Microalgae support the future of sustainable fish feed 

Marine ingredients are a fantastic source of nutrition for farm-grown fish. But, if you ask one of the world leaders in high-performance feed for the aquaculture industry, the search for novel ingredients to advance innovation and sustainability is ongoing.

This is why Danish BioMar was first to introduce the microalgae product AlgaPrime™ DHA as a sustainable alternative to marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids for use in fish feed.

The goal is to reduce the so-called Fish in – Fish out ratio, which refers to the volume of live fish required to produce enough fishmeal or fish oil to grow a unit of farmed seafood. At the same time, BioMar wants to ensure that feed for aquaculture does not compete with food supply chains for human consumption.

As a natural source of omega fatty acids, microalgae are an obvious alternative. It is from these microalgae that fish and fish oil actually obtain their content of omega fatty acids in the first place. In other words, by formulating feed mixes with microalgae, it is possible to skip the ‘middle fish’.

Using BioMar feed mixes with AlgaPrime™ DHA, fish farms can reduce their dependence on wild fish stocks, lowering the environmental impact of their production and helping to keep more nutrients in the value chain.

The transition to more sustainable fish feed is well underway, as the first commercially available feed mix with microalgae was launched in 2016. Today, microalgae is no longer a niche ingredient – but a commercially viable choice.

The first commercial feeds containing microalgae hit the markets in 2016, and by 2021 BioMar had reached one million tonnes of salmon feeds containing microalgae