Have you ever wondered what happens to all the human food products that are not sold in the stores?
The endless gallons of milk and other dairy products that do not sell within days of their "Sell By" date are dumped by the tons into sewage systems and landfills, unless the dairy processor is involved with Value Added Feeds. Value Added Feeds is headquartered at Melissa, Texas but has a milk processing plant in Dallas, Texas located on a Dean Foods site. Melissa Feeders has been working with a prior division of Dean Foods since 1989 on reclaiming their out of date milk for baby calf feed.
Value Added Feeds was formed in 1999 as "Alternative Feeds" to actively research and develop sources of "alternative" feeds that can be utilized in feeder cattle rations and in calf ranches to replace more traditional commodities. Value Added Feeds is responsible for the utilization of a "Food to Feed" approach as it converts products from the food industry into feed for the various cattle operations.
Value Added Feeds has focused on creating a win-win situation whereby the food plant reduces its cost of disposal, the cattle receive a nutritious source of feed at an attractive price, and Value Added Feeds makes a profit. Some of the commodities Value Added Feeds acquires are byproducts of pinto bean processing by the the food industry, cotton burrs from the cotton ginning industry, and pasteurized twice, reclaimed milk from the dairy food industry. All of the "waste" products from these industries would contribute significantly to landfill, waste water treatment costs, and environmental management costs for their respective industries if not utilized by Value Added Feeds. We don't stop at recycling the edible portions of the food industry, all the packaging these products arrive in are also recycled, including card board and plastics.