Crown Prince Haakon was excited about «AquaBioPro-fit»

Kronprins Haakon besøket Nofima i Bergen

Crown Prince Haakon was excited about «AquaBioPro-fit»

Nofima has led an extensive EU project on health effects from marine raw materials, in which Pronofa’s Swedish subsidiary Marine Taste has also played an important role.

(Photo: Helge Skodvin, Nofima)

In mid-March, the stage was set for the presentation of the findings in the AquaBioPro-fit project in Nofima’s laboratory in Bergen. At a closed meeting ahead of the presentation of the results, H.R.H. Crown Prince Haakon was present and talked to some of the researchers.

The clinical tests from the EU project showed, among other things, that dietary supplements containing concentrate from fish offal and fish oil had an effect against depression, increased physical performance and improved skin and hair. This suggests a more extensive use of marine raw materials in the future.

– With the use of enzymatic hydrolysis, products of great value to us humans can be made, says senior researcher Katerina Kousoulaki at Nofima, who has led the project, in a press release

Tunicates for food and feed

The AquaBioPro-fit project has been running since 2018, with a number of participants from all over Europe. One of the companies that assisted Nofima was “Marine Biogas” from Sweden. At the start of the project, they had shifted their focus to foodstuffs, which were developed under the new name Marine Taste.

– In this project, Marine Taste helped develop a new and sustainable ingredient for salmon feed, based on our farming of tunicates, says founder and marine biologist Fredrik Norén of Marine Taste.

– During the project, however, we developed two new foodstuffs from the same raw material: Umami fond and the tunicate hamburger, which is in the spirit of the times. A very exciting result with AquaBioPro-fit was that tunicate meat turned out to have one of the world’s lowest CO2 footprints, Norén continues.

Tunikathamburger fra Marine Taste, innpakket i plast
Bærekraftig kjøtt: Tunikatburgeren har et klimaavtrykk på kun 0,25 kg. CO2 EQ per kg.

Panko-breaded tunicate meatballs were one of the culinary features at the presentation of the AquaBioPro-fit event in Bergen. The umami fond from Marine Taste was of course also used in the soup that was served.

An important part of Pronofa

In 2022, Pronofa acquired the same company. Norén’s team in Sweden is now working closely with project manager Magnus Petersen at Pronofa to further develop the raw material and create new products that can be commercialized.

Tunicates are very suitable as food, but can also be of great value as animal feed and feed for the fish farming industry. The AquaBioPro-fit project has provided Pronofa and Marine Taste with many encouraging answers:

– Finding new, sustainable raw materials for animal feed is becoming more and more important to preserve our planet and to increase food security. Nofima is a leading player for developing new feed ingredients for salmonids. We have received valuable input, which ultimately has resulted in new products for both food and feed, says Petersen.

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