INSECTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE 2

Descripción del proyecto

Los insectos como alimentos para peces

La acuicultura puede aumentar el suministro mundial de pescado para mejorar la seguridad alimentaria y la alimentación. Es una forma sostenible de producir un pescado saludable y, al mismo tiempo, preservar las poblaciones de peces salvajes. Sin embargo, la alimentación de los peces de piscifactoría plantea un gran reto. La harina de pescado requiere hasta una tercera parte de los peces salvajes capturados, lo que contribuye a la merma de las poblaciones de peces. Además, su disponibilidad es limitada debido a las cuotas pesqueras. Por otra parte, la harina de soja contiene factores antinutricionales para la mayoría de los peces de piscifactoría. En este contexto, el equipo del proyecto IFASA 2, financiado con fondos europeos, explorará la proteína de insectos como solución alternativa. InnovaFeed, empresa coordinadora del proyecto, ha optimizado el modelo zootécnico de «Hermetia illucens» (especie de mosca endémica europea) para conseguir una proteína de insecto de calidad para la acuicultura.

Objetivo

The consumption of fish protein is essential to the livelihood and well-being of billions of people worldwide, and aquaculture is a sustainable way to produce healthy fish while preserving wild fish stocks. With a 10% yearly growth over the past decade, aquaculture is one of the fastest growing sector in the food industry. Yet, sector’s expansion and sustainability are challenged by current fish feed limitations. Indeed, fishmeal and soybean meal are the two main ingredients in fish feed formulations and both hold challenges in terms of sustainability and nutritional value:
Fishmeal absorbs up to a third of wild caught fish, contributing to the depletion of fish stocks and its availability is limited due to fishing quotas with a direct impact on price (price rise from 500 euros per ton in 2004 to 1,500 euros per ton today );
Soybean meal contains anti-nutritional factors for most farmed fish and its use for aquaculture increases Europe’s protein deficit and dependency on raw material imports. Today, 80% of protein-rich crops used in Europe for animal feed, i.e. mostly soybean meal, are imported .

Fish feed manufacturers and fish farmers are seeking innovative ways to increase the nutritional value of their products while reducing the environmental impact of their supply chain. Insect protein stands out as one of the best solution to address this need and drive the development of sustainable aquaculture. Insect protein has demonstrated excellent nutritional performance with less pollutants than fishmeal (heavy metals, pesticides residues, PCBs, dioxins), restoring a natural diet for farmed fish that eat insects in the wild (e.g. salmon, trout, seabass). InnovaFeed’s insect protein is an alternative source of quality protein that will address the fish feed challenge and support the aquaculture sector’s growth.

InnovaFeed has optimized the zootechnical model of Hermetia illucens (European endemic fly species) to achieve maximum productivity and consist