SBEP - FOODIMAR, sustainable climate-Friendly quality fOOD Ingredients from Marine side-stReams

Today’s food systems face numerous challenges, with climate change being a major one. Seafood plays a key role in transitioning towards sustainable and nutritious food systems. The seafood processing industry results in considerable side-streams, often discarded and underused, rich in bioactive compounds for high-value markets like nutraceuticals and functional foods. The project aims to increase the efficiency and resource optimisation of existing seafood systems and fisheries through seafood side-streams valorisation into high-value-added nutritious food using green technologies. The valorisation of processing by-products and a shift towards a circular economy contribute to the physical and economic resilience of EU seafood processing value chains, as well as to the environmental and ecological sustainability of the seafood industry. FOODIMAR aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, and climate-friendly methods to produce high-quality marine collagen, gelatine, and GAGs to meet the needs of industry and consumers. This will be achieved through 3 EU pilots exploration : North sea whitefish, Baltic sea jellyfish and Mediterranean seabream. Additionally, FOODIMAR focuses on the development of tools and guidelines to showcase the economic potential of these resources in the context of a climate-proof sector.

The project aims to increase the efficiency and resource optimisation of existing seafood systems and fisheries through seafood side-streams valorisation into high-value-added nutritious food using green technologies. The valorisation of processing by-products and a shift towards a circular economy contribute to the physical and economic resilience of EU seafood processing value chains, as well as to the environmental and ecological sustainability of the seafood industry. This will be achieved through the exploration and characterization of bioactive compounds sourced through 3 EU pilots: North sea whitefish, Baltic sea jellyfish and Mediterranean seabream. Additionally, FOODIMAR focuses on the development of tools and guidelines to showcase the economic potential of these resources in the context of a climate-proof sector. The FOODIMAR concept centers around three main pillars: (1) maximizing the utilization of seafood side-streams and by-catch to reduce food loss; SINTEF Ocean will be responsible of the value chain mapping from the 3 seafood pilots as well as the complete chemical and quality characterization in order to identify the most relevant raw material for each pilot (2) raising the value of seafood side-streams by transforming them into high-value products, rather than low-value applications or waste; Laboratory gelatin and collagen peptide extraction from the most relevant raw material will be conducted by SINTEF Ocean by following yield of the process as well as quality of the final product (3) promoting capacity building and the development of business models to foster the growth and reinforcement of the seafood side-stream valorization sector;