The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently reported a 71 percent decline in U.S. sales of antimicrobial drugs for use in chicken production over the last seven years. As farmers explore alternative means of supporting chicken health and growth, Phytoflock is pioneering a poultry feed additive derived from upcycled grape pomace. The company hopes their product can replace antibiotics while helping to reduce local food waste.
Made of leftover grape skin, seeds, and stems, pomace is rich in antioxidants, nutrients, and bioactive compounds. When added to their feed, pomace promotes chicken growth and immune health while reducing susceptibility to infections and common pathogens, Elad Tako, Principal Investigator of The Tako Research Group, where Phytoflock’s research is conducted, tells Food Tank.
The benefits from grape pomace, Tako explains, closely mirror those that antibiotics have been administered to accomplish for decades. Researchers in the 1940s demonstrated that antibiotics could promote poultry growth and efficient conversion of feed to weight gain, according to an article published in Public Health Reports, and within five years the use of antibiotics to promote animal growth was “common.” By the 1970s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finds, the practice was “widely used.”
Antibiotics have historically been used in poultry production to treat, control, and prevent infectious diseases like Salmonella, E. coli, and Clostridium—diseases that pose major concerns for poultry farmers, according to a USDA report.
Antibiotics increase chicken life expectancy and size and contribute to food safety, an article in the Journal of Microorganisms finds. But their overuse creates substantial risk to both animal and human health, Albert Charles, the Founder of Phytoflock, tells Food Tank.
Heavy use of antibiotics has resulted in the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), causing a public health concern that UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed describes as “one of the greatest threats we face as a global community.”
AMR occurs when microorganisms like bacteria develop increasing drug resistance, which in turn reduces drug efficacy. According to the USDA, the more antimicrobials administered, the stronger the resistance grows. And FDA research indicates that antimicrobial resistance that develops in chickens can be transferred to people, disseminating AMR down the food chain.
In 2019, 4.95 million deaths were associated with bacterial antibiotic resistance, with 1.27 million deaths directly attributable to bacterial AMR, the World Health Organization reports, and, in response, countries around the world are increasing restrictions on the use of antibiotics in farmed animals.
While the U.S. is behind, it’s very clearly moving in the same direction, Tako tells Food Tank. Antibiotics are already prohibited in the U.S. organic industry and the FDA is progressively tightening antibiotic restrictions in the non-organic industry to combat AMR.
Leveraging pomace’s nutritional benefits, Phytoflock is proposing an alternative method of achieving the immune and growth benefits gleaned from antibiotic use, while avoiding the associated toll on animal and human health. By using an upcycled product as their primary feed additive ingredient, Phytoflock is also helping reduce food waste and its environmental impact.
The Finger Lakes region, where Phytoflock is based, is the second largest Concord grape producing region in the world, which means it is also a large producer of pomace. According to Tako, New York State alone generates around 13,600 kilograms of pomace annually, most of which is discarded.
Diverting pomace from landfills also helps reduce the byproduct’s environmental impact, explains Tako. In the presence of oxidants, light, and heat, pomace dumped into landfills ferments almost immediately, according to an article published in the Animal Nutrition journal. This can spoil nearby soils, Tako says, and pollute surface and groundwater.
Charles says that Phytoflock is currently working on scaling up, conducting trials to evaluate how the use of grape pomace as a feed additive affects increasingly larger groups of chickens. Market adoption will require trust and demonstrated success, he explains.
Another priority is keeping costs down. Charles highlights the importance of being conscious of the numerous costs associated with growing a bird, and how that affects lower-budget consumers down the line.
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Photo courtesy of Meizhi Lang, Unsplash
