Photo: Helge Skodvin © Nofima

Bergen, Norway, August 23rd 2021 – Today, Nofima, the Norwegian institute for applied research within the fields of fisheries, aquaculture, and food research, launched the Millennial Salmon Project together with Cargill and other partners across the value chain to accelerate the development of sustainable solutions for the future of farmed salmon.

The goal of the four-year project is to create the most sustainable-farmed salmon using novel ingredients from the circular economy and with a low carbon footprint while addressing the initiative’s “millennial principles of life” – living healthy; leading a purposeful live; trusting peers; and considering their societal and environmental impacts.

With a €1.3 Million budget, the Millennial Salmon Project is primarily funded by the Research Council of Norway and made up of leading organizations, Nofima, InnovaFeed, Corbion Algae Ingredients, Cargill, SINTEF Ocean and Auchan.

The project will study two alternative feed ingredients – protein-rich, insect-based feed ProtiNova from InnovaFeed, and algae-based omega-3s, AlgaPrime^TM DHA from Corbion, both of which offer minimal land use.

The evidence-based study will test the levels that are required to optimize physical and nutritional needs of salmon, discover the practical and functional properties of both alternatives, as well as demonstrate the environmental and societal aspects of the suggested innovations. SINTEF Ocean will be conducting a life cycle analysis of the resulting Millennial Salmon feed.

“This project is one critical piece to pave the way for a healthier and more sustainable salmon. We are pleased to collaborate with leading organizations across the value chain. By joining forces, we are accelerating the innovation in the sector to find new solutions to increase the flexibility in the choice of sustainable raw materials for future fish feed,” says Katerina Kousoulaki, project leader and senior scientist at Nofima.

The Millennial Salmon Project was formed as a response to the critical need to accelerate the global momentum around sourcing, scaling and developing sustainable, alternative solutions for aquaculture and to address changing consumer behavior. The UN FAO predicts the world will reach 9 billion people by 2050 and with its +5% year-over-year[1] production growth, Aquaculture is expected to play a critical role in assuring global food security. To meet this need, the FAO urges the industry to catalyze change, calling on it to produce more nutritious food using less resources, emitting lower carbon dioxide emissions and protecting biodiversity and the resilience of ecosystems.

The Millennial Salmon Project addresses this industry demand by working to provide by 2025 an integrated solution to salmon farmers that balances the raw materials in the feed basket and provides greater flexibility from the use of finite marine resources and land-demanding resources. The Millennial salmon will be a healthy product for the consumer, but also a healthier farmed animal, fed with and grown with higher levels of omega-3s derived from microalgae.

Learn more about Millennial Salmon Project here

About The Millennial Salmon Project:
The Millennial Salmon is a strategic partnership among world leading European organisations along the value chain of the salmon farming industry, including R&D (Nofima & Sintef Ocean), feed (Cargill) and raw material producers (Innovafeed & Corbion) and a retailer (Auchan), with the aim to create a knowledge-based sustainable salmon product that answers to modern Millennial principles of life, considering technoeconomic, animal welfare, environmental and societal aspects as a whole. The goal of the Project is to develop the most sustainable salmon of the future by scaling new and innovative solutions including protein-rich, insect-based feed ProtiNova from InnovaFeed, and algae-based omega-3s AlgaPrime^TM DHA from Corbion that will meet the future needs of the planet and the people through scientific trials, life cycle analysis, and in-depth market research.

About Nofima
Farmed fish and other food you eat should be of high quality, taste well, be nutritious and safe to eat. To that end, Nofima delivers research-based knowledge to the aquaculture industry and other food producing industries. We are a leading institute of applied research, with around 300 scientific employees, based in Norway, that work internationally. In close contact with the industries, we provide research and innovation that contributes to sustainable production and good management of resources from sea and land.

About InnovaFeed
InnovaFeed is a biotech company that produces a new source of protein from insect rearing (Hermetia illucens) for animal feed, more specifically for aquaculture. InnovaFeed’s mission is to participate in the rise of sustainable food systems by addressing the increasing demand for natural, healthy and competitive raw materials. Combining the largest production capacity on the market and state of the art research in biotechnology, InnovaFeed has developed an innovative technology and process enabling the production of high-quality insect meal at industrial scale and at a competitive price. www.innovafeed.com

About Corbion
Corbion is the global market leader in lactic acid and its derivatives, and a leading supplier of emulsifiers, functional enzyme blends, minerals, vitamins, and algae ingredients. We use our unique expertise in fermentation and other processes to deliver sustainable solutions for the preservation of food and food production, health, and our planet. For over 100 years, we have been uncompromising in our commitment to safety, quality, innovation and performance. Drawing on our deep application and product knowledge, we work side-by-side with customers to make our cutting-edge technologies work for them. Our solutions help differentiate products in markets such as food, home & personal care, animal nutrition, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and bioplastics. In 2020, Corbion generated annual sales of € 986.5 million and had a workforce of 2,267 FTE. Corbion is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. For more information: www.corbion.com

About Cargill
Cargill provides food, agriculture, financial and industrial products and services to the world. Together with farmers, customers, governments and communities, we help people thrive by applying our insights and over 155 years of experience. We have 155,000 employees in 70 countries/regions who are committed to feeding the world in a responsible way, reducing environmental impact and improving the communities where we live and work. As a leader in aquaculture feed, animal nutrition and agriculture, we create high-quality feed with a smaller impact on the planet. Learn more about how we’re doing this in aquaculture through our SeaFurther™ Sustainability initiative at cargill.com/seafurther. In Norway, Cargill produces feed for salmonids representing the EWOS brand. More info on ewos.no

About SINTEF Ocean
SINTEF (www.sintef.no) is Scandinavia’s largest independent research organisation and is a non-profit research foundation. For more than 70 years, SINTEF has developed solutions and innovation for society and customers all over the world. SINTEF conducts contract R&D as a partner for the private and public sectors and is one of the largest contract research institutions in Europe. While SINTEF headquarter as well as most of the employees are in Trondheim, there are also research departments in Oslo, Bergen, Ålesund, Mo I Rana, Raufoss and Tromsø. SINTEF Ocean is one of six research institutes in SINTEF, focusing on various aspects of the ocean space, such as seafood, oil and gas and maritime industry. 

About Auchan
Auchan Retail rank as the 11th largest food retailer in the world and one of the most international. We now operates across 17 countries, from Europe to Asia and Africa. generating more than 65% of our annual revenue outside France and with upwards of 4,000 branded stores around the world. This controlled expansion has been achieved through a mix of organic growth and local franchise agreements and partnerships. Auchan Retail achieved revenue of €50.3 billion in 2018 and invested €1.4 billion. With its brand popular among consumers, the company holds strong positions in all the countries where it operates. As the world’s 35 largest employer with 354,851 employees, Auchan Retail is one of the few companies of this scale to belong to the people who make it what it is: capital ownership of this profoundly people-centered company is shared between its founding family and 261,067 employee shareholders.

[1] FAO Report – The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2020 – Page 21