Questions and Answers on Rendering

1. What is rendering?
   Rendering is the manufacturing and cooking process used to convert raw materials into rendered finished products.
   
   
2. What are raw materials?
   Raw materials consist of meat, bones, fish and fat generated by meat and fish processors, farmers, butcher shops and restaurants.
   
   
3. What are rendered finished products?
   Rendered finished products are high protein meals used as animal feed ingredients and fertilizers and refined fats used for industrial purposes and in animal feed.
   
   
4. Is the rendering industry regulated?
   Yes, all renderers operate under a permit issued by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
   
   
5. Do regulations exist to prevent the feeding of rendered meat and bone meal to cattle?
   Yes. There is a ban on feeding ruminant derived meat and bone meal to cattle and other ruminants.
   
   
6. What are ruminants?
   Ruminant species include cattle, sheep, goats and deer. Ruminants chew the cud and have a stomach consisting of four chambers.
   
   
7. Are chickens, turkeys and pigs ruminants?
   No, chickens turkeys and pigs are all non- ruminants and there is no ban on including ruminant meat and bone meal in feed rations intended for consumption by non-ruminants.
   
   
8. How does rendering impact the environment?
   Rendering disposes by recycling and evaporation, thousand of tonnes of organic meat and fish tissue each day which would otherwise have to be buried or incinerated.
   
   
9. Does the rendering process destroy pathogens?
   Yes, most known pathogens are destroyed by the rendering process. A pathogen is an agent that produces disease.
   
   
10. What is the best alternative to rendering for disposing of raw materials?
    There really is no best alternative for disposing of large volumes of animal and fish waste tissues on a daily basis. Land filling, incineration, composting and dumping at sea have at various times been methods employed to dispose of animal and fish waste tissues. These methods are not viable when dealing with large volumes of raw materials because of environmental considerations, cost and practicality.