Raising seafood self-sufficiency aided by agricultural side streams - SEASIDE

Research Project, 2023 – 2022

Sweden exports nearly 85% of all its fish raw materials for fodder meal/oil production -mainly herring and sprat- while we at the same time import 74% of all consumed seafood. The resulting poor seafood self-sufficiency makes us highly vulnerable if import ceases, calling for fast re-direction of herring and sprat into local food value chains. A major challenge preventing such a development is however the high susceptibility of herring/sprat to hemoglobin (Hb)-mediated lipid oxidation which can reduce eating quality and nutritional properties; the latter also during digestion. In SEASIDE, antioxidant-rich juice press cakes (\"pomaces\") are explored as a clean label concept to combat herring/sprat lipid oxidation, which thus can aid redirection of both blue and green untapped food resources into the food chain. In collaboration with several stakeholders, the project will: (i) unravel levels and addition modes at which pomaces e.g., from lingonberry, most efficiently prevent storage- and digestion-induced lipid oxidation in herring/sprat mince, (ii) assure that potential polyphenol-protein interactions do not hamper protein digestibility, (iii) elucidate which are the most potent antioxidants/antioxidant fractions in pomaces and their main modes of action. The project thus elegantly ties together blue and green value chains, pre- and post-ingestion nutrient modifications and also several previous Formas-projects, securing a new generation seafood products.