The IBSS, co-located with Seafood Processing America, is said to be North America’s largest seafood exhibition, attracting close to 18,000 seafood buyers and sellers from across the globe.

Steve Dillingham, principal and founder of Strategro, was invited to speak at the show’s conference. The presentation, Creating Value Through the Use of Seafood Byproducts, highlighted what European countries are doing to strengthen their application knowledge, industry participation and value chain efficiency dealing with seafood byproducts.

Mr Dillingham contrasted the significant impact and success of other countries national focus and priority, funding and industry support towards the full utilisation of seafood byproducts, to that of the United States, where he sees no national focus or industry leadership to maximise seafood byproduct utilisation, and the infrastructure and value-chain for doing so quite unorganised and fractured.

For the unenlightened seafood company, seafood byproducts can pose a headache and a significant cost item for disposal, storage, or dumping (which in many areas is illegal). For those involved in further processing of seafood byproducts, desirable compounds can be extracted and purified into high value ingredients with application in the feed, food, health and nutrition, cosmeceuticals, and the research and diagnostic markets.

“Many seafood processors are not even aware of how valuable these marine raw materials can be,” stated Dillingham. “For instance, one company is turning shrimp-shell waste into a high value ingredient that promotes blood clotting. This ingredient is now being impregnated into bandages used by the US military and expected to be expanded into the general consumer market. That is just one example of turning seafood trash into treasure. The U.S. as a whole should be doing a much better job collectively to utilise its seafood byproduct waste to create new products and new companies," emphasised Dillingham, “with the added ecological and environmental benefits as well.”

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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