Chapter 6 - Protein from seafood

Abstract

Nowadays, with the emerging challenge of supplying the growing global population with healthy foods and ingredients providing high-quality protein and essential nutrients, the search for sustainable alternative sources of protein-rich raw materials becomes crucial. A gradual but substantial dietary shift from the current situation to a healthy diet from sustainable food systems is needed to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This step requires a greater than 50% decrease in global consumption of red meat which should be replaced by a sustainable alternative food source providing a similar full protein intake. Under these circumstances, the use of underexplored seafood raw material has recently started to gain growing popularity. Seafood is considered an essential part of the global food system and is included in the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 “Responsible Consumption and Production” and Goal 14 “Life below water.” Edible food from the sea is proposed to increase by 2050, and mariculture can contribute to this if management, technology and shift in feed ingredients are changed. Today marine-based diets clearly limit the growth potential of fish farming in the sea. However, freshwater aquaculture is also pointed out for expansion to produce food. Nevertheless, it is still not adequately addressed from the sustainable development point of view. Both aquaculture and seafood processing fields which belong to the world’s fastest-growing food sectors are currently facing a number of challenges related to the sustainable use of raw materials. Although seafood by-products and discards play a substantial role in fish feed, the aquafeed industry has become increasingly dependent on plant-based feed ingredients from terrestrial systems such as soy. The world food system contributes significantly to the depletion of natural resources and is the greatest threat to the degradation of our ecosystems. Because aquaculture is a small sector of the world food system, it does not use a large share of most resources—the exception being fish meal and fish oil for inclusion in aquaculture feeds. The food system is complex. The use of marine proteins is reduced for carnivorous fish like Atlantic salmon, but the substitutes may also affect the environment—both marine and terrestrial substitutes can have different degrees of sustainability. Improvement of sustainability in the world‘s food production depends on best practices in using the available resources. Thus, the substitution of feed ingredients coming from marine resources for ingredients obtained from sensitive terrestrial ecosystems creates a serious sustainability concern which requires innovative alternative solutions. At the same time, the sustainable production and consumption of seafood products are currently facing a dilemma due to the existing compromise between seafood health benefits and concerns of overfishing and unused fishery discards and by-catch. However, seafood consumption may become one of the crucial parts of the global sustainable diet scenario if alternative seafood sources (including seafood by-products and discards) rich in high-quality protein and essential nutrients are included. The measure of feed conversion ratio (FCR) denoting the quantity of feed required per unit of aquaculture production denotes that species produced through aquaculture convert the feed into animal tissues much more efficiently than pigs, cows, and poultry. This suggests a greater potential for sustainable development of food systems if investing in aquaculture rather than livestock. In this regard, both farmed and wild-capture aquaculture production should be further developed with the inclusion of underexploited seafood species and by-products to promote healthy diets and ensure sustainable use of resources. Underexploited seafood species along with fish and mollusks from wild-capture fisheries and aquaculture represent a crucial part of the food system. They may supply high-quality animal protein for people living in densely populated countries where total protein intake levels may be low along with essential micronutrients, including vitamins A, D, and B, and minerals such as iodine, zinc, calcium, phosphorus, iron, and selenium.