Eva the Diva
We're in Modern- Dog! Pages 56,- 57 & 80!
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 | | Barked: Sat Mar 31, '07 10:34pm PST |  | |  | | While we knew vaguely what "rendering" meant, we found this explanation on a Google search....it may be helpful for Dogsters reading this post (I certainly hope there is no rendered product in the Merrick Canned food!!!) Keep us posted if you hear back from Merrick...
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R endering, which dates to the early Egyptians, operates in the shadows of polite society, persisting because it provides an essential service: disposing of millions of pounds of dead animals every day.
"If you burned all the carcasses, you'd get a terrible air pollution problem," said Dr. William Heuston, associate dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at College Park, Md. "If you put it all into landfills, you'd have a colossal public health problem, not to mention stench. Dead animals are an ideal medium for bacterial growth."
Renderers in the United States pick up 100 million pounds of waste material every day -- a witch's brew of feet, heads, stomachs, intestines, hooves, spinal cords, tails, grease, feathers and bones. Half of every butchered cow and a third of every pig is not consumed by humans. An estimated six million to seven million dogs and cats are killed in animal shelters each year, said Jeff Frace, a spokesman for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in New York City.
For example, the city of Los Angeles sends 200 tons of euthanized cats and dogs to West Coast Rendering, in Los Angeles, every month, according to Chuck Ellis, a spokesman for the city's Sanitation Department. Pet food companies try not to buy meat and bone meal from renderers who grind up cats and dogs, said Doug Anderson, president of Darling International Inc., a large rendering company in Dallas. "We do not accept companion animals," he said. "But there are still a number of small plants that will render anything."
At least 250 rendering plants operate in the United States, said Bruce Blanton, executive director of the 130-member National Renderers Association in Alexandria, Va. While there are still a few small operations on the outskirts of some cities, he said, modern rendering plants are large and centralized, and the industry's revenues amount to $2.4 billion a year.
After trucks deliver the wastes to the plants, the material is minced and fed into a vessel where it is steam-cooked to 250 degrees or more, and then the stew is cooked for 20 to 90 minutes, Blanton said. In the resulting mash, heavier material drops to the bottom and the lighter stuff floats to the top. Fat is siphoned off the top, filtered and sent through centrifuges to further refine it, Blanton said. Chemical manufacturers turn much of it into fatty acids for lubricants, lipstick, cement, polish, inks and waxes. Other fractions, including gelatinous layers, tallow and grease, go into thousands of products, including soaps, candles, pharmaceuticals, homeopathic medicines and gummy candies.
The heavier protein material on the bottom goes through a separate process, Blanton said. It is dried, squeezed to remove more fat and dried again. The resulting powder is the major ingredient in pet and animal feed. It is a cannibalistic practice that has proved highly profitable.Edited by author Sat Mar 31, '07 10:36pm PST
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