FEATURE
Spinning gold
From by-product to premium product
Damian Christie looks at the business of food utilisation and how companies are using science to improve sustainability and enhance value for by-products.
6 SEGMENT
H
undreds of kilometres off the coast of New Zealand, a hoki boat is hauling up its latest catch. Several times a day, for six weeks or more at a time, the trawling vessel pulls tonnes of hoki up from the cold, deep waters. On board seafood company Sanford’s trawlers, automated machines precisely fillet the fish as they pass along the conveyer belt. The fillets are packed by hand and snap frozen. But these fillets only make up around 40% of the fishs’ weight. For decades, the remaining parts of the hoki, including the skin off the fillets, have been rendered into fish meal and oil, both processes also done on board. Fish meal and oil are relatively low value commodities but they have ensured that some use is made of every part of the fish. However, these days hoki skins
