The By-Products of Mass Food Production

Roy, Pat, Tom & Jason

Feeding the masses of modern society results in a tremendous amount of by-products, ranging from spent cooking oil from fryers to out-of-date meat, poultry & dairy products to inedible animal parts from the production process. What happens to these bi-products and what is their end use?  


The ZWZ Team embarks on the journey to understand the integrity, or lack thereof, in the current practices of handling those products the masses prefer not to acknowledge.  Although at times not pretty, integrity requires current industry practices relating to these bi-products are addressed.

Roy Edwards with the Sustainability Division of the GA Department of Natural Resources and Holly Elmore, Zero Waste Zones Director, visited the Griffin Industries facility in Ellenwood for an educational tour of their rendering plant and grease processing facility.

Jason, Holly & Pat

Jason Cain, GM, and Pat Collins, Assistant GM, were patient and gave an excellent introduction to why companies like Griffin Industries are a necessity of the food industry. It was impressive to walk through a plant that renders inedible processed animal body organs and parts with no nauseating stench. The cleaning discipline inherent in Griffin's operations was amazing.


An intriguing visual was the tanker truck used to transport animal blood to the rendering plant - this was not a tour for those with a queasy stomach!


At another juncture the destination of the rendered meat and inedible animal parts will be addressed.


Currently. the spent grease collected by Griffin from metro Atlanta foodservice operators is cleaned at the Ellenwood facility and shipped to one of their plants for biofuel production. The efficiency of their operation was inherent in the systems explained by Jason & Pat.


Thank you to Tom Gabriel, Griffin Industries Sales, for coordinating the tour and your perseverance to educate on the integrity of Griffin Industries operating practices.


Stay tuned as the story unfolds ...