BIONÆR-Bionæringsprogram

There is an increasing demand for marine oils due to the growing awareness of its health benefits. The demand for these omega-3 containing lipids as food ingredients (functional food) is predicted to increase extremely when the industry has solved the cha llenges regarding the potential unpleasant odor. Upgrading of the major volumes of the available marine resources into high value applications will profit the Norwegian fisheries, aquaculture and food processing industry and make these industries competit ive in a global perspective. The proposal includes participation from important industrial companies (Maritex AS, Tine BA R&D, Marine Harvest Ingredients AS and Denomega Nutritional Oils) in co-operation with SINTEF and international researchers in this f ield aiming to increase the value adding of oil extracted from raw material constituting considerable volumes from Norwegian fisheries and aquaculture. The overall strategy is aimed at: * Develop an optimal functional and curative marine lipid mix ture from by products (farmed and wild cod and farmed salmon) as an ingredient in functional food. * Developing new and improve the process and technology to manufacture safe marine lipids with high stability as an ingredient in foods. * Study and obta in new knowledge for stabilisation of food matrix with marine oil as an ingredient. * Integrate technological know-how from other industrial sectors into the marine lipid processing industry manufacturing oils for the food industry. Research tasks: 1. P reserving quality of raw materials. 2. Improve refining processes and purification of marine oils. 3. Stabilizing marine oils in emulsions and foods. Comprehensive analytical tools for quality assessment and improvement of oil stability is essential and will be widely applied during handling and processing of the lipids to satisfy the main aim of producing ultra stable and high safety (low content of environmental contaminants) marine lipids.