There’s a truck I’ve seen several times on I-95, pulling a stainless steel tanker trailer of the type used to carry chemicals, complete with all the exterior plumbing. There’s no company name I can see or I’d know the answer to this. The only marking is a sign on the tank reading “Technical Animal Fat - Not For Human Food Use.”
Well, that’s useful to know, I suppose, but it still leaves me stymied. What industry other than food would use animal fat by the truckload? Any good guesses, even?
Places that process animal caracasses in bulk for recycling into many other products are called rendering plants and there are hundreds across the U.S.
"A 1991 USDA report states that approximately 7.9 billion pounds of meat, bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal was produced by rendering plants in 1983. Of that amount:
12 percent was used in dairy and beef cattle feed
34 percent was used in pet food
34 percent was used in poultry feed
20 percent was used in pig food"
Other products that depend on rendering plants include adhesives (yes, some glue and more hi-tech adhesives).