4/2/2024
This innovative ingredient offers significant benefits, including increased environmental sustainability and food safety.
Skretting Italy introduces algae oil as a source of omega-3!
Skretting is constantly looking for innovative solutions that can improve the quality of fish feed while ensuring environmental sustainability and animal welfare. In this context, microalgae oil is emerging as a promising resource, as it can enrich feed with essential nutrients and optimise the nutrition of farmed fish. This is why Skretting Italy has decided to use this ingredient with enormous potential in its products.
What potential use do microalgae have in fish nutrition?
Microalgae are microscopic organisms found in a variety of aquatic environments, such as seas, lakes, rivers and ponds, and play a crucial role in these ecosystems due to their photosynthesis capacity. They are rich in essential nutrients, including omega-3 fatty acids but also vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. It is precisely this characteristic that makes them an ideal ingredient to use in fish food.
What are the benefits of using microalgae oil in fish feed?
Compared to the oils traditionally used in fish feed, such as fish oil, microalgae oil offers several benefits:
- Environmental sustainability: microalgae occupy the lowest level of the marine trophic chain and are responsible for the synthesis of omega-3 fatty acids. Using microalgae directly in feed is therefore the most efficient way to obtain the omega-3 that fishes need, such as Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).
- Food safety: environmental contaminants can accumulate along the trophic chain. Seaweed oil, being at the base of this chain, presents a lower risk of contamination than fish oil.
- More flexibility in formulations: this ingredient allows the composition of the diet to be adapted to different species-specific needs and growth stages.
"Although the benefits are many, the use of microalgae oil still presents some challenges, among them the efficiency of production processes and the resulting high production costs" says Diego Bazzoli, Formulist at Skretting Italia "but research continues, so we expect that many of the current obstacles can be overcome in the future."
"The use of microalgae oil, as well as the use of any other innovative ingredient that can influence the reduction of dependence on marine resources, is one of the many pieces of the mosaic that will help us achieve our sustainability goals and preserve natural resources for future generations."
Seaweed oil has already been in Skretting's product lines since April this year.