Enhancing poultry meat quality through farm-to-fork traceability: A novel use of post-distillation wine lees

The global wine industry, a significant contributor to agricultural economies and cultural heritage, inherently generates substantial quantities of by-products, among which post-distillation wine lees, commonly known as vinasse, represent a major environmental challenge. These residues, characterized by their high organic load, acidity, and diverse chemical composition, demand sustainable and economically viable management strategies to mitigate their environmental impact and unlock their intrinsic value. It is precisely due to this rich presence of organic compounds, including residual sugars, proteins, fibers, and minerals, that vinasse presents a promising potential for valorisation. This intrinsic nutritional value makes it particularly interesting to explore its application as a novel ingredient in animal feed, specifically for broilers, offering a sustainable pathway to enhance feed formulations while addressing an environmental concern. The study proposes the innovative use of Feed from Food technology to dehydrate and stabilize this material, aiming to transform it into a safe and effective feed ingredient, evaluating the effects of vinasse inclusion in broiler diets on various performance parameters, meat yield, and meat quality. To achieve this, the methodology was split into three phases. First, dehydration and stabilization of the material using feed from food technology. The second part consisted in the characterization of the material, covering the analysis of its nutritional composition (including proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals, amino acid and fatty acid profile), as well as the evaluation of protein and polysaccharide extraction under different conditions. Regarding the broiler feeding trial, the inclusion of 3% vinasse in the diet resulted in zootechnical performance, carcass yield, and meat quality traits comparable to the control group. However, the inclusion of 6% vinasse led to a significant reduction in weight gain and feed conversion efficiency, although it did not negatively impact carcass yield or meat quality parameters. These findings suggest that low-level inclusion of vinasse can be considered nutritionally safe, while higher inclusion levels may impair growth performance without compromising final product quality. The inclusion of vinasse in 3% could be a cost feed reduction in broiler production and a sustainable option for the distillers and chicken meat production.