Fishmeal (FM) and fish oil (FO) have historically been the ingredients of choice to provide nutritional advantages in aquaculture feeds. While these ingredients represent efficient nutritional packages, the uncertain future of forage fish stocks means that feed formulators need more options in their pantry to adapt to supply chain disruptions and ensure global food security. To address the growing concern about the availability of FMFO in the future, Future of Fish Feed (F3) was formed as a collaborative effort between NGOs, researchers, and private partnerships to accelerate the commercialization of innovative, substitute aquaculture feed ingredients to replace wild-caught forage fishes.
F3 focuses on three areas:
· F3 meetings and webinars to facilitate networking and collaboration between ingredient suppliers, feed companies, farmers, and investors.
· Feed Innovation Network (FIN) to support the innovation and widespread adoption of fish-free feed ingredients by providing experimental protocols, open formulas, and connections to testing facilities and ingredient providers.
Through these major areas of focus, the F3 team has brought together the aquafeed industry to address the challenges facing the sector and provide opportunities for alternative ingredient providers and fish farmers to connect. Industry feedback on the technical difficulty of developing fish oil substitutes and replacing FMFO in carnivorous fish diets led to the F3 Fish Oil and Carnivore Challenges. F3 meetings brought together emerging alternative ingredient suppliers, investors, and some of the world’s largest feed manufacturers to spark new ideas to facilitate FMFO replacement among members of the aquaculture industry. The Feed Innovation Network was launched in response to requests for a repository of alternative ingredient information. F3 feed research trials continue to address knowledge gaps in fish-free ingredient research. Since marine fishes and shrimps claim a disproportionately high value in the seafood market and include some of the biggest users of FMFO, these species are priorities for F3 research.
F3 continues to evolve as the needs of the aquafeed sector change and new opportunities for alternative ingredients arise. New ingredients are coming online every day, but the race to replace fishmeal and fish oil will only advance through collaboration across the seafood industry. The responsiveness of industry will be a key factor in its ability to feed the growing population and protect the world’s oceans.