CFEED AS is the world's first commercial company to produce copepods in intensive aquaculture systems. From the company's factory in Vanvikan, Norway, CFEED produces and sells eggs from the copepod Acartia tonsa to the marine aquaculture sector both in Norway and abroad. In the factory, adult copepods are maintained in large tanks year-round. Each production cycle usually lasts a few weeks before the egg production of the female copepod decreases and the population in the tanks are replaced, and the old population discarded. This discarded biomass has so far not been utilized sustainably.
Destroying such a valuable raw material, rich in marine polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids, marine proteins containing essential amino acids for farmed species, and minerals, vitamins and pigments which are all important components in aquafeeds, is not sustainable. CFEED and SINTEF Ocean will in the COPREST-project explore the possibility of utilising this rest raw material as a feed ingredient for the aquafeed industry, where the scarcity of marine proteins and lipids is considered to be the biggest challenge needing to be solved in order for the aquaculture sector to continue to grow sustainably.
The main objective of the COPREST-project is to explore the possibility of using untapped resources from CFEEDs copepod factory as a new commodity for the aquafeed industry.
Secondary objectives:
- Quantify volume of rest raw materials
- Biochemical analyses and characterisation of rest raw materials
- Evaluate the suitability of the raw materials as a feed ingredient and explore market potential