THE FIRST 18 MONTHS OF THE H2020 “ECOEFISHENT” PROJECT: SUSTAINABILITY AND EFFICIENCY IN THE FISH PROCESSING SIDE-STREAMS

EcoeFISHent (“Demonstrable and replicable cluster implementing systemic solutions through multilevel circular value chains for eco-efficient valorization of fishing and fish industries side-streams”) is a project of the Horizon 2020 Program - Green Deal (Innovation Action, Grant agreement ID: 101036428) dedicated to the circular economy in the fishing sector, designed to reconcile industrial development, socio-economic growth, and protection of the marine environment [1]. Recently, because of higher fish consumption, the consequent generation of side-streams by the fish supply chain is also increasing which significantly contribute to global food waste. Fish side-streams and processing by-products represent from 20 to 80% of the original fish weight including a wide range of materials like 'unwanted catches', and non-edible parts like viscera, fins, or skin [2]. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that up to 35% of global fish production is lost or wasted every year, representing a big environmental issue with a significant economic impact [3]. The project, answering to many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, moved from the design and development of an innovative dehydration pre-treatment of this highly perishable biomass (currently under patent), coupled with specific extraction technologies allowing a sustainable and efficient use of fish processing side-streams in different fields including food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomaterials. The University of Genoa is the only academic partner of the project and participates with the involvement of researchers from the Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV), and with the Food Chemistry research group of the Department of Pharmacy (DIFAR), with activities related to the recovery and valorisation of fish processing and their transformation into high value bioactive compounds, such as peptides (gelatine, collagen and hydrolysed collagen peptides, non-collagenous proteins), fatty acids (omega-3) and other bioactive metabolites to be exploited in different fields. Environmentally friendly techniques such as ultrasounds (UAE, Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction) and enzymatic treatments (EAE, Enzymatic-Assisted Extraction) have been proposed to process side-streams coming from canned Yellowfin tuna processing and side-streams deriving from aquaculture (sea bream and sea bass). Innovative flowcharts have been proposed to obtain high value bioactive compounds, according to the principles of green extraction, recovering also the intermediate co-products which have been evaluated for their potential further exploitation. Gelatine has been extracted, qualitative and quantitative characterized, and its rheological properties have been studied. Concerning the lipid fraction isolation, different green solvents have been tested and compared in terms of ponderal yields and ToToX index. The Non-Collagenous proteins have been isolated and stabilized by spray-drying.