This piece has been published in the February 2021 edition of the International Aquafeed magazine.

A lot is being made in the food sector to anticipate the demographic pressure and continue ensuring food security throughout the world.

In January 2021, the European Union announced that its food agency (EFSA) had just approved mealworms as human food. The EU Commission has yet to endorse the decision.

The interest in diversification of food and ingredient sources is high. The EFSA food agency has 156 applications for "novel food" on its plate and must follow a rigorous process to assess them all. New plants have been mushrooming with claims to provide a solution to feed the world’s population.

At IFFO, the Marine Ingredients Organisation, we welcome new ingredients that can be part of the solution. What is required from the new ingredients by consumers, NGOs, and the wider opinion, wary of the environmental, social and economic impacts of the global food system, is to assess the ingredients based on their life cycle. This means that new ingredients need to document their sustainability. It is also important to determine their compatibility in terms of production process, nutritional profile and digestibility. In the feed sector, this trend can result in an increasingly large selection of raw materials available for combination to produce feed.

As an organisation nurturing a network of members specialised in marine ingredients, IFFO is engaged in the search of additional ingredients stemming from the marine environment. There is indeed at least a volume of 75-76 million tonnes of fed species to be produced globally in 2030. That is an additional 20 million tonnes of fed farmed fish to be produced in a decade. This implies a continual demand for increased volume of supply of ingredients for aquafeed production over the period to 2030, of a total close to 30 million tons. What is at stake is to supplement an already important amount of nutritious and recognised source of digestible fishmeal and fish oil to feed farmed fish. Every year, five million tonnes of fishmeal is produced worldwide, alongside one million tonnes of fish oil. With the growing need to support the growth of the aquaculture sector, more raw materials are needed.

If this growth is not going to be covered by increasing the use of soy, a major part of the proteins must be made available through other industrial processes than what are used today. Indeed, the use of soy is coming under increased scrutiny because concerns over deforestation has been growing, and feed producers are tightening their sourcing policies in order to focus only on certified soy sources.

At IFFO, we have partnered with SINTEF, the Norwegian research institute, on the program SFI Harvest. The program will develop knowledge and technologies for responsible harvesting and processing of lower trophic marine resources.

In another recent study on sustainable feed for Norwegian salmon by SINTEF Ocean AS, 23 different sources of raw materials are evaluated based on three criteria: How much raw material is available today, or can be made available by 2050? Can the raw material cover the future need of protein and EPA/DHA? Can the raw material be made available through a sustainable process at an acceptable price, and can it be produced in Norway?

SINTEF explains: « The evaluation shows that 7 out of 23 raw materials can be realistic contributors to the salmon feed demand by 2050. Of them, 3 that are already in industrial production (pelagic fish, marine rest raw materials and soy). The other 4 (mesopelagic fish, protein from grass, production of microalgae and hetero- and chemoautotrophic microorganisms) have potentials to contribute but must be scaled up to industrial production.  In particular, the harvest of mesopelagic fish will be a key factor in the future. »   

A SINTEF paper published in Marine Policy[i] in 2020 explains the main features of mesopelagics and from there it is easy to see the potential they have for the marine ingredients industry. Most mesopelagic fish species are low-value species. They are classified as one of the largest fish resources globally and abundant in the north Atlantic. Hence, they represent « a significant potential for the development a new fishery and source for the biomarine industry. » It is important, however, that the right frameworks be implemented to ensure that the best management practices are put in place. For now indeed, neither TACs (Total allowable catches) nor rules for bycatch are implemented. The authors also explain that it is also key to determine whether today’s deep-sea pelagic vessels are suitable- or large enough to develop a sufficient large-scale mesopelagic fishery.

All this gives an interesting perspective to the challenge and also additional evidence that the marine environment has a lot to provide to the global food system. We already know, from the paper entitled “The Future of Food from the Sea” – published in November 2019 – that a sixfold increase in the supply of food from the ocean compared to current levels is possible provided better management practices and technological innovation are enabled.

Petter Johannessen