AQUA Meal ® is considered as protein rich animal source commonly used for preparation of poultry
and aqua feed. It is mostly formed from wild fish having abundant bone which are not used
for direct human consumption. The fish landings are approximately 90 million tons
and historically one third is converted into fish meal among these, the largest one is Peru,
second one is China, and third one is Chile. The most important countries are Norway, Iceland
and Denmark which produce fish meal in substantial amount per year. Approximately, 300 plants in the world
are producing 5 million tons fish meal and 1 million ton of oil annually
(. Fish species used for the production of fish meal varies region wise.
The average trade of the world showed 3 to 4 million tones production per year.
Fluctuation in the production and export are directly related to the variations occurred in landing of raw fish
for fish meal production. It was noted that overfishing and lack of fisheries management
also influenced the production of fish meal. Fish meal generally contains 60% to 72% protein, 5% to 12% fats
and 10% to 20% ash. It also contains high amount of fatty acids among them the most common is omega-3 fatty acid.
Fish meal directly influences the efficiency of feed having amino acid, phosphorus and fatty acid.
In addition, production and availability of fish meal greatly influence the running cost of aquaculture sector.
Feed contributes 60% to 80% of the total cost and fish meal is known as its main constituent.
The quality of fish meal protein depends on temperature, processing technique and species used.
About 25% of fish meal comes from the waste of the fish processing sector
and 3.06 million tons of fish meal is consumed in aquaculture sector.
The direct protein source in aqua feed is fish meal.
Combination of essential and non-essential amino acid, minerals, oil and carbohydrate for energy.
Combination of high quality natural protein in feed can only be contributed from fish meal.
Generally, feed is considered as high nutrition value which matches the requirement of sh.
The biological value of feed becomes low with deficit in one or many amino acid.
Fish meal is major and costly component of fish feed and are trying to replace by protein rich plants.
It is observed that plant protein have less number of amino acid and trypsin inhibitors indigestible
carbohydrate, so cannot be replaced totally. About 43% of global fish meal production is utilized by aquaculture sector.
The quality of fish meal improves the fecundity and feed conversion ratio.
Protein components of fish meal differ from 60% to 72% due to species type and method of preparation.
Since, the practical and economic crises for the industry are to produce the constant quality of fish meal from heredity
different species of fish. So, analytical control is necessary for sustainable production of high quality fish meal.
Thus, the present study was planned to evaluate the quality of different types of fish meal producing in the country,
keeping in view that impurities like soil, stone and blood
Meal may affect its quality.