From lab to plate: life cycle assessment of herring and lingonberry co-product valorization

Conference poster, 2022

Food industry side streams can be a source of valuable raw materials, e.g., high-quality proteins from fish filleting co-products, and natural antioxidants from fruit pomace. pH-shifting is a food processing technique that allows the solubilization and extraction of proteins.  Cross-processing fish co-products and a helper (e.g., lingonberry pomace), inhibits lipid oxidation during processing. We carried out a life cycle assessment of a pH-shift method for cross-processing herring heads and back bones with lingonberry pomace (CROSS). We modeled the resulting protein ingredient as input to a fish ball and compared that with a benchmark fish ball.  We upscaled primary laboratory data for the cross-process following Piccinno et al. (2016). Life cycle inventory data for salmon production was based on Winther et al. (2020), including feed composed of agricultural, micro-ingredients, and 14 different fish species. We also included fishery discards following Pérez Roda (2019). Among other impact indicators we used the depleted stock fraction proposed by Hélias et al. (2018) to characterize impacts on marine resources. Fish balls produced with the cross-processed protein ingredient perform better than the benchmark option in all investigated categories. Using oils extracted during cross-processing in the fish ball formulation could reduce land use impacts of the final product and improve its nutritional profile.