LCA OF WASTE-TO-FEED DIETS FOR LAYING HENS

The study assesses the environmental performance of incorporating bakery byproduct meal, chemically-processed grocery food waste feed, and Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) meal into laying hen diets in the US. Results indicate that while all alternative diets can reduce land use and marine eutrophication by replacing agricultural ingredients like soybean meal, they often introduce trade-offs, particularly increasing global warming potential and water consumption. Bakery meal showed the most modest impacts, whereas BSFL meal caused the highest increases in greenhouse gas emissions. The report concludes that the environmental benefits of waste-to-feed systems are modest and highly dependent on energy use, suggesting that renewable energy is essential to ensure positive outcomes and that preventing food waste remains the top priority.

• The use of food waste as feed for laying hens in the US provides only modest environmental improvements and carries risks of significantly higher environmental impacts, with results varying by ingredient and diet composition.
• Bakery meal is the most environmentally favorable of the three alternatives, showing the lowest impact in global warming potential, water consumption, and marine eutrophication, while having the highest land use potential per kilogram of ingredient.
• Incorporating food-waste ingredients generally reduces land use and land use change (LUC) by replacing agriculturally sourced ingredients such as soybean meal and animal/vegetable fat; annual occupied land savings range from 4% to 51% (0.06 to 0.45 m2a) for the BSFL diet at 15% inclusion.
• Black Soldier Fly larvae (BSFL) meal significantly increases greenhouse gas emissions, with the 15% inclusion diet showing a 350% increase in global warming potential compared to the baseline diet.
• Most alternative diets reduce marine eutrophication by decreasing nitrogen emissions from fertilizer use associated with corn and soybean meal, although the BSFL meal at 15% inclusion leads to a 2% increase.
• Water consumption is only reduced in diets containing bakery meal (approximately 3% reduction); all other food-waste-based diets increase water consumption relative to the baseline.
• The high environmental impact of BSFL meal and food waste feed is primarily driven by electricity and heat used for processing (grinding, drying, and pelletizing). Switching to renewable solar power can reduce the global warming potential of the 15% BSFL meal diet by up to 51%, though it remains higher than the baseline.
• A sensitivity analysis reveals that if primary food is used instead of food waste (removing the cut-off for production impacts), no diet provides environmental benefits, and the carbon footprint of alternative diets increases by 15% to 85%.

APA

Loyola, C., Papadimitriou, C., & Dettling, J. (2021). LCA OF WASTE-TO-FEED DIETS FOR LAYING HENS. WWF International. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/827/8ddrh2pmtk_WWF_Food_Waste_As_Feed_LCA_Report.pdf

Chicago

Loyola, Cristóbal, Christina Papadimitriou, and Jon Dettling. LCA OF WASTE-TO-FEED DIETS FOR LAYING HENS. WWF International, 2021. https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/827/8ddrh2pmtk_WWF_Food_Waste_As_Feed_LCA_Report.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Loyola |first1=Cristóbal |last2=Papadimitriou |first2=Christina |last3=Dettling |first3=Jon |title=LCA OF WASTE-TO-FEED DIETS FOR LAYING HENS |publisher=WWF International |date=10 March 2021 |url=https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/827/8ddrh2pmtk_WWF_Food_Waste_As_Feed_LCA_Report.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{loyola2021lca, author = {Loyola, Cristóbal and Papadimitriou, Christina and Dettling, Jon}, title = {{LCA OF WASTE-TO-FEED DIETS FOR LAYING HENS}}, institution = {WWF International}, year = {2021}, month = mar, url = {https://www.worldwildlife.org/documents/827/8ddrh2pmtk_WWF_Food_Waste_As_Feed_LCA_Report.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }