In recent years marine based biochemicals extracted from by-product fractions from the fish processing industry are being introduced into commercial products. There are limited varieties of convenience consumer food products enriched with bioactive ingredients at the European markets. The targeted consumer groups are athletes, elderly people, patients but the products might also appeal to all health oriented consumers seeking ready-to-eat products.
Generally, seafood industries are largely placed far back in the value chain. The challenges facing the seafood industry is identifying added value processes for their raw materials. Commonly after processing, 40-50% of whole white fish can be utilised as edible fish. (FAO Corporate Document Repository, http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/ T0219E/T0219E01.htm). The rest or 50 -60% are by-products of different lower or no values “waste”.
The aim of this project is to convert marine based low value by-products and underutilised raw materials into highly valuable products. Today, most functional foods are coming from the dairy industry, but this project creates also opportunities using new ingredients from the marine industry to various convenience products. Therefore, the results of the project are not only important to partners within the project but also for regions of Europe where fishing is important, creating new business opportunities and a competitive edge on international market.