I’m personally a massive fan of any meal that involves chicken, from deep-fried wings to a gourmet-style Cordon Bleu – however it’s served, I love the taste. But when I discovered a London-based project turning discarded chicken feathers into edible proteins, I admit I was skeptical.
The company behind the project, Kera Protein Ltd., has a unique approach to its lab-produced protein product. It turns discarded waste from the poultry industry into fake meat through an intensive 13-step hydrolysis process.
The concept for the company started as Sorawut Kittibanthorn’s student project at London’s Central Saint Martins university in 2019. Since then, he and his business partner, Tom Washington, have delved into the issue of waste management – focusing particularly on chicken feathers. “It’s not about creating something new,” Kittibanthorn notes, “just optimizing what we already have.”
The feather-meat protein could help address at least one sustainability issue plaguing the food industry: excess waste. As much as 3 million tons of poultry feathers are wasted each year in the EU alone, usually incinerated or dumped into landfill.
Kittibanthorn spied a missed opportunity, where this discarded waste that is full of keratin – the protein that makes up hair, skin and nails – could be converted into a useful product.
Feasting on feathers
Kera’s most recent collaboration is with a London-based Thai supper club called Laam. The business, run by Nathan “Phayu” Brown and Patarita “KG” Tassanarapan, specializes in home-inspired regional cuisine that showcases the best of British produce by taking the authentic flavors of northern Thailand and reinventing them for a contemporary dining experience.
On April 4, it hosted a launch event, consisting of a six-course banquet, intended to demonstrate the versatility of the chicken feather protein product.
On the menu there was a classic Thai laab dib tartare with fish sauce, cured quail egg and crispy wanton, a raw beef salad where the meat was replaced with the Kera protein, and smoky aubergine chili relish with crispy Kera and side seasonal vegetables.
These were followed by Laos-style rice noodle soup with minced Kera tomato paste and spicy pickled mustard green and deep-fried Cloud “chicken” nuggets as a palette cleanser. To finish, there was a feather-infused coconut sorbet with salted egg sauce.
Despite my preconceptions, I was pleasantly surprised. The Kera feather-meat was undetectable, tasting exactly like the real thing. I only really noticed the consistency, which felt slightly starchier than ordinary beef.
Kittibanthorn explains that feather-based food doesn’t have a distinctive flavor. Instead, it tends to pick up the flavors it’s cooked in – which, he notes, allows one to cater towards specific tastes and textures.
Chef Brown described the concept as home-inspired aromatic Thai food, each course highlighting a different region of the country and presenting regional flavors of Thailand. This allowed Brown to showcase the rich spices used in northern Thai cuisine such as lemongrass, tamarind and chili.
The aim of the collaboration is to change cultural perceptions towards alternative and sustainable forms of protein, as well as education to challenge stereotypes about how waste is viewed and discarded.
“The stigma is a barrier,” says Brown, “but that’s humanity – we break down so many barriers all the time. So why not break a stigma that will ultimately prevent us from being sustainable?”
A solution to chicken waste?
To make the food we tried, Kera extracted feathers from discarded chicken carcasses in partnership with a local farm. Around 190 grams (6.7 ounces) of hydrolyzed protein can be produced from the feathers of one chicken, according to Kera.
One of the biggest challenges is production costs – a common issue for alternative meats, including “lab-grown” meat options. The feathers must undergo a 34-hour extraction process, which is both time consuming and financially strenuous. The company currently works in partnership with only one farm, keeping production at a modest scale.
According to the nonprofit Soil Association, rivers in the UK are “at risk of becoming dead zones depleted of wildlife” due to dumped waste from poultry factories. It notes that the River Wye – the UK’s fourth-longest river – is experiencing damaging agal blooms due to phosphate pollution from the “discarded muck” of at least 20 million chickens, and is now at the center of a lawsuit.
Kera is in the process of securing the Novel Foods EU Certification, so that its products can be legally sold at a large scale. The process can take years, though exceptions have been made for certain sustainable innovations, says Kittibanthorn.
“Kera’s business model could be considered as a sustainable waste management company,” he adds. “We hope to revolutionize the way people view chicken feathers, demonstrating their potential as a valuable resource rather than just a dirty by-product.”
What products are made from chicken feathers?
- Pillow stuffing.
- Diapers.
- Insulation.
- Upholstery padding.
- Paper.
- Plastics.
- Feather meal.
What can you make with chicken feathers?
- Dreamcatchers.
- Pillows.
- Ornaments.
- Feather Wreaths.
- Indian Feather Crafts.
- Jewelry.
- Home Decor.
What is feather meal used for in chicken food?
Feather meal results from the processing of the feathers obtained after poultry slaughtering. Feather meal is used as a source of protein for farm animals and as a fertilizer. Feathers are a byproduct of broiler, turkey and and other poultry processing operations.Can people eat chicken feathers?
Chemically, chicken feathers are composed of approximately 91% protein (keratin) which contains up to eight types of essential amino acids that we require as part of a healthy diet. It has been proven that keratin protein from feathers is safe for general consumption within our daily diet.Are chicken feathers used in pillows?Chicken Processing Industry
Goose down is used to stuff very com- fortable and expensive pillows. Though chicken feathers are used in some inex- pensive pillows, they don’t offer quite the same qualities. Chicken feathers are shorter, with more prickly quills, and are not as fluffy as goose down feathers.What is the advantage of chicken feathers?Chicken feathers have several benefits. They are low-cost and abundantly available, making them a renewable and sustainable raw material for various applications. Chicken feathers can be used in the manufacturing of nonwoven textiles, which have a wide range of applications in the textile fields chicken feather waterproof?Remember, chicken feathers are merely water-resistant. A hard rain or a long time out in wet weather can saturate the feathers beyond their ability to repel the moisture. And if that dampness is combined with prolonged chilly weather and damp ground, it can be a recipe for potential health issues.How is feather meal prepared?Steam pressure cookers with temperatures over 140 °C (284 °F) are used to “cook” and sterilize the feathers. This partially hydrolyzes the proteins, which denatures them. It is then dried, cooled and ground into a powder for use as a nitrogen source for animal feed (mostly ruminants) or as an organic soil amendment.What is the best food for chicken feathers?
Feathers are made of 80-85 percent protein, whereas eggshells are primarily calcium. When you notice your chickens losing feathers, switch to a complete feed with 20% protein, probiotics, prebiotics and key vitamins and minerals. Purina® Flock Raiser® is a great option for molting chicken feed.Is feather meal safe?Similar to how marine life bioaccumulate toxins that can be harmful to human health, a study found trace amounts of these compounds in feather meal. My personal take: if you know where you’re getting your feather meal from and trust the way the chickens were raised, the potential effects should be quite minimalCan you eat cooked chicken feathers?
The human body can’t digest feathers, but they are 90% keratin – a protein that’s found in nails and hair – and packed with nutritious amino acids.How to make chicken feather meal?
Pressurized cooking is the primary method of processing used to make feather meal. Feathers are first cooked under steam pressure (for instance for 30-40 min at 143 °C under 3 atm) and then dried (90-110°C for 5 h) (Strzetelski et al., 1999.Are chicken feathers digestible?Digestibility of feathers
It is almost impossible to degrade feathers in the digestive tract because it is largely composed of the protein (β-) keratin, which is generally indigestible, if it is not processed with physical and chemical modifications e.g., autoclaving.Can chicken feathers be turned into meat?
Zero waste artificial meat
Sorawut estimates that some 2.3 million tonnes of feathers are thrown away in Europe alone, the figure being much higher in Asia. Prototype portions of “chicken meat” and “steaks” made with feather protein have already received the first positive reviews with regard to their taste.Feathers are amazing. Here are some fun facts about feathers that make you life of your next party. Well, at least a party where everyone keeps chickens.
Feather Trivia:- Feathers are made of a fibrous protein called keratin. This is the same protein that is the key structural material in human skin.
- Feathers are 20 times stronger than wood.
- Feathers evolved from scales. In fact, chickens have both scales which can be seen on their feet and feathers that cover their bodies.
- Feathers are structured with barbules that are arranged side-by-side along the shaft of the feather. These barbules have tiny hooks that interconnect in a way that is similar to hook and loop fasteners.
- Silkie feathers lack these barbs. As a result, they don’t hook together the way other chicken feathers do. This gives Silkies their characteristic “fluffy” appearance.
Silkie feathers lack barbs so they don’t lock together like the feathers on other chickens. Photo by Benjamint444 - There’s an opening at the base of the feather that allows blood to flow into the shaft of the feather while it’s growing. Once the feather is fully grown, the blood supply is sealed off and the feather becomes hollow. A mature feather is like human hair and nails in that it is made from dead cells. That’s why you can trim a chickens flight feathers without harming the bird.
- Feathers perform many functions for chickens including:
- Insulation – to maintain body temperature and provide protection from sun and rain.
- Communication – to provide information about age, sex and specie
- Camouflage – to hide from predators
- Flight – smaller breeds such as bantams can fly as high as 25 feet to get to high roosting areas. Larger breeds have more limited range.
- Chickens molt in order to replace feathers that have become worn out, damaged or lost.
Pancake during a molt. Note the blood feathers clearly visible on her neck. - Feather color is the result of both pigments in the feather and the structure of the feather which acts to scatter light in the same way a prism scatters light to produce colored light.
- Chickens have five different types of feathers including contour feathers that cover their bodies, down feathers that provide insulation and retrices that make up a chicken’s tail feathers.
- People have long used chicken feathers to make useful items like bedding (down pillows) but current uses include more novel applications such as diapers, paper, and even biofuel!
These flower pots made by Eastern Bioplastics are made from…. yup, chicken feathers. - The practice of “tar and feathering” dates back to medieval times but was practiced by American Colonists to protest British taxation prior to the revolution. The tar used in this process is made from pine tar that has a much lower melting point than the tar most modern Americans are familiar with. The feathers used were most likely chicken feathers.
What happens to chicken feathers after slaughter?
After feathers are removed, the birds are sent to an “eviscerating” line which removes internal organs and feet, also known as “paws.” Every single part of the bird is used —for example, chicken feet are considered a delicacy in Asian countries, and feathers are rendered and used as protein in some animal feed.Is there protein in chicken feathers?Chicken feathers contain more than 85% of crude protein, 70% of amino acids, high-value elements, vitamins, and growth factorsWhat is the price of poultry feather meal?Feather Meal, Grade: Feed Grade, Packaging Size: 1.1 Jumbo Bags at Rs 40/kg in Delhi.Are feathers nutritious?
Fur and feathers act as a natural fiber that help sweep out waste in the digestive system. They also contain an important trace mineral called manganese. Manganese plays a role in producing energy, absorption of nutrients, and metabolizing proteins and carbs.Do chicken feathers have DNA?
DNA extraction material can be obtained from the body part or body of a cell-containing organism. Feather is part of the cover body that contains cell in the base. The use of feathers as a sample of DNA isolation or DNA genome sources minimizes the stress on the chicken and simplifies sampling process of many bird
