Cafeteria Scraps

[rmonge00]

I work at a school and was thinking about buying some young pigs and then fattening them up on scraps from the school cafeteria - is this a reasonable plan? Would I need to supplement their diet with something else?

Ryan

 

[goodhors]

You might want to check about school laws. Oddly enough, in Michigan, the school could NOT allow scraps to be fed to animals. They had to be disposed of with a garbage service to avoid some details written in about "misuse of Government Food". Surplus was provided for CHILDREN, so it was not allowed to be used for anything else.

Wouldn't want you getting in trouble. Seems like this was even Federal supplies, not State Gov't., so a very long arm of the law.

I would certainly think the waste seen in schools by the kids SHOULD be able to be usefully disposed of, especially by animals that will later be eaten. But maybe too many chances for that to be abused, not good enough supervision to allow ANY exceptions.

 

[rmonge00]

I know - I am worried there may be some sort of stupid legal hangup, but hopefully I can find a cool lunchlady who will just look past that... If not, maybe I will try local restaurants - they would probably love to cut down on there waste disposal bills!!

Ryan

 

[jhm47]

It is a federal law that any scraps/garbage fed to hogs must be cooked. Trichinosis is passed to hogs in uncooked garbage, and you definitely don't want to contract that.

 

[rmonge00]

OK - how big of a risk is this disease and what do you think the most economical way of cooking a whole mess of scraps would be? Also is Trichinosis harmful to humans or just to the pigs?

Ryan

 

[aggieterpkatie]

It is a federal law that any scraps/garbage fed to hogs must be cooked. Trichinosis is passed to hogs in uncooked garbage, and you definitely don't want to contract that.

If you were raising a pig or two for your family, would you feed them table scraps from your kitchen? I can understand the worry of feeding pigs scraps from cafeterias, but when you're using scraps from your own house and only feeding a few hogs, do you really think it's an issue?

 

[PattySh]

We have pigs and have access to a large commercial kitchen. We never feed anything from that kitchen that has been on a plate ever, (that goes in their compost bins)only unplated food and vegie/fruit scraps. In the winter we add water or milk and cook a large stainless steel kettle for the pigs mixing that with their grain. If we are cooking for them I will add leftovers from family plates if no one is sick. In the summer I will give them fresh vegies and fruit raw uncooked as it is collected daily, bagged immediately and is very fresh. Any unplated entrees tho get cooked no matter what. Our pork is for family use but we feel safe with this feeding method. Extra Milk from our goats tho is fed raw mixed with their feed. I also feed raw fruit and vegies to the goats and chickens.

 

[goodhors]

Thanks for the answer jhm47. Put that way, it does make sense. No one wants to eat a pig that was eating food exposed to humans who might be sick. Cooking scraps correctly, should remove most problems.

 

[jhm47]

Actually, the trichinosis issue has pretty much died off in the past few decades, but it still does pop up from time to time. The parasite does not come from exposure to humans and their saliva, etc, but from uncooked/undercooked meat. It is a parasite that lives in the muscle tissue and passes from the meat into the human/pig body, where it multiplies quickly and infests the muscle tissue again. It causes extreme muscular pain. It still infests bears, and some hogs from time to time. However, since the cooking law was passed, it became very rare. I do think that it still exists in bears and feral hogs, and probably in predators that eat infested meat. From what I have been told by the "oldtimers", it is NOT something that you would want to get. Better to be safe than sorry.

 

[dottysfarm]

In my "Encyclopedia of Country Living" book by Carla Emery she talks about a farmer who shares his information for her book. This man would cook veggies for his pigs when the weather was cold. He used to cook them in the house on the cookstove. At some point he bought a huge kettle that he had outdoors and would put the veggies in the kettle, light a fire beneath it and cook the veggies. He would then let them cool a bit and give them to his pigs.