Candy, cookies and other food-manufacturing byproducts can end up in cattle feed. Here's why it happens, and why we think what cattle eat is worth knowing.
Imagine driving down a country road and finding hundreds of thousands of red Skittles scattered across the highway.
That's exactly what happened in Wisconsin in 2017.
But the strangest part of the story wasn't how the Skittles ended up on the road.
It was where they were reportedly headed.
To cattle.
The story made national headlines, but it also exposed a part of cattle feeding that many consumers probably didn't know existed.
Candy isn't the only example.
Cookies. Cakes. Doughnuts. Crackers. Cereal. Chips. Bakery waste.
Human food products that don't make it to our grocery shelves can sometimes find another destination:
Cattle feed.
Let's take a look.
WHEN SKITTLES MADE NATIONAL NEWS
In January 2017, hundreds of thousands of red Skittles spilled from a truck onto a rural highway in Dodge County, Wisconsin.
The local sheriff's office reported that the candy had been destined for use as cattle feed.
There was an interesting wrinkle to that particular story.
Mars, the manufacturer of Skittles, later said the specific batch involved in the spill was supposed to have been destroyed and had reached the cattle-feed chain because of a miscommunication involving a subcontractor.
But Mars also confirmed something much more important to the larger story:
Using unused candy and food-manufacturing byproducts in animal feed is a real practice.
The company told the Associated Press that it sells unused candies and ingredients to processors that combine them with other materials to make animal feed.
And this isn't something documented only in a bizarre news story.
Universities that specialize in cattle nutrition actually publish feeding recommendations for it.
YES, CANDY CAN BE CATTLE FEED
Mississippi State University Extension maintains an extensive guide to feedstuffs used for beef cattle.
It has an entire section titled:
“Candy.”
According to the university, candy used for cattle feed may include products that didn't meet standards for human sale or products removed from retail shelves after passing expiration dates.
The products can range from hard candy and chocolate to gum.
Why feed it to cattle?
Energy.
Candy contains large amounts of sugar, and cattle can utilize that sugar as an energy source. But Mississippi State also points out that candy generally doesn't provide enough protein to meet cattle's nutritional needs by itself and recommends limiting how much is incorporated into the total diet.
Oklahoma State University also lists candy byproduct, chocolate byproduct, cookie byproduct and bakery byproduct among feedstuffs that may be used for beef cattle.
And University of Nebraska research discussing byproduct feeds gets even more direct, noting that cattle have been fed everything from food-processing byproducts to chocolate candy and cookies.
So yes.
This really happens.
IT ISN'T JUST CANDY
This is where the story gets more interesting.
Candy is simply the version that gets people's attention.
Food and agricultural industries generate enormous quantities of byproducts, and cattle have an unusual ability to convert many materials humans don't eat into usable nutrients.
Mississippi State describes bakery meal as combinations of products such as:
Bread. Crackers. Chips. Cookies. Cakes. Doughnuts.
They're typically dried, ground together and incorporated into cattle diets as an energy feed.
There are legitimate arguments in favor of doing this.
Food that might otherwise be discarded can be put to productive use rather than entering a landfill. Byproduct feeds can also provide cattle with useful energy and can reduce feed costs for producers.
Oklahoma State cattle specialists discussing the Skittles story described repurposing food waste as beneficial to manufacturers, producers and the environment because usable food energy isn't simply thrown away.
So we're not going to pretend there's no logic behind it.
There is.
But there's another side of this conversation.
HERE'S WHAT WE'RE QUESTIONING
If you bought a steak at the grocery store, would you ever think to ask whether the animal had been fed candy?
Probably not.
Would you wonder about cookies?
Bakery waste?
Cereal manufacturing byproducts?
Probably not that either.
And that's really what interests us about this story.
It's not that these ingredients are secretly illegal. They're not.
It's that most consumers have very little idea what happened during the life of the animal that eventually became their food.
A package might tell you the cut.
The weight.
The USDA grade.
Maybe a handful of marketing claims.
But there's an entire story behind that label that you usually never get to see.
And we think what an animal eats is part of that story.
WHAT OUR CATTLE EAT ISN'T A MYSTERY
At Farm to Table Life, we don't need to wonder.
Our cattle spend their lives on more than 3,000 acres of open Utah pasture.
They're grass-fed and raised without added hormones or antibiotics under the care of fourth- and fifth-generation ranching families.
They graze.
They drink natural spring water.
And their feeding program isn't built around discarded candy, cookies or bakery waste.
It's pretty simple.
And we like it that way.
THE BEEF REPORT BOTTOM LINE
Yes, candy really can become cattle feed.
So can cookies, cakes, doughnuts, cereal and other food-industry byproducts.
There's a practical reason producers use them. Cattle can turn materials that might otherwise be discarded into energy, and using byproducts can reduce waste and feed costs.
We're not telling you that makes beef produced using those feeds unsafe.
That's not what the evidence says.
We're asking a different question.
Do you want to know what the animal you're eating was fed?
We do.
Because when we say we want to know where our food comes from, we don't think that story begins at the butcher counter.
It begins long before that.
On the land.
With the animal.
With what it ate.
With how it lived.
What happens before the first bite matters.
That's why we believe knowing your beef means knowing its whole story.