Fish meal

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Powdered fishmeal Fishmeal powder.jpg
Powdered fishmeal

Fish meal, sometimes spelt fishmeal, is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch, and fish by-products to feed farm animals, e.g., pigs, poultry, and farmed fish. [1] Because it is calorically dense and cheap to produce, fishmeal has played a critical role in the growth of factory farms and the number of farm animals it is possible to breed and feed.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Fishmeal takes the form of powder or cake. This form is obtained by drying the fish or fish trimmings, and then grinding it. If the fish used is a fatty fish it is first pressed to extract most of the fish oil. [1] [2]

The production and large-scale use of fishmeal are controversial. The lucrative market for fishmeal as a feed encourages corporate fisheries not to limit their yields of by-catch (from which fish meal is made), and thus leads to depletion of ecosystems, environmental damage, and the collapse of local fisheries.[ citation needed ] Its role in facilitating the breeding and over-feeding of millions of pigs and chickens on factory farms has also been criticized by animal rights and animal welfare groups.[ citation needed ] Manufacturers of fishmeal counter that fishmeal's role in the feeding and breeding of millions of farm animals leads to the production of more food and the feeding of millions of people around the world.[ citation needed ]

History

Fish byproducts have been used historically to feed poultry, pigs, and other farmed fish. A primitive form of fishmeal is mentioned in The Travels of Marco Polo at the beginning of the 14th century: "they accustom their cattle, cows, sheep, camels, and horses to feed upon dried fish, which being regularly served to them, they eat without any sign of dislike." The use of herring as an industrial raw material started as early as about 800 AD in Norway; a very primitive process of pressing the oil out of herring by means of wooden boards and stones was employed. [2]

Use

Prior to 1910, fish meal was primarily used as fertilizer, at least in the UK. [2]

Fish meal is now primarily used as a protein supplement in compound feed. [2] [3] As of 2010, about 56% of fish meal was used to feed farmed fish, about 20% was used in pig feed, about 12% in poultry feed, and about 12% in other uses, which included fertilizer. [1] Fishmeal and fish oil are the principal sources of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) in animal diets. [4]

The cost of 65% protein fishmeal has varied between around $385 to $554 per ton since 2000, which is about two to three times the price of soybean meal. [1]

The rising demand for fish, as people in the developed world turn away from red meat and toward other sources of meat protein, has increased demand for farmed fish, with farmed fish accounting for half the fish consumed worldwide as of 2016. [5] Demand for fish meal has increased accordingly, but harvests are regulated and supply cannot expand. [1] [5] This has led to a trend towards use of other ingredients such as soybean meal, cottonseed meal, leftovers from processing from corn and wheat, legumes, and algae, and an increase in research to find alternatives to fish meal and alternate strategic uses (for instance, in the growth phase, after newborn fish are established). [1] [5] [6]

Fish used

Fishmeal can be made from almost any type of seafood, but is generally manufactured from wild-caught, small marine fish that contain a high percentage of bones and oil. [1] Previously, these fish have been considered unsuitable for direct human consumption, [1] but more recent research indicates the vast majority of fishmeal made from whole wild-caught fish is made from fish suitable for direct human consumption. [7] Other sources of fishmeal are from bycatch and byproducts of trimmings made during processing (fish waste or offal) of various seafood products destined for direct human consumption. [1]

The main fish sources by country are: [1] [2] [3]

It takes 4 to 5 tons of fish to produce one ton of fish meal; about 6 million tons of fish are harvested each year solely to make fish meal. [1]

Environmental impact

Fish meal production is a significant contributor of over-fishing, and risks pushing fisheries beyond their replacement rate. Some areas of the world, such as Western Africa, have seen a large increase in fish meal production which in turn is hurting local fisheries and driving fisheries into collapse. [8] [9]

Processing

Fish meal factory, Bressay, Shetland Islands Heogan Fishmeal Factory, Bressay - geograph.org.uk - 1444467.jpg
Fish meal factory, Bressay, Shetland Islands
Fish meal factory, Westfield, West Lothian Fish Meal Factory, Westfield, West Lothian.jpg
Fish meal factory, Westfield, West Lothian

Fishmeal is made by cooking, pressing, drying, and grinding of fish or fish waste into a solid. Most of the water and some or all of the oil is removed. Four or five tonnes of fish are needed to manufacture one tonne of dry fishmeal. [1]

Of the several ways of making fishmeal from raw fish, the simplest is to let the fish dry out in the sun before grinding and pressing. This method is still used in some parts of the world where processing plants are not available, but the end product is poor quality in comparison with ones made by modern methods.

Today, all industrial fish meal is made by the following processes: [2]

Cooking: The fish are moved through a commercial cooker — a long, steam-jacketed cylinder — by a screw conveyor. This is a critical stage in preparing the fishmeal, as incomplete cooking means the liquid from the fish cannot be pressed out satisfactorily and overcooking makes the material too soft for pressing. No drying occurs in the cooking stage.

Pressing: The cooked fish is compressed inside a perforated tube, expelling some of its liquids, leaving "press cake". Water content is reduced from 70% to about 50% and oil down to 4%.

Drying: The press cake is dried by tumbling inside a heated drum. Under-drying may result in the growth of molds or bacteria; over-drying can cause scorching and reduction in the meal's nutritional value.

Two alternative methods of drying are used:

Grinding: The dried meal is ground[ how? ] to remove any lumps or bone particles.

Nutrient composition

Any complete diet must contain some protein, but the nutritional value of the protein relates directly to its amino acid composition and digestibility. High-quality fishmeal normally contains between 60% and 72% crude protein by weight. Typical diets for fish may contain from 32% to 45% total protein by weight. [10]

Risks

Unmodified fish meal can spontaneously combust from heat generated by oxidation of the polyunsaturated fatty acids in the meal. In the past, factory ships have sunk because of such fires. That danger has been eliminated by adding antioxidants to the meal. [1]

As of 2001, ethoxyquin was the most commonly used antioxidant, usually in the range 200–1000 mg/kg. [2] There has been some speculation that ethoxyquin in pet foods might be responsible for multiple health problems. To date, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has only found a verifiable connection between ethoxyquin and buildup of protoporphyrin IX in the liver, as well as elevations in liver-related enzymes in some animals, but with no known health consequences from these effects. In 1997, the Center for Veterinary Medicine asked pet food manufacturers to voluntarily limit ethoxyquin levels to 75 ppm until further evidence is reported. However, most pet foods that contain ethoxyquin have never exceeded this amount. Ethoxyquin has been shown to be slightly toxic to fish.[ citation needed ]

Though it has been approved for use in foods in the US, and as a spray insecticide for fruits, ethoxyquin has not been thoroughly tested for its carcinogenic potential. Ethoxyquin has long been suggested to be a possible carcinogen, and a very closely related chemical, 1,2-dihydro-2,2,4-trimethylquinoline, has been shown to have carcinogenic activity in rats, and a potential for carcinogenic effect to fishmeal prior to storage or transportation.[ citation needed ]

Globally, most of the fishmeal products are characterised by possessing a certain level of plastics pollution. [11] A recent study showed that a wide range of plastics content was found, ranging from 0 to 526.7 n/kg in samples from 26 different fishmeal products, from 11 countries on four continents and Antarctica. [11]

See also

Sources

Definition of Free Cultural Works logo notext.svg  This article incorporates text from a free content work.Licensed under CC BY 4.0( license statement/permission ).Text taken from The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024​ ,FAO.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Copra</span> Dried meat or kernel of the coconut

Copra is the dried, white flesh of the coconut from which coconut oil is extracted. Traditionally, the coconuts are sun-dried, especially for export, before the oil, also known as copra oil, is pressed out. The oil extracted from copra is rich in lauric acid, making it an important commodity in the preparation of lauryl alcohol, soaps, fatty acids, cosmetics, etc. and thus a lucrative product for many coconut-producing countries. The palatable oil cake, known as copra cake, obtained as a residue in the production of copra oil is used in animal feeds. The ground cake is known as coconut or copra meal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish farming</span> Raising fish commercially in enclosures

Fish farming or pisciculture involves commercial breeding of fish, most often for food, in fish tanks or artificial enclosures such as fish ponds. It is a particular type of aquaculture, which is the controlled cultivation and harvesting of aquatic animals such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and so on, in natural or pseudo-natural environments. A facility that releases juvenile fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species' natural numbers is generally referred to as a fish hatchery. Worldwide, the most important fish species produced in fish farming are carp, catfish, salmon and tilapia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishing industry</span> Economic branch

The fishing industry includes any industry or activity that takes, cultures, processes, preserves, stores, transports, markets or sells fish or fish products. It is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization as including recreational, subsistence and commercial fishing, as well as the related harvesting, processing, and marketing sectors. The commercial activity is aimed at the delivery of fish and other seafood products for human consumption or as input factors in other industrial processes. The livelihood of over 500 million people in developing countries depends directly or indirectly on fisheries and aquaculture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish paste</span> Paste made of fish meat

Fish paste is fish which has been chemically broken down by a fermentation process until it reaches the consistency of a soft creamy purée or paste. Alternatively it refers to cooked fish that has been physically broken down by pounding, grinding, pressing, mincing, blending, and/or sieving, until it reaches the consistency of paste. The term can be applied also to shellfish pastes, such as shrimp paste or crab paste.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charoen Pokphand Foods</span> Thai agro-industrial and food company

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish as food</span> Fish eaten by humans

Many species of fish are caught by humans and consumed as food in virtually all regions around the world. Fish has been an important dietary source of protein and other nutrients.

In animal husbandry, feed conversion ratio (FCR) or feed conversion rate is a ratio or rate measuring of the efficiency with which the bodies of livestock convert animal feed into the desired output. For dairy cows, for example, the output is milk, whereas in animals raised for meat the output is the flesh, that is, the body mass gained by the animal, represented either in the final mass of the animal or the mass of the dressed output. FCR is the mass of the input divided by the output. In some sectors, feed efficiency, which is the output divided by the input, is used. These concepts are also closely related to efficiency of conversion of ingested foods (ECI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish processing</span> Process from catching to selling fish

The term fish processing refers to the processes associated with fish and fish products between the time fish are caught or harvested, and the time the final product is delivered to the customer. Although the term refers specifically to fish, in practice it is extended to cover any aquatic organisms harvested for commercial purposes, whether caught in wild fisheries or harvested from aquaculture or fish farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish preservation</span> Techniques for preserving fish

Fish preservation is the method of increasing the shelf life of fish and other fish products by applying the principles of different branches of science in order to keep the fish, after it has landed, in a condition wholesome and fit for human consumption. Ancient methods of preserving fish included drying, salting, pickling and smoking. All of these techniques are still used today but the more modern techniques of freezing and canning have taken on a large importance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish products</span> Food product produced from fish

Fish and fish products are consumed as food all over the world. With other seafoods, they provides the world's prime source of high-quality protein; 14–16 percent of the animal protein consumed worldwide. Over one billion people rely on fish as their primary source of animal protein.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aquaculture of salmonids</span> Fish farming and harvesting under controlled conditions

The aquaculture of salmonids is the farming and harvesting of salmonid fish under controlled conditions for both commercial and recreational purposes. Salmonids, along with carp and tilapia, are the three most important fish groups in aquaculture. The most commonly commercially farmed salmonid is the Atlantic salmon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meat and bone meal</span> Product of the rendering industry

Meat and bone meal (MBM) is a product of the rendering industry. It is typically about 48–52% protein, 33–35% ash, 8–12% fat, and 4–7% water. It is primarily used in the formulation of animal feed to improve the amino acid profile of the feed. Feeding of MBM to cattle is thought to have been responsible for the spread of BSE ; therefore, in most parts of the world, MBM is no longer allowed in feed for ruminant animals. However, it is still used to feed monogastric animals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insect farming</span> Raising and breeding insects as livestock

Insect farming is the practice of raising and breeding insects as livestock, also referred to as minilivestock or micro stock. Insects may be farmed for the commodities they produce, or for them themselves; to be used as food, as feed, as a dye, and otherwise.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fishing industry in Pakistan</span> Overview of fishing in Pakistan

The fishing industry plays a significant part in the national economy of Pakistan. With a coastline of about 1,120 km, Pakistan has enough fishery resources that remain to be developed. Most of the population of the coastal areas of Sindh and Balochistan depends on fisheries for livelihood. It is also a major source of export earning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commercial fish feed</span> Fish food manufactured commercially

Manufactured feeds are an important part of modern commercial aquaculture. They provide the balanced nutrition needed by farmed fish. The feeds, in the form of granules or pellets, give nutrition in a stable and concentrated form, enabling the fish to feed efficiently and grow to their full potential.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fish protein powder</span> Fish meal product for human consumption

Fish protein powder (FPP) describes a food grade powder product designated primarily for human consumption applications. It differs significantly from fish meal products which are designated for animal feed applications. Fish protein powders have various sanitary processing, purity and functional characteristics which establish them as human food ingredients. Production plants registered for the USA market are located in Peru and France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feed manufacturing</span> Production of animal feed

Feed manufacturing refers to the process of producing animal feed from raw agricultural products. Fodder produced by manufacturing is formulated to meet specific animal nutrition requirements for different species of animals at different life stages. According to the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), there are four basic steps:

  1. Receive raw ingredients: Feed mills receive raw ingredients from suppliers. Upon arrival, the ingredients are weighed, tested and analyzed for various nutrients and to ensure their quality and safety.
  2. Create a formula: Nutritionists work side by side with scientists to formulate nutritionally sound and balanced diets for livestock, poultry, aquaculture and pets. This is a complex process, as every species has different nutritional requirements.
  3. Mix ingredients: Once the formula is determined, the mill mixes the ingredients to create a finished product.
  4. Package and label: Manufacturers determine the best way to ship the product. If it is prepared for retail, it will be "bagged and tagged," or placed into a bag with a label that includes the product's purpose, ingredients and instructions. If the product is prepared for commercial use, it will be shipped in bulk.

AgriProtein is a British agricultural and biotechnology company that uses insects to convert food waste into sustainable products including: an alternative protein for use in livestock and aquaculture feed, a natural oil for use in animal feed, and an organic soil enhancer. The company was founded in 2008 in South Africa. AgriProtein is a subsidiary of the Insect Technology Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Insects as feed</span>

Insects as feed are insect species used as animal feed, either for livestock, including aquaculture, or as pet food.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 R. D. Miles and F. A. Chapman. FA122: The Benefits of Fish Meal in Aquaculture Diets Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date November 2005. Reviewed January 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 M. L. Windsor for the UK Department of Trade and Industry, Torry Research Station. Fish meal. Torry Advisory Note No. 49 Archived 2019-01-01 at the Wayback Machine Published by FAO in partnership with Support unit for International Fisheries and Aquatic Research, SIFAR, 2001) Bibliographical information from FAO index page Archived 2018-12-30 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 Tim Cashion from Sea Around Us. The end use of marine fisheries landings Archived June 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Fisheries Centre Research Reports, 2016
  4. ↑ The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024. FAO. 2024-06-07. doi:10.4060/cd0683en. ISBN   978-92-5-138763-4. Creative Commons by small.svg  This article incorporates textfrom this source, which is available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  5. 1 2 3 Fry JP, et al. Environmental health impacts of feeding crops to farmed fish. Environ Int. 2016 May;91:201-14. Review. PMID   26970884 Free full text
  6. ↑ NOAA NOAA-USDA Alternative Feeds Initiative page accessed June 3, 2016
  7. ↑ Leschin-Hoar, Clare (13 February 2017). "90 Percent Of Fish We Use For Fishmeal Could Be Used To Feed Humans Instead". NPR.
  8. ↑ Jacobs, Andrew (30 April 2017). "China's Appetite Pushes Fisheries to the Brink". The New York Times.
  9. ↑ "Site Offline". 11 February 2019.
  10. ↑ "Manufacture, Storage, Composition And Use Of Fish Meal". Archived from the original on 2019-01-01. Retrieved 2010-09-11.
  11. 1 2 Gündoğdu, S.; Eroldoğan, O. T.; Evliyaoğlu, E.; Turchini, G. M.; Wu, X. G. (2021-03-15). "Fish out, plastic in: Global pattern of plastics in commercial fishmeal". Aquaculture. 534: 736316. doi:10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.736316. ISSN   0044-8486. S2CID   233659976.
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