Meat and Bone Meal (MBM) is a proteinaceous material produced from rendering the fat of animal tissue.  MBM generally consists of the bones and offal of slaughtered livestock (approximately 50% protein) and is not typically consumed by humans.  While MBM has traditionally been used for animal feed, new applications of MBM include utilizing its protein as a renewable biocompatible flocculating agent that could potentially replace environmentally harmful synthetic flocculants. Additionally, the functionality of MBM protein makes it an attractive flocculant option, but it is challenging to solubilize. Previous studies have been able to solubilize up to 55% of poultry MBM protein, but only ~5-35% of other species.  This study analyzed mixed species MBM protein solubilizing strategies that are often used to extract proteins from animal products (e.g. meat and hair) such as oxidation, reduction, hydrolysis, denaturation, and combinations of each. Our preliminary tests found that reducing agents (e.g. sulfide) were the best strategy for solubilizing MBM protein.  Oxidizing agents such as sodium percarbonate were not as successful at solubilizing MBM protein (&lt;5%). The use of high pressure and temperature treatment strategies to solubilize MBM protein were also explored.<br/>

Increasing the solubility of meat and bone meal protein for potential flocculant applications

254th National Meeting (2017)

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