Environmental challenges

Aquaculture map

What is fish feed made of?

Bellona, 10/01-2009

The fish feed of today consists of several different ingredients. Earlier only marine raw materials where used in the production of fish feed. But a growing aquaculture industry has led to a trend where more and more of resources comes from vegetable raw materials. Now the Norwegian authorities also open for the use of animal ingredients and therefore we will probably see that the proportion of marine resources will be reduced further. The table below shows the composition of the "traditional" fish feed (Waagbø et al., 2001) compared to a feed from 2007 (Skretting, 2008). The use of marine ingredients has been reduced from 68 to 52 percent of the raw materials used in marine origin.

 

Waagbø et al., 2001

Skretting 2008

Feed ingredient
g/kg
Feed ingredient
g/kg
Fish meal
350
Fish meal
300
Fish oil
280
Fish oil
180
Fish ensilage
50
Fish ensilage
40
Corn- and wheat gluten
70
Vegetable protein
250
Soy products
60
  
Soybean oil
30
Vegetable oil
110
Wheat
120
Wheat meal
100
Other
40
Other
20
 

Copyright © Bellona -- Reprint and copying is recommended if source is stated

Last updated