A sustainable and profitable Swedish seafood sector: Increased yield and value from limited marine resources

Important results from the project

The overarching goal of the project has been to contribute to getting more food and other hig value products from underutilized marine resources from Swedish fisheries and seafood production. This was achieved by first mapping the volumes and present use of these resources, then extracting valuable components that can be used in food or other applications, and finally analyse the environmental and economic potential of changing the use of these resources. Results have shown that there is a great potential to increase the sustainability and profitability of the Swedish seafood sector.

Expected long term effects

The mapping showed that there are close to 40000 tonnes of underutilized marine biomass to work with. Interesting bioactive compounds were identified in the part of the catch that is today discarded, in particular in ratfish, but not in the species under the landing obligation. The methods for protein extraction were developed and now wait for someone to take the next step towards commercialization. The scenario analysis demonstrated the scale of the potential, both environmentally and economically. We have also become involved in Nordic and European initiatives in the field.

Approach and implementation

We followed our plan with the work packages quite well, but the project was delayed first due to lack of staff, then due to disease, why we applied for extension of the project period. The initial mapping of flows was very useful both to get to know the sector and their insights.The part about bioactive peptides did not give as interesting results as we had hoped, only for the discard species ratfish. The food ingredient part of the project was more rewarding and we could document a major technological, economic and environmental potential of increased utilization.