From fish entrails to health food

If you thought that fish entrails were just waste, think again. By-products from the fishing and aquaculture industries are valuable resources, as long as they are handled properly from the very beginning and suitably processed.
Today, the aquaculture industry has to pay to get rid of fish entrails, but according to SINTEF this is not the way to go. What is currently an expense could become a source of income. Turned into fish oil, food additives or raw materials for the cosmetics industry, “waste” from the marine industry could become a product in high demand.

– German buyers have even suggested that the by-products of the fishing industry could be worth more than the filleted fish itself, says Jan Buljo of SINTEF Industrial Management, who heads the project: “Utilisation of by-products from the fishing and aquaculture industries”. The raw materials involved are fish entrails, heads and bones, and the shells and entrails of crabs and shellfish.
SINTEF has been looking closely at a number of factors that would be involved in industry of this type. Market potential, prices, management routines and the necessity for a well-developed network have all been analysed.
Project manager Buljo refers to calculations which suggest that current costs of 50 øre per kilo could be turned into earnings of NOK 30 - 80 per kilo after processing. However, this would require cooperation within the industry itself as well as with buyers, investments in machinery and plant, and a rise in levels of expertise. The raw material must also be treated correctly. At present, fish by-products are tipped straight into containers before formic acid is added as a preservative. If resources of this sort are to be fully exploited, the by-products will have to be sorted at source and treated immediately, because they break down so rapidly.

The easiest products to extract are marine oils and fish-meal. Marine oils are rich in enzymes and minerals, and are in great demand in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and health-food industries, while fish meal can be utilised as a taste enhancer, food supplement or animal feed. Fish meal is also used as a crisis food in disaster and war zones.
– There are plenty of challenges. The raw materials need an efficient logistics process, and the industry will have to show that it is willing to invest. However, we are already seeing a growing interest in this market, and we believe that fish by-products are capable of becoming an important part of the marine industry, says Buljo.
“Utilisation of by-products” is a Regional Innovation (Reginn) project financed by the Research Council of Norway, in which the marine industry, several public-sector bodies, and research groups from SINTEF Industrial Management, Allforsk and SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture are involved.

By Christina Benjaminsen