Future of Fish Feed krill replacement challenge names 10 finalists

The Future of Fish Feed (F3) has selected the 10 companies that will get to compete in its krill replacement challenge, the latest in a series of contests designed to increase innovation in the aquaculture feed ingredient space.

F3 selected the 10 finalists from 40 different companies that signed up to participate in the competition. F3 has run the challenge every year since 2015, and requires participants to innovate and sell a new fish-free variety of aquaculture feed that in the past has focused on metrics like the presence of omega-3s in the alternative feed, and feeds targeting a specific species raised via aquaculture such as salmon or shrimp.

This year, the feed replacement challenge is focusing on a replacement for krill in a 12-week feed trial for Atlantic salmon, which the challenge organizers said is a fish “known by farmers to be finicky eaters.” The 10 finalists will compete to see which replacement product delivers the best farming metrics – such as growth, feed consumption, and survival – with the winner getting a USD 100,000 (EUR 91,000) prize.

The 10 finalists are: U.S.-based APC LLC, which uses a spray-dried plasma; Brazil-based BRF Ingredients, which is using a chicken hydrolysate; China-based Calysseo, which is using a single-cell protein; Finland-based eniferBio, using a fungus; Singapore-based Entobel, using black soldier flies; Netherlands-based Orffa Additives, using an amino-acid extract; France-based Phileo by Lesaffre, using a yeast extract; Netherlands-based Protix, using black soldier flies; India-based Shaivaa Algaetech, using algae; and Germany-based Symrise, using protein hydrolysate.

“It wasn’t an easy decision to select these finalists out of the 40 great krill replacement products we received,” F3 Judge Kevin Fitzsimmons, a professor of environmental science at the University of Arizona, said. “Ultimately, we are happy with the diversity of products and companies that are moving to the next phase of the competition.”

The finalists will now be entered into the feed trial, which will see their feed additives used in an F3-designed, plant-based feed for Atlantic salmon.

Five more companies – U.S.-based Agri-King Nutrition, Knipbio, and NovoNutrients; France-based Arbiom; and Spain-based Lucta – were chosen as alternates if one of the finalists’ products cannot be incorporated into the F3-designed feed being used in the trial.

The F3 Krill Replacement Challenge, the organization said, was specifically motivated by feed companies “particularly from China” saying a krill replacement would help them negotiate a transition to fish-free feed. 

Photo courtesy of TRR/Shutterstock