Seafood by-products could provide novel functional ingredients

The industrial production of seafood on both a local and international scale produces a huge quantity (50–80%) of non-edible by-products, which are often discarded as waste or under-utilised, say researchers writing in LWT - Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies​.

According to the Indian research team behind the new review the marine ecosystem is still ‘an untapped reservoir’ of bioactive compounds “which have considerable potential to supply novel ingredients towards the development of commercial functional food products.”​

Led by Dr Gaurav Kumar Pal from the CSIR-Central Food Technological Research, India, the team suggested that seafood processing by-products are a rich source of bioactive collagen molecules with potential nutraceutical and functional properties.

“Seafood processing industries are constantly trying to maximum utilisation of seafood by-products,”​ wrote the Indian researchers.

“The sustainable valorisation of seafood by-products may lead towards the development of healthy and functional food ingredients/products,” ​the team said – adding tat in particular there is an opportunity to utilise seafood by-products for the development of high-value collagen-based functional food ingredients.

Seafood derived collagen​

According to the team, seafood derived collagen has various applications in a varieties, including food and nutrition, pharmaceuticals, biomedical, biomaterials and cosmetic industries.

“In food, seafood derived collagen is used as a functional as well as nutritional ingredients towards the development of health promotion foods,”​ they said – noting that recent years has seen growing demand for foods enriched with seafood derived collagen “due to the improvement in the nutritive and functional properties of the foodstuffs and their health benefits.”​

“The seafood derived functional food sector seems to be one of the fastest growing food sectors all over the world,”​ they said. “However, the launching of novel seafood derived functional foods onto the market is not an easy task and certainly not always a success.”​

Kumar Pal and colleagues reported that there are currently a limited number of patents for the development of seafood processing by-product collagen as well as for applications towards the development of functional foods or nutraceutical products.

“Seafood derived collagen peptides have promising applications as a nutraceutical and natural functional food ingredients,”​ they concluded – noting that there is a need to understand the mechanisms by which different collagen peptides/hydrolysates mediate their beneficial health effects.

Source: LWT - Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies​
Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.ifset.2016.03.015​
“Sustainable valorisation of seafood by-products: Recovery of collagen and development of collagen-based novel functional food ingredients”​
Authors: Gaurav Kumar Pal, et al​