Project: Sustainable utilization of zooplankton as by-products
| Acronym | BIOZOOSTAIN (Reference Number: 150) |
| Duration | 01/09/2020 - 31/08/2023 |
| Project Topic | The main objectives of BIOZOOSTAIN is to fully process valuable ingredients, such as astaxanthin, chitin, polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, wax-esters and enzymes from marine zooplankton, such as Calanus finmarchicus, which are taken ashore and introduced as a side raw material or by-catch during pelagic fishing. The aim is to use these ingredients to develop new high quality products for the food supplement, cosmetic and nutra-/pharmaceutical markets in a sustainable and ethical way. Novel processing methods will be compared to traditional methods to obtain optimized processing lines for environmentally friendly and sustainable utilization of the zooplankton as bycatch, and attain a zero waste goal in the process of pelagic fisheries. Novel prototypes of high quality product prototypes for human consumption (food-first) from sustainable zooplankton will be developed within the project, based on their physicochemical, sensory, bioactivity and metabolomic/foodomic characteristics these prototypes may have on the human body upon consumption. The feasibility and environmental impact of the productionof these prototoypes will be assessed by life cycle analysis (LCA) to prepare their market introduction. Prediction tools for identification of catching hot-spots and times for the pelagic species and their by-catch will be developed, as well as spectroscopic prediction tools for processing optimization. The innovation potential of the BIOZOOSTAIN project is therefore both very high and ambitious, but also realistic based on the current knowledge and excellence of the project consortium. |
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Project Results (after finalisation) |
·An environmentally friendly and economically sustainable method to utilize zooplankton as a by-catch from pelagic fisheries ·Prototypes of high quality food-first zooplankton based products ·A prediction tool linking optimal product characteristics to catching grounds and seasons ·Spectroscopic prediction tools/applications for process optimization and quality monitoring (NMR, NIR, laser diffraction etc.) ·Zero waste and optimized processing lines for zooplankton rich pelagic fish species, which will lead to higher quality pelagic fish products (whole, fillets, meal and oil) ·Increased knowledge on the effect of processing and handling of zooplankton on human healthand well-being by applying a FoodOmics approach. |
| Network | BlueBio |
| Call | 1st BlueBio Joint Call |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Univerity of Iceland | Coordinator | Iceland |
| 2 | Technical University of Denmark | Partner | Denmark |
| 3 | Matis ohf, Food and Biotech | Partner | Iceland |
| 4 | Icelandic University Hospital | Partner | Iceland |
| 5 | Alma Mater Studiorum - Universita' di Bologna | Partner | Italy |
| 6 | Universitat Politecnica de Valencia | Partner | Spain |
| 7 | FF Skagen | Partner | Denmark |
| 8 | Síldarvinnslan (SVN) | Partner | Iceland |