Collaboration hatches Singapore’s first ‘zero waste’ poultry processing facility

NTU Singapore and poultry producer Leong Hup Singapore have jointly developed processes to repurpose waste materials from poultry farming.

One of the key innovations include using the keratin from chicken feathers as a material for meat packaging, serving as a replacement for synthetic polymers, whose production, use, and disposal causes greenhouse gas emissions, as they are made from petroleum oil.

The collaboration also resulted in another innovation – the successful conversion of biological waste from Leong Hup Singapore’s poultry farming, such as blood and bones, into an alternative and cost-effective culture medium that could be used to cultivate cell-based meat.

These latest innovations were a result from a research collaboration agreement signed by NTU Singapore and Leong Hup Singapore in March.