USA – American multinational food corporation Tyson Foods is investing US$208 million in a new rendering facility in Hanceville, Alabama to serve poultry processors in the United States.
According to a report from the meat processing giant, the new facility is adjacent to the company’s former rendering plant, which was destroyed in a fire last year.
The rendering process helps reduce waste by breaking down and cooking the parts of the chicken people do not eat into usable proteins and fats.
Tyson says this process helps maximise food production while decreasing the use of energy and inputs.
Tyson bought the original Hanceville rendering factory in August 2018 from American Protein Ingredients, Inc.
Prior to the fire, the facility produced more than 750,000 tons of pet food and feed grade poultry protein meal, among other products.
“This investment signals our continued support to the agricultural industry and jobs in Alabama, and we look forward to a renewed relationship with the Hanceville community and its leaders,” said Jason Spann, complex manager at the Hanceville Tyson Foods facility.
The old facility provided hundreds of jobs locally, for years, said Cullman County commission chair, Jeff Clemons. “The new plant will continue that legacy,” he added.
Tyson Foods plans to retain the 124 employees who worked at the previous Hanceville plant until construction is completed in mid-2023.
Meanwhile, Tyson Foods has committed more than US$1 million to support its team members who are immigrants to the United States.
The Tyson Immigration Partnership helps to provide team members from more than 160 countries with legal services and acquire U.S. citizenship.
The program, which has been in seven Tyson facilities over the past year, will now serve 40 company locations in 14 states.
In August last year, Tyson agreed to a US$3m settlement with the state of Alabama over the 2019 wastewater spill in the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River.
The River Valley Ingredients plant had accidentally discharged thousands of gallons of partially treated wastewater into the waters of the state in May and June of 2019, to the ire of local residents.
Tyson said the spill occurred because some temporary piping that was installed by an outside contractor failed, sending partially treated wastewater into the river.
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