Use of fish meal

26/10/2022

19/09/2022

Cooking, pressing, drying and grinding the fish make fishmeal. There are several processing methods to produce good quality fishmeal, but the basic principle involves separation of the solids from the oil and water. When no oil needs to be removed, such as with lean fish, the pressing stage is often omitted. During cooking, the fish move through a long, steam-jacketed, screw conveyor cylinder, that coagulates the tissue proteins.
This is a critical process, also responsible for sterilising the product and preparing it for removal of the "liquor", which is a mixture of oil, water, and soluble protein. Once cooked, the liquor is removed by pressing, and the solid residue that remains is called "presscake". The liquor is centrifuged to remove the oil, which is often further refined before being transported to storage tanks. Prior to storage, it is essential to add an antioxidant to stabilize the oil, and the stored oil should not come into contact with air, heat or light to maintain its quality.
Table 2. Principal fish species in fishmeal. Most of these fishes are small, bony, with high content of oil, and considered of little edible use (eg, anchovies, herrings, capelin, menhaden). A small percentage of fishmeal is rendered from fish offal, trimmings or cuttings, and other wastes principally from filleting and canning operations from the edible fisheries (eg, tuna, cod, haddock, hake, po***ck).
Anchovies (Engraulidae):
eg, Peruvian anchoveta (Engraulis ringens);
Japanese anchovy (Engraulis japonicus).
Herrings, Menhaden, Sardines and Shads (Clupeidae):
eg, Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus);
Menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus and B patronus);
South American and Japanese pilchards (Sardinops sagax) and other species; European pilchard (Sardina pilchardus); European sprat (Sprattus sprattus).
Smelts (Osmeridae):
eg, Capelin (Mallotus villosus).
Jacks (Carangidae):
eg, Chilean horse mackerel (Trachurus murphyi), Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus). Po***ck, Cod, and Haddock (Gadidae) eg, Walleye or Alaska Po***ck (Theragra chalcogramma);
Atlantic and Pacific cods (Gadus morhua and G cephalus);
Georges Bank haddock (Melanogramus aeglefinus); Norway pout (Trisopterus esmarkii);
Blue whiting (Micromesistius poutassou).
Hakes (Merlucciidae) and Sand lances (Ammodytidae):
eg, Hake (Merluccius sp.);
Hoki (Macruronus novaezelandie).
Small and lesser sandeels (Ammodytes marinus and Ammodytes tobianus).
Tunas and Mackerels (Scombridae):
eg, Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonos pelamis), Yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares);
Chub mackerel (Scomber japonicus), Atlantic mackerel (S scombrus).
Cutlassfishes (Trichiuridae):
eg, Largehead hairtail or Atlantic cutlassfish (Trichiurus lepturus).
After the oil and suspended solids are removed from the liquor, the remaining liquid is referred to as "stickwater" (about 65 percent of the raw material). Stickwater is a valuable product containing minerals, vitamins, some residual oil, and as much as 20 percent soluble and undissolved (suspended) proteins. The stickwater is evaporated to a consistency of thick syrup containing from 30 percent to 50 percent solids. This material can be sold as "condensed fish solubles", or it can be added back to the presscake and dried with it. Therefore, one can purchase "presscake" meal or a "whole" meal (where all of the solubles have been added back).
The meals are then dried so that the moisture content is low enough to allow the meal to be stored and transported without any substantial mold or bacterial growth. Drying can be either direct or indirect; direct drying is the most rapid and requires very hot air to be passed over the meal as it is rapidly tumbled in a cylindrical drum. If the drying process is not carefully controlled or over-drying occurs, the fishmeal may be scorched and the nutritional value of the meal will be adversely affected. Indirect drying requires a steam-jacketed cylinder or a cylinder containing steam-heated discs that tumble the meal. Once the fishmeal is dried it is ground, screened to the correct particle size, and packed in bags or stored in silos for bulk delivery to companies throughout the world.

19/09/2022

Marine Fish Meal and Oil Use
Aquaculture feeds usually contain fish meal and fish oil of marine origin. Aquaculture uses around 50% of current fish meal production and about 80% of fish oil production. The growth of aquaculture could be greatly restrained by future shortages of fish meal and fish oil. Research to develop feeds containing less fish meal and fish oil is needed, and greater use of fish meal and oil made from fish processing wastes should be encouraged. An example of greater efficiency in fish meal use is afforded by the channel catfish industry in the United States. In the 1960s, channel catfish feed contained 12–14% fish meal. Research on feeds has allowed the fish meal content of catfish feeds to be reduced to 2–4%.

19/09/2022

Fish Meal and Fish Oil as Main Ingredients
Fish meal and fish oil are natural ingredients of high nutritional value and are the main ingredients in aquaculture feeds because they supply essential amino acids and lipids needed for an animal's development. Fish meal is a source of high-quality protein with a well-balanced essential and nonessential amino acids’ profile (Tacon & Metian, 2008). In view of its advantageous characteristics, aquaculture has continued to increase the demand for fish products during the last 50 years. Additionally, fish meal and fish oil provide a balanced amount of the most essential minerals, phospholipids, and fatty acids, which help to increase the growth rate and production yields. Fish oil is a great source of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic fatty acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic fatty acid, which are not made by the fish but become concentrated further up the food chain from the marine phytoplankton. However, fish meal and fish oil are generally expensive and are not always available. In addition, it is well documented that the marine resources from fisheries capture are going to the end soon. In this sense, fish meal and fish oil prices have been increasing exponentially during the last two decades, reducing profits from aquaculture (Klinger & Naylor, 2012; Tacon & Metian, 2008;
Many ingredients of animal and vegetable origin have been used to substitute fish meal and fish oil without the expected success (Enes, Panserat, Kaushik, & Oliva-Teles, 2008; German, Horn, & Gawlicka, 2004; Hemre, Shiau, Deng, Storebakken, & Hung, 2002; Samocha, Davis, Saoud, & DeBault, 2004; Sookying & Davis, 2011). Another attempt was made trying to adapt diet ingredients to the enzymatic profile of the animals; however, this strategy has not been practical or economically viable for the aquaculture industry. Using proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids from the vegetable origin could improve yields of the activity because the technology to produce grains from agriculture is getting better each year.

19/09/2022

Variations in fish meal are largely attributed to species and seasonal differences with fish meal production. Differences in the amino acid profile of fish meal owing to differences in fish species are shown in Table 6.2. Here, although herring fish meal contained 3.90% higher CP relative to menhaden, its Lys level is 0.31% lower, indicating that CP level does not indicate the same amino acid profile for fish meal of different species. Sometimes, seafood waste is also used in the production of fish meal, which further exacerbates the variation in the nutrient levels of fish meal.

19/09/2022

Fish meal is acquired from the specialized industry that maintains fleets that harvest entire fish exclusively for processing into fish meal. Fish meal is also produced from the inedible portions of food fish. The protein derived from both sources is highly valuable to the feed and ingredient industry. Historically, fish meal has commanded premium prices compared with other animal protein sources and most plant sources. It has an excellent amino acid composition that is highly bioavailable. Fish meal is appreciated as a feed ingredient for its palatability-enhancing properties, especially in feline diets. Properties of fish meals vary with respect to the species of fish that comprise the raw material; there are species differentiation of respective and fish meals that are often included in the ingredient name. Some countries prohibit the use of fish meal for finishing pigs due to the risk of ‘fishy’ off-flavor.
There has been concern recently about the depletion of free harvested fish and thus over the future availability of fish meal. Each year a higher proportion of seafood and shellfish produced by aquaculture replaces seafood and shellfish traditionally sourced from commercial fishing and the aquaculture industry is projected to continue its growth.
The processing of fish by-products from aquaculture production represents a supplementary income to producers and processors of fish for human consumption.

19/09/2022

Fish meal has excellent nutritional properties, with a high content of digestible protein and balanced EAA. Moreover, fish meal is also rich in other nutrients such as essential fatty acids, phospholipids, cholesterol, minerals, and certain vitamins (Tacon et al., 2009). Table 6.1 provides the CP and amino acid levels of fish meal used in the Asia south region over a number of years. More than 80% of samples originated from the India, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam with crude protein levels ranging roughly from 40% to 75%. Fish meal processed in recent years (2012 and 2014) contained higher levels of CP and EAA compared with those produced in 2010. Protein and amino acid content of fish meal varied widely, with CV recorded to be 7–10% for CP and >10% for amino acids.

19/09/2022

Fish meal (FM) has been traditionally used as the main protein source in the aquafeed industry, due to its high protein content and balanced EAA profile. FM is also an excellent source of essential fatty acids (EFAs), digestible energy, minerals and vitamins. The increased demand for FM, coupled with a significant shortage in global FM production, has created sharp competition for its use by the animal feed industry. As a result, FM has become the most expensive protein commodity in animal and aquaculture feeds in recent years (El-Sayed, 1998, 1999). Many developing countries have realized that, in the long run, they will be unable to afford FM as a major protein source in aquafeed. Many attempts have been made to partially or totally replace FM with less expensive, locally available protein sources.

19/09/2022

Fish meal is a brown powder which normally contains a high level of protein and appreciable quantities of lipid and minerals. Of world fish meal production, about 90% is produced from oily species of fish, such as sardine, anchovy, capelin, and menhaden, and less than 10% from white fish offal (frames), such as cod and haddock. Of the annual world catch of fish, about one-third is used as raw material for fish meal production, this being sustainable catches for which there is no direct outlet for human consumption.