Ecobreves – MEXICO: Shrimp Waste Turned Fish Food

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

MEXICO CITY, Feb 16 2004 (IPS) - Researchers from the Metropolitan Autonomous University of Mexico found a formula to turn the waste from shrimp production, a source of contamination, into a valuable source of nutrition for fish. The scientists were able to turn the parts of the shrimp that normally ended up in the garbage into high-protein food through a special fermentation process.

Fish that are fed with this “hydrolyzed shrimp waste” have better weight and development that fish consuming other products, they said.

In Mexico, there is no special processing for shrimp waste, the production of which reaches 100,000 tons a year, 40 percent of which is produced in shrimp farms.

With the new process, the waste problem could be resolved, but it could also prove an economic alternative for fish food, say the scientists involved in the project.