Sustainable Aquafeeds: Using Aquafarmer Preference to Inform a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis

Abstract

Aquafeed is a major contributor to the sustainability of food production using aquaculture. Therefore, improving the environmental, economic, and societal performance of aquafeeds provides an opportunity to significantly enhance the sustainability of aquaculture practices, which make up the fastest-growing food sector. Fish meal and fish oil are traditionally the main sources of essential nutrients (e.g., protein and fatty acids) in aqua diets. However, increases in supply prices and limited natural resources (e.g., forage fish) have encouraged some stakeholders to seek alternative nutrient-rich options. This work provides a multidimensional assessment of current and promising future aquafeeds, utilizing multi-criteria decision analysis. The considered parameters include cost, environmental impacts, and nutrient inclusion. The results based on varying stakeholders’ perspectives indicate that the replacements of fish meal with plant-based soybean meal and fish oil with plant-based canola oil are the most favorable alternatives among those investigated to enhance the overall aquafeed performance in aquaculture food production.

Response of Intestinal Microbiota of Tiger Puffer (Takifugu rubripes) to the Fish Oil Finishing Strategy

“…In the period 1990–2020, total world aquaculture expanded by 609% in annual output with an average growth rate of 6.7% per year, and aquatic food, as the third largest source of human food protein in the world, provided about 17% of animal protein and 7% all protein in 2019 [ 1 ]. With the rapid development of aquaculture industry, fish oil (FO) is in relative short supply and the price is increasing, making the FO replacement by terrestrially sourced oils (TSO) essential [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. However, TSO have been reported to have negative impact on the fish growth performance, immunity, intestinal health and in particular muscle quality, as observed in species such as Atlantic salmon ( Salmo salar ), red claw crayfish ( Cherax quadricarinatus ), Nile tilapia ( Oreochromis niloticus ), large yellow croaker ( Larimichthys crocea ), golden pompano ( Trachinotus ovatus ), gilthead bream ( Sparus aurata ), and rainbow trout ( Oncorhynchus mykiss ) [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”