Skretting has been evaluating alternative novel ingredients, the ways that they work together and the benefits that they can provide aquaculture species for many years. The constant ambition throughout all of this R&D is to extend the flexibility of the aquaculture value chain, and this determination has been turning many innovations into commercial realities.
Tunicates in low trophic aquaculture offer high-volume production with minimal effort, absorbing nutrients from the sea without additional inputs. Efficient harvesting and processing technologies are essential to economially transform tunicates into nutritious meal. "In addition to assessing how salmon respond to tunicate-based feed, the feasibility of production is crucial", notes Inger Standal, senior researcher at SINTEF Ocean.
"At Skretting AI, we are eager to explore tunicates as a sustainable feed ingredient, anticipating valuable insights into salmon nutrition and performance," remarks Gunvor Baardsen, head of quality and ingredients. Skretting AI will develop experimental feed with tunicate meal, LetSea assess digestibility and growth, while Nord University and SINTEF Ocean analyse digestibility, fish health, welfare, and quality.
"At Skretting, we have long maintained that the application of novel ingredients is not a leap of faith; it’s an essential step in sustainably meeting the long-term food and nutrition security needs of a fastgrowing population. Equally, we believe that utilising these game-changing innovations makes sound commercial sense – it can pave the way to improved efficiency, which is good for profitability across the entire value chain."
"If the global population meets the forecast for 2050 and consumption remains the same, we will need an additional 30 million tonnes of aquaculture production. This will require at least 45 million tonnes of extra feed. The shared supply of enough feed raw materials will become a challenge. At the same time, a larger aquaculture industry represents an ideal opportunity to further develop the feed ingredient sector, particularly tailor-made ingredients for fish and shrimp."
"The need for sustainable ingredients is ever increasing. Consumers and food retailers are aware of the negative environmental pressure and ‘footprint’. As aquaculture grows we need to supplement fishmeal as the best source of dietary protein. The next step is novel ingredients. Having diversity to choose from multiple sources to meet the nutrient requirement is paramount. The race for novel and versatile ingredients that do not put unwarranted stress on sensitive environments is on."
"Novel ingredients such as insect and microbial proteins can provide farming with unlimited, sustainable raw materials. Unlike natural resources, production has no dependencies on arable land or animal production – with a carbon source, energy and a small quantity of water, you can feasibly produce as many million tonnes as you like. You can also set up these ventures almost anywhere: close to where feeds are formulated; where fish and shrimp are farmed; near sources of carbon; or in places where energy is abundant."
"There’s an abundance of new technologies coming through that seem to be extremely efficient in terms of land and water use. Currently, in almost all cases, they’re not at commercial scale. Therefore, they have potential but there’s also risk. We are playing an important role here; we are committed to a strategy that not only assesses and validates such innovations, it enables them to be scaled up and brought into the market. And while we can’t support all of them, we are not limiting our investment to a single technology. There’s undoubtedly room for more than one winner in this space."
