Mussel up
Blue mussel protein for aquafeeds
Blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) can become a local protein ingredient for sustainable growth in the Norwegian aquaculture industry, but there are still major challenges associated with production upscaling and processing into protein ingredients with high nutritional value.
Start
01. Oct 2023
End
30. Sep 2026
Funded by
FHF – Norwegian Seafood Research Fund
Cooperation
The project is led by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in collaboration with Nofima, Lerøy, NORCE and the University of Stirling.
Project Manager(s):
Other Participants:
Background
In this project, the value chain will be studied, from the production and harvesting of blue mussel, development of gentle processing methods and how the developed protein ingredients will impact salmon growth performance, health and welfare.
The project is led by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) in collaboration with Nofima, Lerøy, NORCE and the University of Stirling.
Goal
Investigate if the production of blue mussel can be up scaled, used as a sustainable new feed ingredients for Atlantic salmon and its economic feasibility in industrial scale.
What we do
Nofima will evaluate the potential of different processing methods in laboratory scale on blue mussel meat and silage produced by Ocean Forest AS. The aim is to find the most cost effective and sustainable processing routes for the production of high quality feed ingredients and produce different mussel concentrate and powder products to be tested in in vitro studies by IMR.
Pilot-scale production of the best processing routes will be performed to obtain mass balances for economic and LCA analyses (NORCE, University of Stirling).
Nofima will also produce feed based on the most promising blue mussel products to evaluate growth performance, health and welfare of Atlantic Salmon (IMR).
Research facilities
Aquafeed Technology Centre
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