Aust food recycler seeking $3m capital raise

Australian startup Food Recycle Ltd is seeking a $3m capital raise via crowdfunding platform Swarmer to commercialise technology it has developed that turns commercial food waste into animal feed.

After successful trials with layer hens, prawns, barramundi and aquaponics, Food Recycle is looking to scale up its technology in Australia and New Zealand.

“The funds raised will be put towards facility mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and systems design, to allow for the first commercial-scale production facility to be built under the Food Recycle patented technology and knowhow agreement,” said Food Recycle CEO Norm Boyle.

“The funds will also help with cash flow requirements as we look to appoint a technology and know-how licensee for Australia and New Zealand, which will construct multiple production facilities, with Food Recycle receiving royalty payments on the sale of feed by the licensee.

“The licensee will be required to construct a minimum of 25 production facilities over a 10-year period, and we would expect 12 of these in the first five years.”

With 30% of all human food wasted globally, according to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW), Boyle said Food Recycle’s patented production process delivers on sustainability, circular economy and food security outcomes.

“There are other processes out there, but they typically only deliver partial benefits because they use food waste to create a secondary process. Food Recycle takes the next step and uses food to produce food,” Boyle said.

The patented process

Food Recycle said it has developed a patented process to efficiently process food waste from a variety of sources such as restaurants, abattoirs, farms and processors. Each food waste stream is processed individually, analysed and stored separately as ingredients. “We then measure the nutritional and amino acid profile of each ingredient and then mix them together to make complete feeds,” Boyle said.

Two tonnes of food waste can be converted into one tonne of complete feed suitable for poultry, pigs and aquaculture. As well as preventing the generation of methane, Food Recycle’s processing of food waste also eliminates every known biosecurity risk at no additional cost, the company claimed.

Food Recycle’s process has undergone a series of trials conducted by CSIRO, Western Sydney University (WSU) and the University of New England (UNE). Details and results of these trials can be viewed here.

“The trials show that the technology works. Food waste is taken out of landfill, put back into the food chain, with Food Recycle’s animal feed producing larger, healthier hens and eggs, and fish, for example,” Boyle said.

“We wanted to get the science exactly right before scaling up, and we’ve got the data to showcase the technology’s success using an evidence-based approach.”

The Swarmer crowdfunding campaign — which enters a three-week expressions of interest (EOI) phase on 8 August, followed by a three-week investment phase — allows individual investments starting from $100, with investors given shares in the company.

Image caption: Food Recycle CEO Norm Boyle co-founded the company with his son Nathan Boyle to tackle the global problem of food waste. Food Recycle has patented and patent pending technology to convert any commercial food waste into high-performance animal feeds for industries including poultry, pigs and aquaculture. Image courtesy of Food Recycle.