Development of functional fish feed based on bioactive compounds of marine and herbal origin.

FEEDACTIV focuses on the development of innovative aquaculture feed based on natural bioactive compounds that boost the immune system of farmed fish. Various species of marine microalgae as well as seaweed and land based herbal plants are going to be used as enrichment of the fish feed and hopefully as partial fishmeal substitution with low cost ingredients. The use of natural compounds, polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3, ω-6 and ω-7), phenols, carotenoids and protein from marine and land based flora, aims to improve the breeding and quality of farmed species while drastically reducing the annual cost of the aquaculture companies by focusing on the processes that boost the immune system of the fish. The production of these functional products will cover the consumers’ demands for the consumption of foods with increased functionality and absence of any chemical additives giving them the following comparative advantage over the competition. The overarching objective of this project is to form an international and inter-sectoral network of organizations working on a joint research programme in the fields of aquaculture and feed formulation. Therefore, FEEDACTIV will bring together experts from industry and academia that specialize in interdisciplinary/inter-sectorial, yet highly complementally, research areas of Aquaculture, Animal Feed Production, Feed/Food safety, Process Analysis and Design of food products. It is a joint research and innovation project that will develop a strong partnership involving 8 partners from 3 European countries (Romania, Greece, and Italy) and with different technical backgrounds from the academic and non-academic sectors (SMEs). The execution of the project and the knowledge sharing will be based on secondments (exchanges) of research and innovation staff with an in-built return mechanism strengthening collaborative research among the different countries and sectors.