I just did a quick search and found this (Although it pertains to the the northeast part of the US)....
Here is the link: http://www.farmingmagazine.com/article-4178.aspx
Farming Magazine - October, 2009 COLUMNS Small Livestock: Feeding Food Waste to Swine By Diane Wells
Back in the spring of this year, a farmer a couple of towns over from me made headlines. Teachers and parents at the school he had been collecting cafeteria scraps from for 30 years had decided to start a composting program, and his source of free pig food was about to dry up. A battle over the scraps ensued, but before an agreement could be reached, Vermont’s assistant state veterinarian, Dr. Michael Wood, weighed in and informed everyone that Vermont statute prohibits the school from supplying food waste to farmers who intend to dump it in their pig’s trough. Because the composting program would not start until the fall, the food scraps were tossed in the dumpster for the remainder of the school year. Meanwhile, the farmer slaughtered his pig.
You can imagine the stir this created.
What the newspaper articles failed to explain was why this practice of feeding cafeteria garbage to swine is no longer allowed in Vermont. Kitchen and plate waste often includes meat scraps, and the concern is those scraps, or any foods that come in contact with those scraps, can be disease carriers. This concern is not unfounded. In 2001, the United Kingdom experienced one of the worst outbreaks of foot and mouth disease in its history. The origin of the outbreak? A pig finishing unit on a farm licensed to feed processed waste food. It is not known whether the pigs consumed unprocessed or incorrectly processed food waste, or if the food waste was processed according to regulation and the virus managed to survive. Regardless, the virus made its way onto the farm and into the pigs via the waste. Between loads of live, contaminated pigs leaving the farm for slaughter and the virus’ airborne movement to an adjacent sheep farm, the disease spread. Before all was said and done, more than 2,000 cases of FMD were confirmed and over 6 million animals were culled to stop its spread.
African swine fever, brucellosis, foot and mouth disease, hog cholera, pseudorabies and swine vesicular disease can be transmitted to pigs via infected food waste. A number of pathogens can also be transmitted (campylobacter, salmonella, toxoplasma and trichinella) along with intestinal parasites such as roundworms and tapeworms. In recognition of this, the 1980 Swine Health Protection Act was written, which stipulates garbage must undergo a heat-treatment before it is fed to swine, and the person operating the garbage treatment facility must be licensed. Garbage is defined as “all waste material derived in whole or in part from the meat of any animal (including fish and poultry) or other animal material, and other refuse of any character whatsoever that has been associated with any such material, resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking or consumption of food.” The term “garbage” does not include ordinary household waste fed to swine on the premises where the household is located. Those types of situations are exempt from the heat-treatment requirement.
The heat-treatment involves heating the waste to boiling (212 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher and holding it for at least 30 minutes. The boiling waste must also be agitated for those 30 minutes to ensure all food materials do indeed reach disease-killing temperatures. Industrially processed products, such as pet foods or foods canned for human consumption that contain meat or refuse that has had contact with meat, must also be treated. But, if a product was processed to prevent spoilage or add shelf stability (i.e., cooked to a temperature of 167 degrees Fahrenheit for at least 30 minutes or undergone an equivalent level of processing that inactivates disease organisms), it does not have to undergo further treatment. And, certain other foods are exempt from the treatment and license requirements: bakery waste, candy waste, pasteurized dairy products, rendered products, fruit and vegetables, eggs, fish from the Atlantic Ocean within 200 miles of the continental United States or Canada, and fish from inland waters of the United States or Canada that do not flow into the Pacific Ocean. In theory, these products do not contain contaminated meat, nor have they had contact with contaminated meat.
These are the federal regulations, but a number of states have imposed more stringent laws that take precedent. Many agricultural leaders, researchers and veterinarians argue feeding garbage, even heat-treated garbage, to swine is risky and a threat to this country’s livestock industry. The 2001 FMD outbreak in the UK supports this argument. In all, there are 21 states that have made it illegal to feed garbage, treated or untreated, to swine or supply it to others with the intention of feeding it to swine. In the Northeast, New York has held this position since 1975; Vermont since 2002. Again, these rules apply to commercial farms. They do not apply to swine on your farm that you are feeding your household waste to and that you and others in your household intend to consume. Other Northeastern states (Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania) permit the feeding of garbage to swine as long as it has been heat-treated and the person feeding the treated garbage is licensed.
In 2007, there were 2,722 licensed garbage feeders in the United States. It’s estimated they fed 293,330 tons of food waste to swine that ended up representing .12 percent of that year’s total swine market. It will be interesting to watch these numbers over the coming years, as the human population increases, more food composting programs take hold and energy costs continue to rise. One thing is for certain, we need to make sure this waste goes somewhere other than the dumpster. In this country, about one-fourth of the food produced for human consumption is thrown away and it’s costing us about $1 billion a year to dispose of it.
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