Earlier this year, right in the middle our first most serious Covid-19 lockdown, Corbion which is headquartered in The Netherlands with factories and offices around the world, hosted a webinar on AlgaPrime DHA, a traceable, sustainable, high-quality alternative to marine-based Omega-3s. Here we report on its webinar.
Algae adoption: From research to retail
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by Vaughn Entwistle, Managing Editor, International Aquafeed
ith the advent of COVID-19, many companies have turned to webinars to disseminate information about their products and advances made in the industry. On Thursday June 4th, 2020, AlgaPrime DHA and Corbion hosted a joint webinar to promote the advances made in algae-based fish feed, and to report on its acceptance and expansion into the aquaculture industry. The seminar featured speakers from the whole salmon supply chain ranging from researchers to fish farmers and experts in the retail industry. The moderator was Jill Kauffman Johnson, Head of Global Development, Corbion Algae Ingredients (a Dutch food and biochemicals company headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands) who hosted the panel discussion alongside: Keterina Kousoulaki, PhD, Senior Researcher, Nofima: Keterina spoke about the increasing consumer demand for healthy and sustainable seafood. Salmon is an important fish in aquaculture and one of the species with the best ratio of omega-3s-to-omega6s. In the wild, salmon eat high levels of forage fish and thereby accumulate omega-3s. However, even with one million tonnes of fish oil produced each year, marine fish production cannot catch enough to satisfy the needs of aquaculture. To answer the demand, the aquaculture industry has been researching many alternative proteins to reduce or eliminate the use of fish meal or fish oil in feeds. Algae has been one of the first ingredients to be approved by regulators. Corbion is growing microalgae, one of the original sources of omega-3s in the food chain. This effort is supported by the EU as part of their farm to fork initiatives. The result has been an increase in use of microbial algae in fish and animal feeds, with up to 25 percent of Norwegian salmon feed using microbial algae Vidar Gundersen, Global Sustainability Director, Biomar: Vidar explained that 1990 represented the tipping point in global aquaculture, when wild marine fisheries peaked globally. Since then there has been a slow decline, which means that traditional marine fisheries are already fully exploited, and aquaculture cannot take anymore to use in fish feed. This means two things:
Firstly, aquaculture must increase its output to meet with global demand; Secondly, fish meal and fish oil from marine ingredients, as the primary components of fish feed, decreased to around 20 percent. The result has been that EPA and DHA levels in farmed fish has also dropped dramatically. Microalgae has been an answer to this. One of Biomar’s customers has replaced the DHA EPA content of their fish by use of microalgae Jørgen Skeide, Project Leader, Lerøy Seafood Group ASA: Jørgen provided a fish farmer’s perspective on the matter at hand. Microalgae has the potential to answer multiple challenges to fish farmers,” Skeide explained. “Many alternative sources of protein in fish feed are partial answers, but microalgae holds the promise of being the total answer. Lerøy has a lot of strict quality demands. We wanted to increase the levels of omega-3 for the health of the fish and the health of our customers who eat those fish. We place large value on high quality sustainable fish feed, which could be a limiting factor when we grow. We are also looking into other novel ingredients such as insect meal, blue mussel meat, fermenting mackerel and so on.”
And from the retail side of things:
Christoph Methiesen, Sustainability Advisor, IKEA Food: “Why is a furniture company interested in microalgae? Last year, a survey placed Ikea as one of the top three corporations in the world when it comes to integrating sustainability into their business model. We’ve been concerned about sustainability in our furniture business, and we’re also interested in sustainability in our food business. Food has been part of Ikea since the very beginning. A year after we opened our first store, we added a restaurant, realising that customers shopping on our stores would need something to eat and drink. Food is one of the fastest growing parts of our business.” Helena Delgado Nordmann, Responsible Sourcing Manager, Tesco: Tesco is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer with headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, UK. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest retailer in the world, measured by revenues. When asked why Tesco is so heavily invested into sustainable sourcing, and why algae is so important in fishfeed, Helena answers, “Why algae? Tesco is committed to supplying healthy, sustainable foods to our customers. Plus, as a company, we must take into consideration
32 | December 2020 - International Aquafeed