AlgaPrime™ DHA Wins Global Aquaculture Innovation Award
Congratulations to TerraVia and Bunge Oils for their AlgaPrime™ DHA aquaculture feed ingredient, recipient of the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s (GAA) fifth annual Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, sponsored by Preferred Freezer Services.
Walt Rakitsky, Ph.D., senior VP of emerging business at TerraVia, will accept the award and give a presentation at GAA’s GOAL 2017 conference at Croke Park in Dublin, Ireland, on Oct. 5. AlgaPrime™ DHA is rich in the long-chain omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
The AlgaPrime™ DHA aquaculture feed ingredient has been manufactured at a facility in Brazil since 2014, running off the steam generated by a sugarcane mill, as part of a joint venture with Bunge Oils (operating as SB Oils). The microalgae is fermented, converting sugars into oils and other ingredients. Already being used by a farmed salmon producer in Chile, AlgaPrime is a perfect complement to traditional aquaculture feed ingredients that will enrich the fish’s omega-3 fatty acid levels.
TerraVia was founded as Solazyme in 2003, producing microalgae for use in fuels and chemicals before refocusing on human and animal nutrition and personal care products. The company is based in South San Francisco, California.
“We are extremely honored to receive this award. The Global Aquaculture Innovation Award represents the future of aquaculture, and we believe that AlgaPrime DHA is a key feed ingredient for the industry’s continued growth. A new sustainable and transparent source of long-chain omega-3 DHA, AlgaPrime DHA can cost effectively enhance the nutritional value of seafood, delivering an important win-win for both people and planet,” said Rakitsky.
For the 2017 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, this was the strongest competition to date. A total of 18 applications were submitted, representing 12 countries — Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and the United States. Many of the innovations, including AlgaPrime™ DHA, originated from the aquafeed ingredient sector.
In addition to being featured at GOAL 2017 next month, TerraVia’s technology is the subject of a Sept. 11 Global Aquaculture Advocate article, “Aquafeed ingredient AlgaPrime wins GAA Innovation Award.”
Last year’s recipient was Quantidoc AS and Karin Pittman, professor at the University of Bergen in Norway. Quantidoc’s mucosal mapping technology is the commercialization of Pittman’s fish biology research, which employs stereology to measure and better understand mucous on gill, gut and skin tissues — the first line of defense for fish. These tissues are crucial in the fight against aquatic diseases and parasites like sea lice, a major challenge for the salmon-farming industry.
The 2015 recipient was Werner Jost, director of Camanor Produtos Marinhos Ltda. in Brazil. The 2014 recipient was Rodrigo Prado, a civil engineer and director of USONIC Ltda. in Puerto Montt, Chile, and the 2013 recipient was Amir Sagi, Ph.D., a professor at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.
The competition was coordinated by GAA Standards Coordinator Dan Lee. The judges included Lee, GAA President George Chamberlain, and GAA Standards Oversight Committee members Alejandro Buschmann of i-mar Research and Development Center of Coastal Resources and Environments, Dawn Purchase of the Marine Conservation Society and Michael Tlusty of the University of Massachusetts-Boston.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Preferred Freezer Services has sponsored the award. GAA established the award in 2012 to recognize individuals and companies finding new solutions to the key challenges facing aquaculture.
About GAA
The Global Aquaculture Alliance is an international, nonprofit trade association dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, GAA has become the leading standards-setting organization for aquaculture seafood.
