Abstract
Seafood by-products, produced by a range of different organisms, such as fishes, shellfishes, squids, and bivalves, are usually discarded as wastes, despite their possible use for innovative formulations of functional foods. Considering that “wastes” of industrial processing represent up to 75% of the whole organisms, the loss of profit may be coupled with the loss of ecological sustainability, due to the scarce recycling of natural resources. Fish head, viscera, skin, bones, scales, as well as exoskeletons, pens, ink, and clam shells can be considered as useful wastes, in various weight percentages, according to the considered species and taxa. Besides several protein sources, still underexploited, the most interesting applications of fisheries and aquaculture by-products are foreseen in the biotechnological field. In fact, by-products obtained from marine sources may supply bioactive molecules, such as collagen, peptides, polyunsaturated fatty acids, antioxidant compounds, and chitin, as well as catalysts in biodiesel synthesis. In addition, those sources can be processed via chemical procedures, enzymatic and fermentation technologies, and chemical modifications, to obtain compounds with antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-cancer, anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, and anti-coagulant effects. Here, we review the main discards from fishery and aquaculture practices and analyse several bioactive compounds isolated from seafood by-products. In particular, we focus on the possible valorisation of seafood and their by-products, which represent a source of biomolecules, useful for the sustainable production of high-value nutraceutical compounds in our circular economy era.
Highlights
Seafood wastes are used as raw material for silage, fish meal, and fertilizer or as a component of aqua- and poultry feeds [26,27,28,29] thank to the high content of proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and other nutrients having various health benefits including carotenoids, minerals, vitamins, squalene, glycosaminoglycans
The data reported show that seafood by-products contain a range of valuable biomolecules, fully appreciating what is usually considered a “waste” and exploiting them to improve human wellness and health
Humans still relieve on marine natural resources as one of the main ingredients for human consumption
Summary
Global seafood production in the year 2016 was assessed to be about 171 million tons (Figure 1) [1]. Fisheries bycatch discards are produced through low-selective fishing gears, not equipped to exclude non-targeted organisms. Shrimp small-scale andfisheries, artisanal fisheries exhibit very low or negligible discards, in of in tropical waters, had the highest total amount and proportion with weighted average rate of total trawling some areas, fordiscards example in athe. In the Atlantic Ocean, redfish (Sebastidae, 19%), hake (Merlucciidae, 18%), American plaice (Pleuronectidae, 13%) and rays (Rajidae, 12%) are the dominating species [2] These organisms are potentially marketable but, when taken by fishing gears, are not retained and utilized, either because of poor product quality or small size and/or due to deliberate high-grading of catches (especially in areas outside of management intervention). A commercial product named Prevagen® , a dietary supplement containing apoaequorin, a protein extracted from the jellyfish Aequorea victoria, has been demonstrated to bind calcium in the brain, improving the electrical signals between nerve cells and contributing to prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s disease [24,25]
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