Pineapple peel becomes a feed option only with a full quality profile

A study published on 12 November investigated pineapple peel meal as a dietary supplement for female Sasso broilers. The 56-day trial involved 240 birds assigned to a basal antibiotic-free diet, a diet with oxytetracycline, or diets containing 1.5% or 3% peel meal. The researchers assessed growth, digestibility, intestinal morphology, caecal microbiology, carcass characteristics and meat-quality parameters.

The 1.5% inclusion produced the most consistent results during the finishing phase: it improved weight gain and feed conversion as well as indicators of digestibility, intestinal morphology and carcass traits. At 3%, improvement was concentrated in the starter phase; favourable changes were also observed in post-mortem muscle pH and cooking loss. The authors explicitly note that differences in caecal microbial counts were descriptive and require further statistical validation.

For the meat chain, the study’s value lies less in presenting pineapple peel as a universal feed ingredient than in demonstrating the required assessment framework. A by-product deserves practical use only when its effects on animal performance, gut health, carcass, meat technology and repeatability are examined together. The results also concern female Sasso birds and one defined formulation; they do not justify automatically transferring doses or effects to other genetics, husbandry systems or raw-material streams. Circular feeding becomes robust when by-product availability, safety, consistent composition and a verifiable meat-quality specification are brought together.