A study in Australia has successfully utilized waste material from the wine industry as an ingredient in aquaculture feed, and will take the trials from the lab to the farm beginning November 2017.
As Food Ingredients 1st reports, the South Australian Research and Development Institute partnered with Tarac Technologies to test the usefulness of grape marc–steamed pulp, seeds, and stems left over from winemaking–in aquaculture feed. During the three-month lab tests, greenlip abalone fed on a mixture that included 5-20 percent grape marc and showed improved growth performance and feed utilization. The trials will now move to an abalone farm in November this year for six months, where 20 percent of the animals’ feed will be made up of this wine waste.
The ingredients of feed is one of the biggest challenges facing aquaculture, as it no longer becomes an efficient food source when five pounds of fish are required to produce one pound of a different fish. Utilizing waste products eliminates this concern by reusing existing resources, not to mention it is much cheaper for the farmer.
Researchers say the product could be commercially available by the second half of 2018, and hope to test the usefulness of grape marc in feeds for carnivorous fish as well, including tilapia and carp, two of the most common aquacultured species.
Tarac hopes to introduce the product to Asia in the near future, where a majority of abalone aquaculture occurs.
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