The utilisation of European processed animal proteins as safe, sustainable and circular ingredients for global aquafeeds

Abstract

The global increase in seafood demand has resulted in significant growth in aquaculture production in a wide range of aquatic species. Consequently, this has led to an industry‐wide need to find sustainable feed ingredients that would meet the nutritional requirements used in aquafeeds. The associated dependency on plant by‐products as the major alternatives has brought concerns to aquaculture through associated carbon footprint, increase deforestation and arable land use to meet the demands of plant proteins and oils, and the constraining effects of plant by‐products has on farmed aquatic animal growth and health. Animal by‐products (ABPs) are produced as a direct consequence of terrestrial animal production and the associated meat processing industries. The link between feeding meat and bone meal (MBM) and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) outbreak in Europe during the 1980s resulted in a ban of its use animal feeds. This led to a radical overhaul of the rendering industry, including the use of only low‐risk ABP and the development of rendering processes to reduce the risk of prions that causes BSE to enter the food chain. The resulting processed animal proteins (PAPs) are considered safe to be used in farmed animal feeds. This review examines how ABP production has changed due to the BSE outbreak, leading to the current commercially available PAP products for aquafeed use. We evaluated how these products can be effectively used as viable protein sources in aquaculture and examine their limitations and the potential advancements that could lead to a more circular food production system.

Evaluating the Functional Properties of Spray-Dried Porcine Plasma in Gilthead Seabream (Sparus aurata) Fed Low Fish Meal Diets

“…A by-product of the slaughter industry, the spray-dried plasma (SDP), is obtained from healthy poultry or porcine whole blood after anticoagulant treatment, erythrocyte extraction by centrifugation, and dehydration through the spray-drying technique [ 8 ]. In livestock production, SDP is considered a promising functional ingredient as an alternative to the use of antibiotics, due to growth and immunity promotion, as well as reducing both morbidity and mortality [ 9 , 10 , 11 ].…”

Partial Replacement of Fishmeal with Duckweed (Spirodela polyrhiza) in Feed for Two Carnivorous Fish Species, Eurasian Perch (Perca fluviatilis) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

“…Including soybean meal or soy protein concentrate in salmonid diets signifcantly reduces their specifc growth rates [10]. Carnivorous fshes, such as salmonids, sea bass, and sea bream, are among the world's largest consumers of fshmeal [11], making the search for fnding sustainable substitutes for fshmeal an important issue in aquaculture [12]. In recent years, insect meals from diferent species, particularly those made from the black soldier fy (BSF, Hermetia illucens), have shown great promise as a fshmeal replacement [13].…”

Replacement of fishmeal using poultry-based protein sources in feeds for pikeperch (Sander lucioperca, Linnaeus, 1758) during grow out phase

“…However, the reliance on marine feed ingredients, i.e., fishmeal (FM), and the rising cost of aquaculture feeds resulting from the high cost of FM threatens the sustainability of the sector (Boyd 2015;Oliva-Teles et al 2015;Cottrell et al 2020). While FM is an ideal protein source for aquaculture feeds because of its optimal amino acid profile, high digestibility, and high contents of essential minerals and fatty acids (Woodgate et al 2022), its use as the primary source of protein in aquaculture feeds needs to be lessened (Boyd 2015;Oliva-Teles et al 2015).…”