Flexible biorefinery to valorise discards and by-products of the European fish and seafood production

Introduction

The fishing and seafood industry is central to the food security and livelihoods of billions of people, yet its sustainability is challenged by the following practices:

Challenges in the Industry

1. Discarding of Unwanted Catch
   Discarding unwanted catch back into the ocean results in wasted resources and higher mortality of species. The EU Landing Obligation (LO) aims to cease this practice, yet compliance is very low since landing discards is economically inviable for fishers.

2. Unsustainable Management of By-products
   Unsustainable management of fish and seafood by-products leads to loss of valuable resources and the introduction of disease into fish populations (infected by-products are thrown back to the sea). Current valorisation of by-products into fishmeal is unsustainable due to the low value generated.

Project Overview

To overcome these challenges, the LIFE REFISH consortium joins key international fish and seafood players with the aim of upscaling and demonstrating a biorefinery able to valorise discards and fish and seafood by-products into high value-added products.

Valorisation Processes

Through a set of interconnected valorisation processes, we will obtain:

• High-quality and environmentally friendly protein hydrolysates
• Oils
• Mineral fraction
• Collagen hydrolysates
• Gelatines
• Fish mince
• Chitin
• Chitosan

Economic Benefits

Thanks to the high value of our products, we will be able to offer fishers a 3-6 times higher price for their discards or by-products than the current purchase price for the production of fishmeal or oil. This way, we will make LO compliance economically attractive, fostering its adoption, and encouraging sustainable management of by-products, in line with the European Green Deal.

Goals by 2030

By 2030, we aim to:

• Minimise discarding by 1.8% in Spain
• Valorise 1.9% of the total amount of fish and seafood by-products produced by the Spanish fish and seafood industry

This approach will help reduce wasteful practices and their detrimental impact on the marine environment (disease proliferation, mortality) and industry sustainability.