Executive Summary: Protein and high value ingredients from low value beef co-products

Summary of Project and Key Findings:
This project tested the feasibility for producing a beef protein concentrate from beef bone stream after butchery. The development of the process began from bench scale experiments to determine the best combination of enzyme recipes with feasible operation parameters for scale up. All samples produced were analysed and characterised to understand their compositions and to assess their suitability for use as ingredients for food and beverage producers. Based on these results, two process conditions were selected for the intermediate scale trials before the final food-grade trial at 200 kg was conducted. Two products were generated from this process- high quality beef tallow and bovine protein concentrates in peptide format. The protein concentrates demonstrated superb solubility and other functional properties comparable to other protein hydrolysates in the market. The product composition and final yields obtained from each scale of operations were consistent, indicating its readiness for future manufacturing at the industrial scale. The developed process via utilisation of low-value beef bone material will provide a new avenue for producing high quality edible beef myofibrillar, sarcoplasmic and stromal protein which avoid the limitations of the current and dominant industrial processes targeting collagens and lipids recovery.

TRL at start of project = 2-4
TRL at end of project = 5.5 -6.5