BAP executive departs; GAA announces first 2020 Innovation Award finalist

Chris Trosin is stepping down from his role as senior vice president of business development for the Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) third-party certification program, the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) announced on 10 September.

His exit will allow Trosin to pursue a new endeavor as the owner of Metro Lobster & Seafood, a wholesale and retail business based out of the U.S. state of Rhode Island.

Trosin, who originally joined GAA as BAP’s vice president of business development in January 2017, also worked with High Linger Foods (USA) Inc. for 10 years, serving as the company’s vice president of sales and marketing-retail.

GAA CEO Wally Stevens said Trosin has left a lasting impression on BAP over the course of his three-year service.

“Chris has led the BAP market development team to new heights. In his three-and-a-half years at GAA, the number of BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries, and feed mills has grown from about 1,500 to 2,773 today through the support of the industry as well as our retail and foodservice partners. Chris has a very good relationship with them,” Stevens said. “Chris has been a wonderful representative of GAA to all of our stakeholders. While we wish him success in his new endeavor, we will miss him greatly on a personal level.”

GAA said it’s in the process of searching for a replacement for the executive, with Trosin providing support during a transition period this month.

In other GAA news, the organization has revealed the first of three finalists for its annual Global Aquaculture Innovation Award: ME-PRO from Prairie AquaTech.

Developed by a Brookings, South Dakota, U.S.A.-based alternative aquaculture manufacturer Prairie AquaTech, ME-PRO is a plant-based protein ingredient, with its name translating to “microbially enhanced protein,” CEO Mark Luecke told The Advocate.

“Our technology can handle many types of plant protein. Soybean meal has a good starting protein content, about 45 percent,” Luecke said. “But there are a number of antinutritional factors that need to be addressed, like allergenic proteins, oligosaccharides, and complex carbohydrates. Our process increases protein content, also making it more digestible.”

Prairie AquaTech’s manufacturing facility in Volga, South Dakota, operates several 50,000-gallon bioreactors that are used to ferment soybean meal “with a naturally occurring microorganism or microbe, using sugars as a feedstock,” according to The Advocate. The result is a “guaranteed 70 percent protein, highly digestible” ingredient, Luecke said, which can be incorporated into diets for salmonid, shrimp, and marine species at high inclusion rates. Whole Foods Market is currently selling rainbow trout raised on a diet with ME-PRO, with an inclusion rate of 35 percent, Luecke added.

Luecke, along with representatives from the other two finalists, will present their innovations during GAA’s upcoming virtual GOAL Conference, taking place from 5 to 8 October. Announcements of the other two finalists will be featured in The Advocate in the next two weeks.

Photo courtesy of the Global Aquaculture Alliance