The world population is continuously growing expecting to exceed 9 billion by 2050. It will increase global food production by 60%, creating an urgent need to explore alternative sustainable sources of ingredients rich in protein and essential nutrients. At the same time, a considerable amount of food rest raw material is currently underutilized. Seafood side streams are abundant, sustainable and contain valuable protein and lipid compounds. Nevertheless, nowadays they are mainly used for low price commodities like animal feed, fish meal and silage, or are even wasted.
IMPRESSIVE aimed at facilitating the full exploitation of crustaceans and pelagic fish side streams in the food industry by using innovative technologies. This was achieved through optimization of existing extraction methods and processing technologies by application of innovative non-thermal technologies (ultrasound, high pressure, cold plasma, etc.) and valorization of bioactive compounds extracted from seafood side streams. It was shown that the use of innovative no-thermal treatments may increase the yield and the quality of resulted protein (fish protein hydrolysates, bioactive peptides, fish protein isolates) and lipid compounds. The most promising technological solutions were upscaled at the industrial level. Different effects of applied extraction and preservation methods on physicochemical quality, functional and bioactive properties of the resulting ingredients, were also studied. The most promising protein and lipid compounds obtained after the application of optimized extraction procedures, were jointly incorporated into new healthy food prototypes to increase nutritional value of the final product. The obtained food product prototypes were positively evaluated by consumers, showing a future potential in full valorization of fish side streams for high-value applications. This will increase resource efficiency and will reduce losses in the value chain, while minimizing the environmental impact of food processing.
Life cycle analyses (LCA) were performed to assess the environmental load of the optimized technologies for the recovery of fish protein hydrolysates, fish oil and chitosan from seafood side streams and their join use in food applications. The results of LCA has revealed the high sustainability and lower environmental load of the optimized processing methods compared to traditional technologies.
Actual and potential outcomes and impacts based on the project results are:
Actual:
- Advanced technology integration through implementation of innovative technologies such as HP- and US-assisted enzymatic hydrolysis to increase the yield and quality of lipid and protein compounds recovered from seafood side streams.
- Life cycle assessments (LCA) performed to quantify environmental benefits and guide sustainable technology choices.
- Obtaining new valuable ingredients (lipids rich in PUFAs and MUFAs, bioactive peptides and chitin/chitosan) with enhanced quality, health-promoting properties, bioactivity, bioavailability and yield, and their use in healthy food product prototypes.
- Ensuring maximal efficiency of underutilized seafood side stream processing for extraction of valuable lipid and protein ingredients.
Building bridges between industrial actors processing seafood side streams and ingredient producing companies.
Creation of new business opportunities particularly for the SME sector in different macro-regions of Europe (North Sea, Baltic and Adriatic-Ionian).
Increasing economic value from improved use of seafood side streams and environmental benefits from application of innovative technologies based on socio-economic analysis performed by LCA-experts.
Grow the awareness on environmental and sustainability issues among consumers creating a positive image for novel side stream derived products.
Potential:
- Future investments and support of R&D through collaboration between academic institutions and biotech companies to develop advanced extraction and purification techniques that improve bioactivity and bioavailability of lipid and protein compounds extracted from fish side streams.
- Application of proteomics and metabolomics to identify and optimize high-value compounds from seafood side streams.
- Opportunity for further automation and AI-driven process optimization to monitor and adjust extraction parameters in real time for maximum efficiency.
- Establishment of regional centers that bring together seafood processors, ingredient producers, and food/nutraceutical manufacturers.
- Development of online matchmaking platforms to facilitate partnerships, knowledge exchange, and supply chain integration.
- Co-investment in shared infrastructure and product development between the stakeholders.
- Work with local governments to create favorable regulatory environments and incentives for SME participation.
- Development of certification schemes for side stream-derived products to enhance market value and consumer trust.
The rapid growth of the world population in the last decades created an urgent need to explore alternative food sources for essential nutrients.
Seafood side streams are abundant, sustainable and contain valuable bioactive peptides, lipids and polysaccharides with health promoting properties, which all together make them an excellent alternative ingredient source for the food and nutraceutical industries.
The main aim of the IMPRESSIVE project is to improve the extraction of added value compounds such as LC MUFA-, PUFA-rich oils, bioactive peptides and chitosan from underutilized seafood side streams (fishery and crustacean) in terms of yield and quality by using emerging non-thermal technologies as advanced pre-treatments (pulsed electric field, high pressure, ultrasound, etc.) for further applications in the food and nutraceutical industries. The consortium will gather researchers with multidisciplinary background and expertise from 4 European countries along with manufacturing companies to optimize the recovery of bioactive ingredients. The project will use different eco-friendly chemical and enzymatic processes to separate, extract and purify protein, lipid, and polysaccharide fractions from seafood side streams. The obtained compounds will be characterized and analyzed for bioactivity and bioavailability, health
promoting properties (antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hypocholesterolemic and anti-diabetic activities,etc.), and further tested in food and nutraceutical products as new ingredients aiming to enhance the nutritional profile and quality of the end-products. Consumer studies will be conducted to assess consumer acceptance of the new products.
Life cycle analyses will be performed to develop techno-economically optimized and sustainable production systems for improved recovery of bioactive compounds from seafood side streams and their use in different applications.
