With her extensive background in fish nutrition, Jamie Marie Hooft aims to find out how novel feed ingredients affect growth performance and health of fish. The researcher from Canada recently moved to Norway to join the centre for research-based innovation Foods of Norway at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).
Today, Norwegian aquaculture is dependent on imported feed ingredients. However, yeast grown on sugars from Norwegian spruce trees may replace imported proteins and can even make the fish healthier and more robust.
A group from Foods of Norway travelled in June to Sorrento in Italy to participate in the 20th International Symposium on Fish Nutrition and Feeding. The group contributed with five oral presentations and one poster, presenting results mainly from Foods of Norway and the spin-off project Resilient Salmon.
Local and sustainable food is in demand, and with the world’s second longest coastline, seaweed can play an important role in Norway's self-sufficiency. Feeding our cattle with sugar kelp can have great benefits for the environment, the animals and for us humans.
What feed ingredients we use may be linked to how fish behave in stressful situations. This could have significant implications for the aquaculture industry.
New research shows that insects grown on low quality organic material can be converted into high quality feed ingredients. This knowledge can help to facilitate the circular bioeconomy while feeding the increasing global population.
Locally produced feed based on sustainable, novel ingredients is slowly getting closer to market. At the Norwegian shore, at Dønna in Sandnessjøen, salmon are now being given feed based on by-products from the Norwegian forest.
Foods of Norway brings together scientists from all over the world. Immunologist Byron Morales-Lange from Chile is one of them. “Working with research in an international environment is a very enriching approach to improving knowledge”, he says.
Yeast made from Norwegian spruce trees is a high-quality feed ingredient that can replace imported protein. A fruitful collaboration between industry and research has for the first time successfully achieved a large-scale production of yeast from local, sustainable resources
Through their report, “Råvareløftet”, Bellona aims to change the Norwegian salmon industry, through novel, more sustainable solutions. Foods of Norway has participated in the report.
Six pens are filled with tiny, fluffy yellow chickens. For the next five weeks they will hopefully help pave the way to a more sustainable agriculture in Norway – one foot at a time.
Seaweed can be a lot more than a vegetable. Researchers in Foods of Norway at NMBU aim to find out how. For instance with its potential to make our food better and our animals healthier.
Based on methods stemming back to the 1970s, the Finnish company eniferBio has developed a new and sustainable production process for a high-quality fish feed ingredient. Foods of Norway is very excited to have this expertise at hand as the start-up now becomes a partner in the centre.
The report “Life Cycle Assessment of Yeast from Spruce” has been carried out by Norsus on behalf of Foods of Norway, evaluating the environmental impact of the production of yeast from spruce trees.
A healthy gut is crucial when piglets are separated from their mother and introduced to solid foods. Novel, more sustainable feed resources can help them to better handle the transition.
A new spin-off project in Foods of Norway will strengthen the bioeconomy in the Nordic region by developing sustainable feed ingredients from locally available food-, agriculture-, and forestry waste streams.
Alternative protein is one of the trends highlighted by the Nordic Council of Ministers in a new report. The consensus is that further development is still dependent on the support of policymakers, especially if the aim is strengthened initiatives throughout the Nordic and Baltic region.
In the event of closed borders and restrictions on imports, how do we ensure food security for our four-legged friends? New research shows that locally produced feed resources can be just as good, and even better, than those we import from overseas.
Piglets and broiler chickens perform just as well or even better when fed novel feeds based on protein such as yeast, produced from Norwegian spruce trees.
Lallemand, a global company with strong expertise in fermentation technology, is now an official partner of Foods of Norway, strengthening the development of innovative feeds for aquaculture and agriculture.
Less than two thirds of farm animals and fish end up as human food. Unused biomass from the fish and meat industry can become high quality feed for salmon and pigs and increase sustainability in food production, new research finds.
Salmon that makes efficient use of its feed is crucial in order to ensure sustainable growth in aquaculture. Hanne Dvergedal in Foods of Norway has discovered a pioneering method to detect the most efficient “bodybuilders”.
NMBU has received 20 million NOK in funding for two spin-off projects for Foods of Norway: one on salmon health and one on the sustainability of novel feeds.
This autumn, the development of novel, Norwegian feed ingredients has been brought one step closer to commercialization. – We now need to move from academia to industry, says professor Vincent Eijsink in Foods of Norway.
Denofa AS, the leading importer and processor of sustainable and non-GMO soy for animal compound feed in Norway, has signed up as a partner in Foods of Norway.
She knows a great deal about salmon. Researcher Brankica Djordjevic tests and evaluates how the novel feed ingredients developed by Foods of Norway affect salmon`s health and growth performance.
Working for a big oil company in India, engineer Sandeep Sharma longed for a more sustainable career-path. Three years later he is defending his PhD-thesis at NMBU with ground-breaking results on novel fish feed derived from seaweed and spruce trees.
NMBU`s Department of Animal and Aquacultural Sciences (IHA) is currently inviting applications for a 3-year PhD position in monogastric animal nutrition and feed ingredient processing.
The sugar kelp is a «super-organism» that can be used in animal feed and a wide range of other important products. Still, genetic improvement is required to make cultivation more profitable. A new spin-off from Foods of Norway aims to make this happen.
Piglets thriving on a new ‘woody’ diet represent a big opportunity for the forest industry. Foods of Norway`s piglets and researchers will soon be starring in a film made by the Norwegian Forest Owners’ Federation.
To attract industrial partners, research institutions should aim to be creative, practically inclined and on top of their game, says Foods of Norway partner Borregaard AS.
Sometimes she`s wearing the white coat herself, and sometimes she`s planning the experiments of others. Engineer Milena Bjelanovic is involved in several of Foods of Norway`s work packages.
The interest and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive, says director Margareth Øverland after promoting Foods of Norway at an international conference in Amsterdam.
How can we reduce the environmental impact of food production by developing new protein sources for farm animals? Thats the question that motivates Leidy Lagos, Foods of Norway researcher at NMBU's Faculty of Biosciences.
Foods of Norway is currently inviting applications for a full-time, 5-year senior researcher position. The research project involves evaluating novel feed ingredients in diets for monogastric animals and farmed fish.
For piglets, the time around weaning is very stressful. Away from their mother, they have to adapt to other feed than milk. Could the use of yeast as a highly digestible protein source ease gastro-intestinal problems like diarrhea in newly weaned piglets?
Foods of Norway aims to feed fish and farm animals using new ingredients produced from trees and macro algae. A shift to novel feed, however, is no quick fix. Detailed high-resolution studies of individual animals are performed to detect effects. Many of the answers can be found in the animal gut.
The future prospects for value creation from seaweed are promising. Innovation and commercialization depend heavily on collaboration across sectors. Foods of Norway and SINTEF Ocean will continue to exchange knowledge on seaweed.
Out of 29 submitted full proposals, “SusPig” has been approved by the ERA-Net SusAn Co-funded call. “To be part of this cross-sectional, international consortium is a great boost for the NMBU”, Margareth Øverland says.
Aquaculture diet has become increasingly plant based. In addition, the industry faces environmental changes. Recent findings in salmonids when the two challenges are combined, give cause for concern.
By 2030, more than 50% of all fish and seafood products will originate from aquaculture. One way to increase production is to select the most efficient animals. Hanne Dvergedal is developing a direct selection method, focusing on genetic selection.
Sandeep Sharma and Cristina Ravanal have worked intensively together for one month, exchanging insights in enzymology, fermentation and chemical characterization of seaweed.
We are pleased to invite you to the seminar: FISH FEED FOR FOOD SECURITY. The seminar will be held in conjunction with Peyman Mosberian Tanha’s defence for his PhD degree on Friday October 28. The title of his thesis is "Interactive effects of dietary and environmental challenges on digestive function and intestinal homeostasis in rainbow trout".
Foods of Norway partner Seaweed Energy Solutions (SES) is a pioneer in Norwegian macroalgae production. Today, the value creation from macroalgae is 1.5 million NOK. By 2050, the estimates are 40 billion NOK.
Small, black dots in the pellets feed meal are the visible signs of feed containing 5 percent macroalgae recently produced at the Center for Feed Technology (Fôrtek). Foods of Norway’s Master Student Rouzbeh Keihani follows the process closely.
Two new studies published in Science and PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America) describe innovative enzyme research which can revolutionize biorefinery processes. Foods of Norway’s professor Vincent Eijsink is one of the authors of the two scientific articles.
NMBU-professor Theo Meuwissen has had a major impact on the genetic improvement of livestock and crops. On May 1st he receives the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC.
Processing technology is essential to develop novel feeds. Kiira Vuoristo has been responsible for developing NMBU’s new fermentation platform. “The platform is ready to be implemented and we can soon start our first trial”, she says.
Norway alone generates annually 701000 tons of wet organic waste. We call it waste, but really they are valuable co-products that can be turned into valuable resources. Foods of Norway aims to upgrade co-products from meat and salmon to valuable products.
Foods of Norway was launched on October 8, the first Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI) for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). – I am so happy, so proud, said Mari Sundli Tveit, rector of NMBU.
September marks the official opening of Foods of Norway where researchers and industry partners will collaborate on how Norway’s extensive bioresources can provide a basis for novel feed ingredients.
