{"id":7496,"date":"2018-11-15T10:47:29","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T09:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/?p=7496"},"modified":"2018-11-15T11:23:20","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T10:23:20","slug":"consumers-perception-on-bioactive-compounds-from-seafood-residues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/consumers-perception-on-bioactive-compounds-from-seafood-residues\/","title":{"rendered":"Consumers’ Perception of Products with Bioactive Compounds From Seafood Residues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Does stating on the package that the product is eco-friendly help to promote sales? Project Blueshell is testing how products containing residual raw materials such as seafood shells can most easily be introduced into the market.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BlueShell ERA-Net co-funded project aims\u00a0at\u00a0recycling\u00a0marine by-product waste by exploring different aspects of bioactivity in fermented\/hydrolysed shellfish\u00a0residues to\u00a0set the basis for\u00a0new high-value products. The analysis of resulting fractions will be\u00a0targeting different end-points (human nutrition, food safety, plant health). The most active bioactive compounds emerging from the lipid-rich fraction, the protein\/peptide rich fraction and the sludge fraction will be studied to assess their business potential.<\/p>\n

Researchers in the context of Blueshell project want to identify the arguments that will make the consumer more positive about, and more interested in, products made from residual raw materials. They also want to identify how production can be made as sustainable as possible and how this can be scaled up to major industrial production. The aim is for manufacturers to achieve profitability in utilising every single part of seafood extracted from the sea, thereby stimulating the use of by-products that are currently discarded or not used optimally, for example, shells from shrimps, crabs and mussels.<\/p>\n

How do you put a positive spin on residual raw materials?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOn the marketing side, our focus is on finding ways of talking about residual raw materials that consumers perceive as positive. We test how they react to information about the production method when the are made aware that absolutely all raw materials are being utilised,\u201d explains senior researcher Themis Altintzoglou at Nofima.<\/p>\n

The actual survey was conducted among British consumers earlier this year. The results analysis is not completely ready yet but provisional indications suggest that terms such as \u201cfood waste\u201d, \u201cby-product\u201d or \u201cresidual raw materials\u201d do not resonate particularly well with consumers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe association that consumers make is that they are buying something that would usually have been thrown away,\u201d says Altintzoglou.<\/p>\n

A total of 1,867 consumers were interviewed via a questionnaire. The consumers were split into nine groups comprising around 200 persons in each group. The researchers tested three different product types: processed food, dietary supplements and cosmetics, and each consumer group received three different product descriptions about raw materials.<\/p>\n

Most sceptical about cosmetics<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cProcessed food\u201d in this survey refers to food that is ready made, primarily soups and sauces. Dietary supplements primarily concerned protein powders, while the cosmetics group received creams as an example.<\/p>\n

The three different product descriptions presented to the consumers were either a neutral description of what the product contained or how it was produced, followed by an environmentally-angled description emphasising that the product was manufactured with a view to reducing food waste, while the third description was angled at the product being positive for health.<\/p>\n

The response to cosmetics in particular was slightly better in the description concerning the impact on health and reduced waste. In this respect, consumers were somewhat sceptical with regard to both the residual raw materials and the fact that the cosmetics were made from maritime by-products.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome consumers were worried that they would smell of fish,\u201d smiles Altintzoglou.<\/p>\n

Most concerned about the environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

In respect of processed food, the environmental description received a slightly better response among consumers than the neutral description, while those who purchased dietary supplements were significantly more concerned about the environment than expected.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor those who bought dietary supplements, I suppose we believed that the focus on health would be greater although these consumers also had a positive attitude regarding the natural and sustainable nature of the product,\u201d says the senior researcher.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the conclusion was that for both dietary supplements and processed food it was positive to discuss the environment and health, while it was more complicated to incorporate this message in cosmetic products.<\/p>\n

There is still a lot of research remaining in the project, which is a collaboration between several countries in Europe, including Belgium, Sweden, Ireland and Italy. The entire project is funded by the EU\u2019s ERANET.<\/p>\n

Identifying the right method<\/strong><\/p>\n

The project is not only about market communication but also about optimisation with regard to the use of raw materials. In this respect, Nofima\u2019s focus is on identifying how production based on residual materials can work best for the seafood industry.<\/p>\n

Currently, a lot of residual raw materials from seafood are already used as ingredients in cosmetics. Also, a lot is used as flavour enhancers in processed food and dietary supplements.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe conduct analyses to identify how the process of breaking down shells and residual products to extract proteins, for example, can be made most effective. The costly element of this process is to identify the correct approach via research. After such research, utilising residual raw materials will provide a dual benefit. Manufacturers can earn more on raw materials that are already available while also reducing the volume of waste,\u201d explains Runar Gjerp Solstad. He is involved in the biotechnological side of the research project and has been successful in utilising enzymatic processes on residual raw materials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we add enzymes to raw materials they work in practice as biological scissors that \u201ccut\u201d up the material and release the proteins from the residue,\u201d says the researcher.<\/p>\n

Among the most familiar products extracted from residual raw materials are protein, oil and chitin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should start a discussion about residual raw materials and show how this resource utilisation does more for the environment. This could constitute an important difference,\u201d says Themis Altintzoglou.<\/p>\n

Text originally published by Nofima<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Does stating on the package that the product is eco-friendly help to promote sales? Project Blueshell is testing how products containing residual raw materials such as seafood shells can most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":7504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,5,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7496"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7540,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7496\/revisions\/7540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.besustainablemagazine.com\/cms2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}