Consortium: ACUINOVA - Actividades Piscicolas, S.A. (Promotor Líder), UO (ICBAS-UP), AlgaPlus, B2E Associação para a Bioeconomia Azul - Laboratório Colaborativo.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food-producing sector, being a healthy source of food and nutrients. It is expected to keep playing an important role to face world population growth and fisheries stagnation. Seafood is a rich source of macronutrients, vitamins and important minerals for human health, being our main, and almost unique, source of long-chain omega-3. This characteristic links fish consumption with countless health benefits, positively distinguishing this food product. However, in order to assure the sustainability of the aquaculture, the feed industry was forced to reduce the inclusion of marine sources (fish-meal and oil) in aquafeeds, replacing them with more environmentally sustainable ingredients, but often devoid of omega-3 fatty acids. Aquaculture production is currently facing one of its biggest challenges, increasing its production in an environmental and economically sustainable way, whilst addressing consumer needs and expectations. On the other hand, aquaculture aims providing consumers with the omega-3 levels recommended by the World Health Organization to promote health.

To face these challenges, the OmegaPeixe project will develop strategies to produce differentiated fish with high nutritional value, in particular with a high content of long-chain omega-3, focusing on species of great relevance and value in Southern Europe: turbot and the European seabass.

This project will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to develop and produce such high quality products until they reach the final market. For this purpose, OmegaPeixe integrates a complete consortium, consisting of 2 referenced fish farms, a turbot facility (ACUINOVA) and a multi-trophic system (ALGAplus), recognized both at national and European levels, and 1 non-corporate entity of the national R&D system; ICBAS - University of Porto, with recognized international expertise in aquaculture, particularly in marine fish nutrition, and a strong connection and collaboration with the industry. The consortium will also integrate the Collaborative Laboratory for Blue Bioeconomy - B2E, to enhance the transfer of knowledge from academia to industry.

Scientific Publications

Monteiro, M, Marques, A, Costa, RS, Salgado, MA, Castro, C, Conceição, L, Valente, LMP. 2024. Beyond fish oil: Assessing the implications of alternative dietary lipid sources for turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) on growth, nutrient utilization and muscle quality. Aquaculture 578:740073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2023.740073