This project supported a large multinational company in the development of a new site designed to produce high-quality animal feed from bakery and supermarket returns.
The facility was created to recover valuable food material that would otherwise have been treated as waste, converting it into a consistent finished product for onward use. With two dedicated processing lines and high-capacity depackaging equipment, the site was built to handle large volumes of returned food products efficiently while maintaining strong control over product quality.
Project at a glance
– Industry: Food waste recycling for animal feed
– Location: England
– Application: Depackaging out of spec and out of date food to produce high specification animal feed
– Solution: 2x Dominator 3500 depackaging lines in stainless steel
– Processing Capacity: Up to 60m3/hr
The challenge
The customer needed a robust system to process mixed bakery and supermarket returns before they could be converted into animal feed.
Because the incoming material could include a range of packaged products, it was important to remove unsuitable items before depackaging.
In particular, picking lines were required ahead of the depack machines so that any meat products could be identified and taken out of the process. This was essential to protect the quality and suitability of the recovered feedstock, reduce contamination risk, and ensure the finished product met the required standards. The site also needed enough capacity to manage large volumes of material without creating bottlenecks between manual picking, depackaging, and finished product storage.
The solution
A two-line processing system was installed to support the new animal feed production site. Each line was designed with a picking stage before depackaging, allowing operators to remove any meat or other unsuitable materials before the product entered the depack machines. Both lines were fitted with a Dominator 3500 machine, giving the site a combined processing capacity of up to 60 m³/hr. The system was designed to separate the recoverable food content from packaging while maintaining a consistent flow of material through the plant.
After processing, the recovered product falls into two finished product bays, providing clear separation and storage capacity for the output before onward handling. All packaging recovered from the food waste was directed to two compactors, helping keep the recovered product stream separate from the packaging waste stream.
The outcome
The completed site gave the customer a high-capacity solution for turning bakery and supermarket returns into a valuable animal feed ingredient. By including picking lines before the depackaging stage, the process allowed unsuitable meat products to be removed early, helping protect the quality of the recovered material and supporting the customer’s product requirements.
With two Dominator 3500 machines operating across two lines, the site can process up to 60 m³/hr, giving the customer the throughput needed for large-scale production.
The two finished product bays provide practical storage for the recovered output, while the two compactors manage the separated packaging recovered from the food waste.
Overall, the project delivered a reliable and scalable processing system that supports food recovery, reduces waste, and enables the production of high-quality animal feed from returned bakery and supermarket products.
