Author: Jean-Pascal Berge

Publisher:

Published: 2008-01-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9788178953403

According to the recent FAO report on by-catch and discards, the weighted discard rate of fisheries is estimated at 8% and the yearly average discards are estimated to be 7.3 million tons that are directly thrown to the seas. They are constituted by non targeted species and by residues due to fish transformation on-board. After landing, this wide variety of marine species of animals is converted into seafood. Of those animals, only a portion is usually separated from the carcass and used as food. The remainder is by-product, often rich in protein, which can (should!) be processed into useful products. By-products from fisheries, included fish farming consist of viscera (liver, roe, stomachs, etc.), heads, backbones, trimmings and rejected fish from processing. These by-products are generated when the fish is headed, gutted and further processed. The raw materials that come from traditional fisheries and aquaculture can be regarded as a great and valuable source of proteins both for animal and human nutrition. Today most of the by-products are used as raw materials for feed production; such as fish meal, fish sauce, fish silage and feed for animals. However, as presented in this book, promising opportunities exist for upgrading marine by-products and underutilized fish by using mild processing techniques to convert them into protein and peptide ingredients both to improve yield in traditional seafood and to be used as nutraceuticals or in functional foods. Many mild techniques like pH shift, fermentation, enzymatic hydrolysis, filtration, centrifugation and spray and freeze drying can be used in the processing and production of valuable products. Indeed, it is estimated that if we succeed to utilize more of the by-products as food for humans and as ingredients in foodstuff, health foods, nutraceuticals, pharmacy, cosmetics etc., the value adding may increase by 5 folds. However, adequate handling and pre-treatment practices for discards and wastes both on board and on shore (auctions) including separation, classification, stabilization and conservation are required in order to preserve valuable components and to allow further added value. Some examples of processes (enzymatic hydrolysis, membrane filtration, centrifugation,&), products (proteins, peptides, lipids, aroma,&) and applications for those resulting products (feed, food, functional food, nutraceutical, health,&) are given into this book but many others exist. Indeed, it is reasonable to expect that innovation will continue and will help industry to turn waste into by-products and by-products into products. Can we imagine that considering wastes as resources will solve the problem of wastes and will preserve the resources? A unique feature of the current book is that it brings together, in one place, information of the entire field of marine by-products soft-processing and utilization. We have incorporated new and updated information throughout this book. This book will be useful for anyone interested in marine by-product soft-processes or marine by-product utilization, individual interested in recycling and those interested in a sustainable example of reutilization of valuable material. Careful consideration was given to selecting the contributors of this book. The authors were all belonging to the network SEApro (Sustainable Exploitation of Aquatic PROducts, www.seapro.fr) dedicated to the fisheries wastes upgrading for promoting a total utilization of the fish in order to be in accordance with international trends in development of sustainable fisheries. Authors are all recognized as experts in their respective areas. I would like to thank all the contributors for their hard work and tolerance for my sometimes severe demands. Experts have refereed all papers and I wish to express my gratitude for their referee work.