Executive Summary: Pelt2Protein

Summary of Project and Key Findings:
AgResearch’s Pelts2Protein (or P2P) technology uses food-grade enzymes and chemicals to process ovine pelts into edible protein ingredients for pet foods.

The technology is environmentally friendly and does not produce toxic wastes streams. Implementation has been demonstrated using existing commercial equipment. It may lead to more sustainable fellmongery operations in New Zealand.

The key commercial advantages of the P2P process are:

• The depilated pelts and hides (skins) could be used as edible protein sources, which attract higher margins than traditional leather uses.
• The process was specifically designed to be implemented and scaled using existing commercial and/or industry equipment.
• The process does not produce toxic wastes streams simplifying and reducing the cost to disposing of residues compared to industry standard sulphide-based processes.
  BPA funding (of this and previous projects) has been applied to demonstrate that:
• The process is technically viable using food grade enzymes and food-grade chemicals.
• The process can be implemented with minor changes to existing fellmongery processes but is also suitable for small scale processing.
• The processed pelts have amino acid profiles that compliment meat, and meat & bone meal (MBM) ingredients.
• Pelt2Protein skins (“protein”) can be processed into a dry ingredient for pet food.
• Pelt2Protein skins (“protein”) can be processed into a wet ingredient for pet food.