Ingredients used to produce farmed fish and prawns
Like humans, fish and prawns have specific nutritional needs. These needs vary according to species and life stages. Aquaculture feeds can contain many different ingredients of plant, marine and terrestrial animal origin. These ingredients deliver nutrients such as protein, amino acids, energy, fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals to the finished feed, ensuring that fish and prawns receive a complete nutritional package. We source our primary ingredients for food from agricultural crops, fisheries, and processed food byproducts for humans.
Our current use of food ingredients globally is made up of a significant amount of by-products. These are ingredients from the human food processing chain that would otherwise go to waste if not used in the balanced food industry. Examples may include byproducts from fish and land animal processing, and other ingredients such as brewer's yeast.
Aquaculture is part of the emerging bioeconomy, made up of those parts of the economy that use renewable biological resources from land and sea, such as crops, forests, fish, animals, and microorganisms to produce food.
Skretting is involved in many different projects related to the use of by-products, including a research project called SYLFEED, a four-year international, multidisciplinary project that aims to scale up the technology to turn wood waste into a protein-rich food ingredient.
We are actively looking for ingredients that work in more innovative, low-emission aquaculture feeds.
What does fish and prawn feed contain?
We are actively looking for ingredients that work in more innovative, low-emission aquaculture feeds. Reducing emissions can occur through reduced land use, reduced carbon footprint, and increased use of products that are not traditionally used directly for food.
Agricultural crops account for the majority of feed ingredients for salmon, shrimp, and tilapia. Marine ingredients are also important in salmon and shrimp diets.
Many years of research at Skretting ARC have meant that we can be increasingly flexible in the way we use ingredients. We consider ingredients to be carriers of nutritional components, and with advanced nutritional knowledge, we are less limited by source ingredients.
Inclusion of different nutrients in Skretting feed
This table gives an overview of the ingredients included in Skretting foods, along with the inclusion percentages (average).
1. The use of terrestrial animal by-products will depend on market acceptance and legislation.
2. The level of starch raw materials will be different in extruded and granulated feeds.
