Blink and you’d miss it, but the European fish industry is now feeding poultry waste to farmed salmon. This can legally include the necks, feet, heads and skin of birds, their intestines and unemptied upper digestive tracts, internal organs such as liver, kidney and spleen, hatchery waste such as day-old chicks and eggs, and parts of carcasses with abnormalities and lesions. Chicken feathers are permitted in fish feed by EU and UK law too, but are regarded as a step too far by European producers.
It’s called the “circular economy” – and is billed as a step towards greater sustainability in food production. Producers point out that these poultry byproducts must come from birds passed as fit for human consumption, even if cultural taboos mean they are rejected at the slaughterhouse. Nonetheless, producers in Norway and retailers in the UK kept quiet about the new practice, fearing a backlash over the “yuk” factor, until the Financial Times broke their cover earlier this month. The truth is, climate breakdown and shocks in global supply chains have forced them to consider novel sources of food for their salmon farms.