A large amount of fishery processing waste produced from fish processing plants still contains nutrients such as protein, fat, and minerals. Therefore, these results are more commonly referred to as “by-products” of fisheries industry.

Total fisheries production increased from 120 metric tons in 1996 to 128.8 metric tons in 2001. And that number has continued to increase until 2018. This growth shows the importance of by-products handling of the fisheries industry.

These byproducts reached 50 percent of the total initial weight or around 64.4 metric tons in 2001. Such a large amount can cause severe environmental impacts if they are not handled properly.

So far, the byproduct of the fishing industry has been processed into fish meal for animal feed or fish feed. However, the sale value and environmental impact of the feed are still in question.

In fact, the by-products of the fisheries industry still contain elements of protein, fat, and minerals that can be utilized by humans, for example the head of a fish.

For the industry, snapper’s head is “waste”, while for Padang restaurants, it is “ingredient”. Therefore, there is a great potential from the by-products of fisheries industry.

Fisheries researchers from the Department of Maritime Affairs, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine, Heru Pramono with his students Noer Tomy Irawan and M. Rizal Arief Firdaus, made an effort to recover fish protein using a technology called “fish protein isolates with pH shift”.

The basic principle of this technology is to dissolve proteins with acids or bases and then separate the protein with other components with centrifugal power. Interestingly, fish protein has the ability to separate from other components at pH 5.5.

The results showed that fish protein isolates with qualities similar to surimi fish, fish meatball inggredient can be recovered from sardine canning waste. As much as 39 percent w / b of fish protein isolates was obtained from the waste or by a rough calculation of 390 grams of protein extracted from 3 kg of by-products. The potential development of the technology needs to be developed further to improve the physicochemical properties of the produced protein and the application of the protein product. Furthermore, the research can be read in the article at: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/236/1/012112/meta

Author: Heru Pramono