The study aimed to provide insight into the lipid quality of pelagic fishmeal and fish oil processing of mackerel and herring cut-offs, and the effect of temperature changes in the cooker (85–95 °C) during production. Samples were collected after each processing step at a traditional processing line where water and lipid content, free fatty acids (FFA), phospholipids (PL) and fatty acid composition (FAC) were measured. Results showed that the standard procedures at 90 °C included ineffective draining and concentration steps. Moreover, the solid streams entering the driers variated in chemical composition, suggesting that processing each stream separately could be beneficial for maintaining the lipid quality. The cooking temperature affected the lipid removal from the fishmeal processing, where lowering the temperature to 85 °C resulted in a lower lipid content of the final fishmeal, along with lower FFA and PL values. Hence, the fishmeal and fish oil factories could save energy by lowering the cooking temperature, as well as obtaining more stable and higher value products. Further recommendations include more focus on the initial steps for a better homogenization and breakdown of the raw material, as well as investigation of different drying techniques applied on each processing stream entering the drying steps.

Little is known about the role of dietary amino acids on male reproductive performance and gamete quality in fishes. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate how "enhanced" feeds (EH-4, EH-5, EH-6), with modified amino acid composition, and the standard on-growing diet (DAN-EX) impact body composition, milt biochemistry, and sperm performance in male European eel, Anguilla anguilla. The fatty acid composition of EH-4, EH-5, and EH-6 was similar but differed to that in DAN-EX, while amino acid composition varied between all four diets. Diet did not influence organ-somatic indices (e.g. HSI, GSI), while males fed EH-4 were heavier than other groups. Arginine, alanine, and lysine were the most abundant amino acids in milt (>11%), followed by glycine, aspartic acid, valine, glutamic acid, and leucine (>5.66%). Diet impacted milt arginine, serine, proline, methionine, and histidine levels. Specifically, males fed DAN-EX, EH-4, and EH-5 had the highest percentages of arginine, while males fed EH-4 to EH-6 had higher percentages of serine. Proline was most abundant in males fed DAN-EX, EH-5, and EH-6. Both methionine and histidine were detected at low percentages (<2%), and were impacted by diet, where males fed EH-4 and EH-5 had higher percentages of methionine, and males fed DAN-EX, EH-4, and EH-6 had the highest percentage of histidine. Milt production increased over time, where eels fed EH-4 and EH-6 showed the highest probability of producing suited milt volumes (>0.5 mL) for fertilization procedures. Spermatocrit (43.1 ± 1.80%) did not differ between the diets (ranged from 37.57 to 47.21%). Dietary regime had an impact on sperm motility, such that eels fed EH-5 and EH-6 had the greatest percentage of motile cells. In addition, fish fed EH-5 and EH-6 (or DAN-EX) had the fastest swimming sperm. Spermatogenic maturity index of hormonally treated eels varied within groups but did not differ between dietary treatment groups after 9 weeks of injections (ranged from 0.54 to 0.80). The most interesting amino acids to scrutinize from PCA plots were proline, histidine, and valine as well as lysine and arginine. Here, eels with highly motile sperm had milt with high relative proportions of proline, histidine, and valine, but were particularly low in lysine and arginine. Together, our findings add evidence that certain amino acids regulate milt biochemistry, and that male ejaculate traits may be promoted by amino acid intake. Further studies to evaluate effects of supplemented amino acid diets on fertilization ability and inter-linked early developmental stages are required.

Most fish meal and fish oil production facilities run with outdated processes, producing low‐value products, typically not intended for human consumption. The aim of the study was to perform a detailed analysis of the current fishmeal and oil production processes of capelin (Mallotus villosus), and compare the key locations of both fattier and leaner pelagic raw material to identify which steps need to be improved for the production of higher‐value products. Results indicated inefficient draining and concentration during the production process and ineffective break‐down of the raw material, as lipid separation was ineffective in all studied species. Although the raw material initially differed in lipid content (2%–20%, depending on the species), all fishmeal produced resulted in high‐lipid fishmeal (9%–14%). Chemical composition variations in the solid steams entering the dryers suggested that drying these streams individually could lead to more process and product flexibility, which can result in higher‐value products, such as fish meal and protein powders for human consumption. Practical applications Traditional production lines of fishmeal and fish oil factories have remained the same for decades, resulting in low‐quality products with a low market price. Therefore, optimization and redesign of the production processes are needed to increase the product quality. This study analyzed the lipid quality and water content in all processing steps. The current evaluations will help to shift the traditional fishmeal and fish oil production process from low‐quality to high‐quality products intended for human consumption by presenting a detailed analysis of the production process not available in the literature to date. Our results can act as reference values for other fishmeal and fish oil producers to assess their production quality. That includes identification of bottlenecks affecting the efficiency and effectiveness of their production processes.

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Quality changes of protein and non-protein nitrogen compounds during industrial fishmeal processing of fatty pelagic species (mackerel/herring rest material blend, MHB) and lean fish (whole blue whiting, BW) were studied to identify processing steps that require optimization to allow production of products for human consumption. Samples from protein-rich processing streams throughout the fishmeal production were analyzed for proximate composition, salt soluble protein content (SSP), biogenic amines (BA), total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N), trimethylamine (TMA), and dimethylamine (DMA). Mass flows throughout processing were balanced based on the total mass and proximate composition data. The quality of the final fishmeal products was highly dependent on the fish species being processed, indicating that the processes require optimization towards each raw material. The chemical composition changed in each processing step, resulting in different properties in each stream. Most of the non-protein nitrogen compounds (including BA, TVB-N, TMA, and DMA) followed the liquid streams. However, the concentrate contributed less than 20% to the produced fishmeal quantity. Mixing of this stream into the fishmeal processing again, as currently carried out, should thus be avoided. Furthermore, the cooking, separating, and drying steps should be optimized to improve the water and lipid separation and avoid the formation of undesired nitrogen compounds to produce higher-value products intended for human consumption.