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The growing world population and rising income in developing countries create more demand for animal products. However, natural resources such as land, water, and nutrients are not boundless. As a consequence, competition of resources in food and feed production is an issue to be confronted with. One promising solution is relocating food losses into animal feeding, propelling the course of sustainability and circular economy in the livestock sector. Given this scenario, former food products (FFPs) represent great opportunities. Instead of ending up in landfill or compost, a better destination for FFPs is to be used as feedstuffs to replace traditional ingredients. FFPs are foodstuffs not accepted by the human market but have several advantages enabling them to enter swine feeding programs. FFPs are mainly composed of processed and readyto- eat food products such as snacks and bakery goods. Thanks to industrial processing and their product type nature, FFPs are rich in easily digestible starch, simple sugars, fat, and energy contents comparable with cereal grains. Based on their nutritional features, these materials are extremely rich in carbohydrates, free sugars and, depending on their origin, also in fats. In addition, FFPs are often characterized by a high degree of processing including technological and heat treatments which can affect not only the availability of nutrients and the kinetics of digestion, but also gastro-intestinal health and animal response. On fresh matter basis, FFPs can substitute conventional feed ingredients up to 30 % in the diets of pigs. Starting from post-weaning piglets, FFP-based diet is able to maintain piglet growth without substantial effects on hindgut microbiota. In growing-finishing pigs, FFP-based diets at a 30 % inclusion level support growth performance of pigs without altering their nutrient and energy deposition efficiency, live body and carcass composition, and general meat quality traits. When considering liver proteome and plasma peptidome of pigs fed such diets, minor modulation occurs. To sum up, while maintaining the performance and wellbeing of pigs, the use of FFPs up to 30 % to replace classic feedstuffs represents a great potential in: i) mitigating food-feed competition, ii) re-distributing valuable food losses to livestock sector to produce animal protein, and iii) reducing environmental footprints resulting from animal production. All these aspects point out important concepts under the principles of circular economy and resilience enhancement in livestock farming, namely, making the most of resources to build a regenerative food system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alternative feed ingredients in farm animal diets are a sustainable option from several perspectives. Former food products (FFPs) provide an interesting case study, as they represent a way of converting food industry losses into ingredients for the feed industry. A key concern regarding FFPs is the possible packaging residues that can become part of the product, leading to potential contamination of the feed. Although the level of contamination has been reported as negligible, to ensure a good risk evaluation and assessment of the presence of packaging remnants in FFPs, several techniques have been proposed or are currently being studied, of which the main ones are summarized in this review. Accordingly visual inspections, computer vision (CV), multivariate image analysis (MIA), and electric nose (e-nose) are discussed. All the proposed methods work mainly by providing qualitative results, while further research is needed to quantify FFP-derived packaging remnants in feed and to evaluate feed safety as required by the food industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of the partial substitution of corn and soybean meals with bakery former foodstuffs (BFF) and wheat wet distiller's grains (WDGs) on environmental sustainability, production performance, and health status were evaluated in beef cattle. Newly arrived Limousine beef heifers (n = 408) housed an intensive farm in Campagnatico (Grosseto, Italy) were balanced for initial weight and body conformation and then randomly divided in two groups: (i) Traditional corn–soybean meal diet; (ii) Circular diet with average as-fed 1.5 kg BFF and 1.5 kg WDGs as substitute for 1.6 kg corn and 0.3 kg soybean meal. The environmental impact of the diet was analyzed considering greenhouse gases emissions (GHG, kg CO2 eq), water (H2O, L), and land use (LU, m2) as well as consumption of human-edible feeds (HE, kg). The growth performance, feed intake (FI), feed conversion ratio (FCR), carcass characteristics, apparent total tract digestibility (aTTD), and health status of heifers were evaluated. The Circular diet led to a reduction per kg of cold carcass weight (CCW) of 1.00 kg CO2 eq of GHG, 72.38 L of H2O, 1.20 m2 of LU, and 0.95 kg of HE (p < 0.0001). Growth performances, carcass characteristics, and health status were not affected (p > 0.05). Sugar and pectin aTTD were significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in the Circular group. Replacing traditional feed ingredients with BFF and WDGs reduced the environmental impact of the diet of fattening Limousine heifers and the food competition between humans and beef cattle in accordance with circular economy principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestock production is facing the feed-food competition, use of natural resources, and environmental sustainability. To address these issues, the use of food leftovers in animal nutrition could satisfy the principles of circular economy. Among the different food leftovers, former food products (FFPs) consist mainly of unsold/defective food from industrial production (i.e., bread, croissants, biscuits, chips). FFPs can be classified in sugary confectionary FFPs (FFPs-C) and salty bakery FFPs (FFPs-B). The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the inclusion of FFPs into post-weaning diet of piglets on the fatty acid profile of subcutaneous adipose tissue and on serum metabolites. Thirty-six post-weaning female piglets (Large White × Landrace, BW 8.52 ± 1.73 kg) were assigned to a standard diet (CTR), or with a 30% replacement (wt/wt) of conventional cereals with FFPs-C or FFPs-B for 42 days. Growth performance and feeding behavior were measured. Subcutaneous abdominal fat samples were collected from 12 selected piglets after slaughtering. Gas chromatography was performed on feed samples from control diet and experimental diets and on adipose tissue samples. Untargeted metabolomics was performed on blood samples (d 0 and d 42) using UHPLC/MS-MS. Data were analyzed with the software MetaboAnalyst (version 5.0). The inclusion of FFPs did not alter growth performance or feeding behavior. The CTR diet had greater PUFA concentrations than FFPs diets. In FFPs diets, the fatty acid profile was equally distributed among SFA, MUFA, and PUFA. The ω-6/ω-3 ratio was greater in FFPs-C diets than CTR and FFPs-B diets. The subcutaneous adipose tissue showed no differences between groups for SFA concentrations. The MUFA concentrations were reduced in CTR compared with FFPs groups, whereas PUFA concentrations were reduced in FFPs-C group compared with FFPs-B and CTR groups. The ω-6/ω-3 ratio was less in FFPs-C group compared with CTR and FFPs-B groups. The untargeted metabolomics identified a total of 104 metabolites, with 2 significantly different between groups. Specifically, the serum concentration of theobromine and caffeine was greater in FFPs groups compared with CTR. To conclude, piglets were able to rebalance the fatty acids profile despite the differences observed in the diets. The metabolic status was not strongly altered by the inclusion of 30% FFPs in the diet. Thus, FFPs could be safely applied in postweaning pig diets. Further studies are needed to assess the effect of FFPs on pig physiology and metabolic status in growing phase pigs and for a longer feeding time. (funded by ASSO Project-Regione Lombardia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of Former Food Products (FFPs) as feed ingredients is already documented in swine, as well as their beneficial nutritional value. To date, FFPs extra-nutritional bioactive effect in feed has not been elucidated. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity (AOC) in six samples of FFPs extracted by different solvent systems. After methanol and acetone extraction, total phenolic content and AOC were determined in FFPs and wheat sample (CTR) using Folin–Ciocalteu and 2,2'-azinobis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline 6-sulfonic acid)-ABTS assay, respectively. Results demonstrated that FFPs samples were characterised by an average amount of total phenolic content of 129.3 ± 15.1 mg tannic acid equivalents (TAE)/100g in methanol extracts and 156.4 ± 25.8 mg TAE/100g in acetone extracts. Whereas, the ABTS assay revealed that FFPs showed also anAOC of 138.0 ± 14.3 mg Trolox Equivalent (TE)/100 g in methanol extracts and 173.3 ± 18.8 mg TE/100 g in acetone extracts. Former Food Products represent relevant sources of phenols and antioxidant compounds, which can be beneficial for animal health. Former Food Products (FFPs) reprocessing is a way to convert food losses into ingredients for animal diets; Valuable content of total phenolic compounds and notable antioxidant capacity were observed in FFPs after extraction with methanol and acetone; FFPs demonstrated to be a source of bioactive compounds with extra-nutritional activities which can be beneficial for animal health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Nowadays, researchers need to find a solution to the growing demand for sustainable animal productions. Livestock animal's nutrition is the component with major impacts on environment and economy. The biggest challenge is to find alternative feed ingredients to minimize and valorize the food leftovers. Food industry leftovers, also called former food products, could be a valid alternative to grains in young pigs' nutrition. From a nutritional point of view, these ingredients are very similar to standard cereals, like corn. The results from this study suggest that a partial substitution of standard ingredients with two different sources of former food products in the diets of post-weaned pigs is possible, without any negative effects on growth performance and health of animals. Former food products (FFPs) have a great potential to replace conventional feed ingredients. This study aimed to investigate the possibility to partially replace standard ingredients with two different types of FFPs: bakery (FFPs-B) or confectionary (FFPs-C) FFPs and their effects on growth performances, feed digestibility and metabolic status in post-weaning piglets. Thirty-six post-weaning piglets were randomly assigned to three experimental diets (n = 12 per diet) for 42 days: a standard diet (CTR), a diet where 30% of standard ingredients were replaced by confectionary FFPs (FFPs-C) and a diet where 30% of standard ingredients were replaced by bakery FFPs (FFPs-B). Individual body weight and fecal dry matter were measured weekly. Feed intake (FI) was determined daily. Average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated. Fecal samples were collected daily for three days/week to determine apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter (ATTD). At day 0, 21 and 42, blood samples were collected from all the piglets. No significant differences (p > 0.05) between groups were found in growth performances and metabolic profile. However, ATTD in FFPs-B group was lower (p < 0.05) compared to the CTR group at the end of the experiment. This study confirmed the possibility to formulate homogeneous diets integrated with 30% of both categories of FFPs. Further investigations are needed to clarify the effects of bakery former food products on the digestibility of the diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]