F3 – the Future of Fish Feed challenge has selected two winners in the latest edition of its initiative to promote alternatives to wild-caught ingredients in fish feed.
The latest edition of the challenge, the F3 Krill Replacement Challenge, was launched in June 2023 as a means of finding a replacement for krill in aquaculture feed ingredients. The challenge attracted 40 initial applicants, which were narrowed down to just 10 finalists in November 2023.
Those 10 finalists then had to perform comparative feed trials pitting each replacement ingredient against one another to see which would result in the best health and growth of Atlantic salmon.
Now, the challenge announced two finalists: Brazil-based BRF Ingredients and Germany-based Symrise, have jointly won the top prize and will share the USD 100,000 (EUR 92,000) award.
According to the challenge organizers, both companies saw the best growth, feed consumption, and survival rates in a 12-week feed trial of Atlantic salmon.
"The F3 Krill Replacement Challenge has highlighted the incredible innovation and potential within the aquaculture industry, demonstrating that there are multiple solutions to replace krill," F3 Challenge Chair Kevin Fitzsimmons, who is also a professor at the University of Arizona, said. "These alternatives will help protect our oceans while ensuring the continued growth of aquaculture."
BRF Ingredients is a business unit of BRF, and its feed product used chicken hydrolyzed protein – an ingredient created through the enzymatic hydrolysis process of chicken raw material proteins. Using offal, giblets, or chicken meat, the process creates a hypoallergenic feed ingredient.
"For us at BRF Ingredients, this recognition reinforces our commitment to feed the world with sustainable, high-quality, and global standard ingredients,” BRF Ingredients Vice President of Marketing and New Channels Marcel Sacco said of the award. “We congratulate all participants while celebrating our hydrolyzed product team’s technical skills and talent."
The other winner, Symrise, is a provider of fragrances, flavors, and ingredients for food, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals in 160 countries. Symrise Aqua Feed leads the company’s development of aquaculture ingredients – which includes a hydrolysates plant-based protein that served as its krill replacement in the challenge.
"As a firm believer in the immense potential of byproduct valorization, I see this award as a testament to our ability to develop natural ingredients from circularly sourced raw materials," Symrise Aqua Feed Marketing Director Vincent Percier said. "This innovation enables us to replace wild and endangered species like krill in feed formulations, contributing to a more sustainable global food production footprint."
In addition to the monetary award, five companies have agreed to test the winning products within their commercial aquaculture operations, which the F3 organization called a “significant milestone” for the initiative in 2024.
"We commend these companies for recognizing the importance of finding alternatives to krill to ensure global food security and protect ocean health,” Fitzsimmons said.
Those companies included Denmark-headquartered BioMar Group, Denmark-based Aller Aqua, Thailand-based grouper farmer Aqquua, and the Dainichi Corporation in Japan.
In addition to the two winners, F3 named three honorable mentions: China-based Calysseo’s single-cell protein, Netherlands-based Orffa Additives’ amino-acid extract, and France-based Phileo by Lesaffre’s yeast extract. F3 said all three demonstrated exceptional performance as potential krill replacements.
The F3 challenge said it plans to announce a new competition focused on whole fish farm production in the summer of 2025.
