ERA-NET: BlueBio - Preservation of underutilized fish biomasses for improved quality, stability and utilization

Today large lumpfish is harvested for their roe and small lumpfish are used as a cleaner fish in aquaculture. After retrieval of the roe the carcass has been discarded at sea. Some of the cleaner fish from aquaculture are harvested together with the salmon and are in some cases sold as animal feed. Lumpfish has a high content of gelatin which makes it unsuitable for fish meal production, but at the same time making it an interesting raw material for gelatin extraction. Atlantic Bluefin tuna is an important capture based aquaculture species in the Mediterranean. The fish is harvested onboard boats and the byproducts are usually discarded as waste. The aim of PROFIUS is to address challenges in the supply chain related to lumpfish (roe and carcass) and tuna side-streams by developing preservation solutions for maintaining quality and improving utilization of the entire biomass. Improved preservation methods will be developed to enhance quality and shelf life of lumpfish roe and thereby reduce waste. A major bottleneck for success of further utilization of the side-stream from tuna is their short shelf life. PROFIUS will study the processes responsible for the chemical and microbial deterioration of these side-streams and develop strategies to prevent them. Furthermore, PROFIUS will look into new applications of lumpfish and tuna side-streams including logistics and development of gelatin extraction processes for lumpfish and development of fish feed based on tuna side-streams. In the first year of the project work on identifying the major bottlenecks and hurdles related to the full utilization of the lumpfish has been started. The work on characterization of lumpfish and on extraction methods for gelatin has been initiated and a post doc, a technician and a master student recruited. The website is profius-project.com - Preservation of underutilized fish biomasses for improved quality, stability and utilization

The aim of BlueBioProfius is to address challenges in the supply chain related to lumpfish (roe and carcass) and tuna side-streams by developing preservation solutions for maintaining quality and improving utilization of the entire biomass. Improved preservation methods will be developed to enhance quality and shelf life of lumpfish roe and thereby reduce waste. A major bottleneck for success of further utilization of the side-stream from tuna is their short shelf life. BlueBioProfius will study the processes responsible for the chemical and microbial deterioration of these side-streams and develop strategies to prevent them. Furthermore, BlueBioProfius will look into new applications of lumpfish and tuna side-streams including logistics and development of gelatin extraction processes for lumpfish and development of fish feed based on tuna side-streams. Norsk sammendrag: Målet med BlueBioProfius er å bidra til å løse utfordringer i distribusjonskjeden knyttet til rognkjeks (rogn og skrott) og restråstoff fra tunfisk. Dette vil bli gjort ved å utvikle konserveringsmetoder og -teknologi for å bevare kvalitet og øke utnyttelsen av hele biomassen. Det vil også bli utviklet forbedrede konserveringsmetoder for å øke kvalitet og holdbarhet til rognkjeksrogn noe som vil bidra til å redusere avfall. En viktig flaskehals for å lykkes med videre utnyttelse av restråstoff fra tunfisk er den korte holdbarheten. BlueBioProfius vil studere kjemiske og mikrobiologiske prosesser som er ansvarlige for nedbrytning av restråstoffet og bruke denne kunnskapen til å utvikle strategier for å hindre disse prosessene. Videre vil BlueBioProfius studere nye anvendelser av restråstoff fra tunfisk og rognkjeks. Dette vil inkludere logistikk, utvikling av ekstraksjonsprosesser for gelatin fra rognkjeks og utvikling av fiskefôr basert på restråstoff fra tunfisk.