When having discussions about Food Processing Residuals (FPR), it’s best to know exactly what they are and why supplying them to farmers for land application is a best practice by more than 900 Pennsylvania processing facilities.

What are FPRs?

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, “An FPR is an incidental organic material generated by processing agricultural commodities for human or animal consumption. The term includes food residuals, food coproducts, food processing wastes, food processing sludges, or any other incidental material whose characteristics are derived from processing agricultural products. Examples include: process wastewater from cleaning slaughter areas, rinsing carcasses, or conveying food materials; process wastewater treatment sludges; blood; bone; fruit and vegetable peels; seeds; shells; pits; cheese whey; off-specification food products; hides; hair; and feathers.”

In short, incidental residual materials are necessary consequences of processing agricultural commodities.

Why are FPRs applied to fields?

A major goal of soil conservation is soil health, which is achieved by increasing the organic matter in the soil. That is exactly what FPRs do. FPR, much like green manure (growing plants, cover crop or crop stubble tilled into the soil) and livestock manure, boosts the organic matter that, in turn, feeds the microbial population in the soil. More microbes create more nutrient cycling and healthier soils. The organic matter in the FPR also helps sustain moisture in the soils, preventing run-off of beneficial nutrients and keeping them onsite where they can have the most benefit.

Farmers who land apply the FPR supplied by Nicholas Meat are required to have and adhere to a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP). Under an NMP, farmers are required to maintain detailed records, including application maps identifying setback areas, application quantities and the crops that are grown onsite. Periodically, soil samples are tested to ensure adequate assimilation of the FPR into the soil and verify that pollutants are not introduced to the soil and crops.

After learning of the DEP’s recent compliance order, principal author of the DEP’s Pennsylvania Food Processing Residual Management Manual, a guidance document and not a regulation, Robin C. Brandt, PhD, P.E., wrote to the DEP in support of Nicholas Meat’s continued land application of FPR – year-round and including the application of FPR on fields that are snow-covered, stating: “The intent of the FPR guidance is to promote environmentally responsible beneficial use of FPRs. From what I have seen, the Bazooka-Farmstar toolbar equipment used by Nicholas Meat LLC satisfies the intent of the FPR manual.”

“It never occurred to me that such equipment could be used to inject manure into the soil under snow until I saw a photo of a field recently treated at a rate of 6,200 gallons per acre of Nicholas FPR using the Bazooka-Farmstar toolbar,” explained Brandt. “This remarkable image shows several acres of open field with no indication of FPR against the stark white snow cover. If this is typical of the Bazooka-Farmstar toolbar performance with the Nicholas FPR, I see no reason to be concerned with FPR contaminated runoff from this area when combined with other best management winter precautions involving modest application rates on flat well-drained fields, isolated from waterways.”

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