CROSSING THE COMMERCIALIZATION CHASM - TRANSITIONING SOY-BASED FISHMEAL REPLACEMENT DIETS FROM RESEARCH SCALE TO FARM-SCALE

The U.S. soybean industry has been a tremendous partner in supporting research into use of alternative soy-sourced proteins and oils for aquaculture feeds. Much of this work has targeted replacement diets for marine fish, which require high levels of protein and lipid, but have low tolerance for the anti-nutritional factors in soybean meal. Over the last 10 years Kampachi Farms and its predecessor company Kona Blue Water Farms, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and with the support of the Nebraska Soybean Board, have been worked to replace fishmeal and fish oil in diets for Kampachi (Seriola rivoliana) with incrementally higher concentrations of soy-based proteins, and use of soy oils with enhanced omega-3 content. Beginning with relatively low concentrations of soybean meal in 2007, research based in Hawaii and Nebraska has gradually improved diet formulations to produce what we consider today to be a "commercial-ready" soy-based formula. This formulation reduces fishmeal to less than 12% of the overall diet, but relies on Soy Protein Concentrate (SPC), which in North America is only available (in meaningful quantities) as expensive human food-grade products. Fish oil is also reduced to 2% of the diet, largely replaced by a stearidonic acid-rich soy oil that is still pending FDA approval.

Kampachi Farms has twice successfully tested this diet, with no significant difference in growth performance or whole body (tissue) composition of the fish, and with no discernible difference in product quality. However, these trials have always been conducted at the experimental scale, using research extruders for feed manufacture. How, then, do we most efficiently transition this research to commercial farm applications?

This paper examines this question of commercializing research results in feed trials, and reports on the most recent Stage 3 pre-commercial trials for this SPC-diet at Kampachi Farms. An overview of the work leading to the "commercial-ready" Soy formulation and the results of the most recent full harvest-cycle growout trial will be presented, including formulation details, growth and feed conversion performance, whole body composition data (proximate and fatty-acid analysis), and the results of consumer difference and preference testing.