Food Recycle is seeking a $3m capital raise via crowd-funding platform, Swarmer, to commercialise the technology and scale-up in Australia and New Zealand.

“The funds raised will be put towards facility mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and systems design, to allow for the first commercial-scale production facility to be built under the Food Recycle patented technology and knowhow agreement,” says Food Recycle CEO, Norm Boyle.

“The funds will also help with cash flow requirements as we look to appoint a technology and knowhow licensee for Australia and New Zealand, which will construct multiple production facilities, with Food Recycle receiving royalty payments on the sale of feed by the licensee,” he adds.

“The licensee will be required to construct a minimum of 25 production facilities over a 10-year period, and we would expect 12 of these in the first five years.”

The Swarmer crowd-funding campaign – which enters a three-week Expressions of Interest (EOI) phase on August 8, followed by a three-week investment phase – allows individual investments starting from $100, with investors given shares in the company.

 

Food Recycle technology is part of a truly circular economy, keeping valuable resources circulating and out of landfill and the environment.

The food waste problem

 

According to multiple sources, including the Australian Government’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water, DCCEEW, 30% of all human food is wasted globally.

“Food Recycle’s patented production process delivers on sustainability, circular economy, and food security outcomes. There are other processes out there, but they typically only deliver partial benefits because they use food waste to create a secondary process. Food Recycle takes the next step and uses food to produce food,” says Boyle.

“This capital raise provides everyone the chance to get in on the ground floor with a technology that is making a positive environmental difference in the world,” he adds.

Food Recycle’s patented process

Food Recycle has developed a patented process to efficiently process food waste from a variety of sources such as restaurants, abattoirs, farms, and processors. Each food waste stream is processed individually, analysed, and stored separately as ingredients. “We then measure the nutritional and amino acid profile of each ingredient and then mix them together to make complete feeds,” says Boyle.

Two tonnes of food waste can be converted into one tonne of complete feed suitable for poultry, pigs, and aquaculture. Apart from preventing the generation of methane, Food Recycle’s processing of food waste also eliminates every known biosecurity risk at no additional cost.

 

Successful trials

A series of rigorous trials conducted by CSIRO, Western Sydney University (WSU) and University of New England (UNE) have demonstrated the viability of Food Recycle’s process. Details and results of these trials can be viewed here.

“The trials show that the technology works. Food waste is taken out of landfill, put back into the food chain, with Food Recycle’s animal feed producing larger, healthier hens and eggs, and fish, for example,” says Boyle.

“We wanted to get the science exactly right before scaling up, and we’ve got the data to showcase the technology’s success using an evidence-based approach,” he says.