After a lifetime of eating the marrow of certain bones, a Finnish startup SuperGround has come to the conclusion that it is time we do the same with those of the chicken, the most produced farm animal on the face of the Earth and whose thousands of millions of tons of bones roam freely on tables and garbage.

It is not a trivial figure, since it is estimated that more than 66,000 million chickens are slaughtered annually worldwide (we are talking about 35% of the total meat consumed in the world) and their bones, more or less large, end up being wasted above all in its industrial uses

At home the film changes, since it is more or less everyday to use them in a broth, but their use ends there. It is from that starting point where Tuomas Koskinen, co-founder of SuperGround, explained to the American portal Wired and echoed by our colleagues from Xataka that “the bone becomes virtually indistinguishable”.

To do this, they intend to subject the chicken bones, mixed with a small part of vegetable protein, to a heat treatment that amalgamates both compounds and then proceed to extrude it. The result, a kind of paste between meat, vegetable and bone that could be added to the classic minced chicken meat.

The elaboration process is essentially very similar to what is already done with mechanically separated meat and also for the great recipe for using chicken, such as nuggets, a product that arose from the famine and is now a best seller .

In the form of nuggets , meatballs or, as they have tested at the last IFFA (the most important meat fair in the world, held annually in Frankfurt) in the form of kebabs, the bones of thousands of chickens will pass away.

Not all, they warn, as they comment to the aforementioned source that only between 5% and 30% of this ‘bone meat’ could be added to the usual mixtures of minced chicken meat. Thus, its creator emphasizes the validity that chicken bones have, for example, to be a key ingredient in broths and also for people who enjoy eating marrow.

This mention, taken with reservations, because at least in Spain the consumption of chicken marrow is not in style, although it is true that in beef marrow it is common and has even colonized haute cuisine with steak tartare served on the bone. of cow

Also marked by a European guideline that allows animal feed with chicken waste —including the opportunity to serve as feed for pigs—, the door is opened for humans to also end up putting chicken bones on the menu.

Meanwhile, the agri-food industry is spurring a change that, against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, would also be a relief for animal feed , the price of which has not stopped increasing due to the rise in the cost of cereals.