A circular economy framework for seafood waste valorisation to meet challenges and opportunities for intensive production and sustainability

There is a growing concern among societies and consumers over food security and the sustainability of food production systems. For seafood, it has been highly advocated as a healthy food source and its sustainability credentials. However, the increasing global demand for seafood and the need to supply the quantities are creating sustainability issues, e.g., the importation of plant and marine proteins for aquafeed production. Consequently, there is a necessary need to analyse the supply chain and life cycle of these systems to determine their sustainability merits and how to enhance them. The circular economy (CE) aims to reduce processing by-product underutilisation, increase the rate of reuse, and reduce pressure on natural resources and systems. For seafood, there are large quantities of biomass that are being lost through bycatch/discards, waste from aquaculture (e.g., sludge and wastewater), and by-products generated through processing (e.g., trimmings and offal). These can all be valorised for the generation of feeds, value-added products, or further food production. This review will focus on seafood by-products generated during the processing into consumer products, and the current methods that could be used to manage or treat these waste streams. The review presents a stepwise framework that outlines valorisation opportunities for seafood by-products. This framework can enable producers, operators, regulators, and investors to integrate with the principles of the CE with the consideration of achieving economic viability. The challenges of seafood loss due to climate change and emerging recycling strategies will also need to be considered and integrated into the valorisation pathways. Communication, education, and engagement with stakeholders are key to transitioning to a circular economy. Where increase awareness and acceptance will create drivers and demand for seafood by-product valorisation. Overall, the impact of such a circular production system will potentially lead to higher production efficiency, reduce demand for natural resources, and greater seafood production. All of which addresses many of the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals by contributing towards future food security and sustainability.This work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Area. A.H.L Wan was co-funded under the HYDROfish project (2019–2022) which was funded under the Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF), established under Project Ireland 2040, run by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment with administrative support from Enterprise Ireland. His opinions expressed are his own. The authors would also like to thank Matt Bell for his editorial assistance

Addressing challenges and opportunities of the European seafood sector under a circular economy framework

The European seafood and aquaculture sectors are facing important challenges in terms of environmental threats (climate change, marine debris, resources depletion), social development (worker rights, consumer's awareness) or economic growth (market and nonmarket goods and services, global competitiveness). These issues are forcing all stakeholders, from policy-makers to citizens and industries, to move to more sustainable policies, practices and processes. Consequently, an improvement in collaborations among different parties and beyond borders is required to create more efficient networks along the supply chain of seafood and aquaculture sectors. To achieve this, a "nexus thinking" approach (i.e. the analysis of actions in connected systems) combined with a life cycle thinking appears as an excellent opportunity to facilitate the transition to a circular economy.This work was supported by the EAPA_576/2018 NEPTUNUS project. The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of Interreg Atlantic Area. A.C. Dias and P. Quinteiro acknowledge FCT/MCTES for the contracts CEECIND/02174/2017 and CEECIND/00143/2017, respectively, and for the financial support to CESAM (UID/AMB/50017/2019), through national funds. The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for supporting the contract of A. Marques in the framework of the IF2014 program (IF/00253/2014)

World Health Organization cardiovascular disease risk charts: revised models to estimate risk in 21 global regions

BACKGROUND: To help adapt cardiovascular disease risk prediction approaches to low-income and middle-income countries, WHO has convened an effort to develop, evaluate, and illustrate revised risk models. Here, we report the derivation, validation, and illustration of the revised WHO cardiovascular disease risk prediction charts that have been adapted to the circumstances of 21 global regions. METHODS: In this model revision initiative, we derived 10-year risk prediction models for fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular disease (ie, myocardial infarction and stroke) using individual participant data from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration. Models included information on age, smoking status, systolic blood pressure, history of diabetes, and total cholesterol. For derivation, we included participants aged 40-80 years without a known baseline history of cardiovascular disease, who were followed up until the first myocardial infarction, fatal coronary heart disease, or stroke event. We recalibrated models using age-specific and sex-specific incidences and risk factor values available from 21 global regions. For external validation, we analysed individual participant data from studies distinct from those used in model derivation. We illustrated models by analysing data on a further 123 743 individuals from surveys in 79 countries collected with the WHO STEPwise Approach to Surveillance. FINDINGS: Our risk model derivation involved 376 177 individuals from 85 cohorts, and 19 333 incident cardiovascular events recorded during 10 years of follow-up. The derived risk prediction models discriminated well in external validation cohorts (19 cohorts, 1 096 061 individuals, 25 950 cardiovascular disease events), with Harrell's C indices ranging from 0·685 (95% CI 0·629-0·741) to 0·833 (0·783-0·882). For a given risk factor profile, we found substantial variation across global regions in the estimated 10-year predicted risk. For example, estimated cardiovascular disease risk for a 60-year-old male smoker without diabetes and with systolic blood pressure of 140 mm Hg and total cholesterol of 5 mmol/L ranged from 11% in Andean Latin America to 30% in central Asia. When applied to data from 79 countries (mostly low-income and middle-income countries), the proportion of individuals aged 40-64 years estimated to be at greater than 20% risk ranged from less than 1% in Uganda to more than 16% in Egypt. INTERPRETATION: We have derived, calibrated, and validated new WHO risk prediction models to estimate cardiovascular disease risk in 21 Global Burden of Disease regions. The widespread use of these models could enhance the accuracy, practicability, and sustainability of efforts to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease worldwide. FUNDING: World Health Organization, British Heart Foundation (BHF), BHF Cambridge Centre for Research Excellence, UK Medical Research Council, and National Institute for Health Research

Environmental assessment of freshwater aquaculture in Ireland

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production activity in the world and has been for the last several decades. With over 60% of wild fish stocks at or below their maximum sustainable yield, it is expected that to relieve this pressure that fish and seafood products will be produced using alternative means, namely aquaculture. Aquaculture is an activity not without its impacts (like all food production activities). If aquaculture is to become the primary source of marine protein, there need to be increases in production efficiencies and identification of hotspots in these systems. European countries are required to have national strategic plans for the development of sustainable aquaculture under the Common Fisheries Policy. In Ireland, this has resulted in the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development, which aims to increase aquaculture production and diversify the sector with novel species. Against this proposed expansion, it is imperative to benchmark and characterise the environmental performance of the sector. A popular tool popular in capturing the environmental impacts of a process, system or product, is life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA is a technique, which accounts for the inputs, outputs and impacts associated with a production system. It was first applied to aquaculture production in the early 2000s. Studies have used impact categories such as global warming potential (GWP), eutrophication potential (EP) and acidification potential to name a few. One impact category, which has been under investigated with aquaculture LCAs, is biodiversity. The expansion and intensification of the aquaculture sector in Ireland is likely to result in an increase in the number of freshwater sites. These systems abstract water from rivers and lakes and discharge the nutrient enriched waters back to the rivers. There are currently no plans to use recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) within the salmonid sector, as this would disallow the hallmark of Irish aquaculture, organic status. The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is European law that requires that all surface waters meet or maintain good ecological status. The WFD in essence aims to maintain high levels of biodiversity in freshwater systems. The aim of this body of work was to complete LCAs of the main and emerging freshwater aquaculture species in Ireland, while using the WFD as a common framework to develop biodiversity indicators for future aquaculture LCAs. The LCAs focused on sites which produced 66% of Atlantic salmon smolts (Salmo salar), 47% of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and 100% of Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis), or 57% of average annual freshwater output. The results of the LCAs were in line with international studies, in that feed was the dominant contributor to environmental burden. Water use and GWP for trout were higher than was previously reported and energy use for smolts was lower. The perch LCA required an ab initio approach due to data deficits, but showed that the results were in line with other studies of species cultured in RAS. This was also the first LCA of perch culture carried out. The EP (as kg PO4 eq.) of the sector was investigated using three different approaches, regulatory, hydrobiological and nutritional. The results of these methods indicated that aquaculture was under utilising its regulatory EP. Comparisons between other land based food production activities were made (beef, dairy, sheep and tillage), on EP, value (€) and land use. The results indicated that tillage had the lowest EP per tonne, followed by aquaculture. A monitoring campaign conducted to assess the impact and recovery of water quality in terms of physical, chemical and biological parameters due to aquaculture discharges. The results of this monitoring indicated that in general there was a recovery in biological water quality within 1,000 m of the site. Increases in nutrient concentrations in several instance indicated there were other contributors to changes in water quality. The results of this monitoring were used to propose several indicators for biodiversity and its supporting mechanism for freshwater aquaculture. These indicators covered physical (hydromorphology), biological (ecological quality rating) and chemical (catchment nutrient budget) components. In conclusion, the results of the study provided the first results of LCA on aquaculture in Ireland and for an emerging aquaculture, species (perch). It contextualised the role that aquaculture has in sustainable food production against other land based systems. It demonstrated that in terms of EP and land use that it performs more efficiently than beef, sheep and tillage activities with a higher gross economic output. Indicators on biodiversity in LCA were also proposed using a pan-European framework (WFD) which can be used not only in aquaculture but also in other activities (wastewater and drinking water). Future recommendations are also made on how to develop sustainable aquaculture and food production plans using a catchment based LCA.2023-12-1

Accounting for research induced environmental impacts using life cycle assessment

Since the 1970's the number of scientific publications with sustainability as a keyword has increased from 1 in 1975 to 13,628 in 2019. Research, like all human endeavors, has impacts on the environment due to the activities required to generate the supporting data (i.e., use of vehicles, resources, and materials). Researchers have a responsibility to minimize their impacts as part of their work and to make environmentally responsible decisions. A life-cycle approach is currently the best-developed means of assessing the impact of a group or organization. This article presents a case study of organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) of a research project. The objectives of this study were to (i) estimate the impact of the project, focusing on travel. (ii) Use a post hoc approach to determine impact reduction opportunities. (iii) Apply O-LCA as a decision-making tool in project management of research and (iv) profile the environmental impact of the project using public data (manufacturers figures) and proprietary datasets. The results of this study indicate that the greatest impact arising from the project was due to commuting followed by conference and training attendance, fieldwork and meetings. Scenarios modeling, alternative vehicle use, flexible working arrangements and stakeholder events highlighted the reduction potential that could have been implemented as part of the project. O-LCA proved to be an appropriate tool for assessing the impact of a research group and that it has the potential to inform decisions and management of academic projects and events. It should be noted that the ability of research groups or personnel to bring about change might be limited, typically due to their placement within a larger organization (e.g., a higher education institute). The recent COVID-19 pandemic, has hastened the shift to remote working practices for many organizations. Recent surveys indicate that more than 80% of respondents would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, after the pandemic. This modal shift in working practices offers an immediate opportunity for environmental relief. It is recommended that O-LCA be incorporated into groups and organizations to support their decision-making practices to foster responsible and sustainable research.This work was supported by the MOREFISH (14SF872) and EcoAqua (17/KGS/004) projects.peer-reviewe

Accounting for research induced environmental impacts using life cycle assessment

Since the 1970's the number of scientific publications with sustainability as a keyword has increased from 1 in 1975 to 13,628 in 2019. Research, like all human endeavors, has impacts on the environment due to the activities required to generate the supporting data (i.e., use of vehicles, resources, and materials). Researchers have a responsibility to minimize their impacts as part of their work and to make environmentally responsible decisions. A life-cycle approach is currently the best-developed means of assessing the impact of a group or organization. This article presents a case study of organizational life cycle assessment (O-LCA) of a research project. The objectives of this study were to (i) estimate the impact of the project, focusing on travel. (ii) Use a post hoc approach to determine impact reduction opportunities. (iii) Apply O-LCA as a decision-making tool in project management of research and (iv) profile the environmental impact of the project using public data (manufacturers figures) and proprietary datasets. The results of this study indicate that the greatest impact arising from the project was due to commuting followed by conference and training attendance, fieldwork and meetings. Scenarios modeling, alternative vehicle use, flexible working arrangements and stakeholder events highlighted the reduction potential that could have been implemented as part of the project. O-LCA proved to be an appropriate tool for assessing the impact of a research group and that it has the potential to inform decisions and management of academic projects and events. It should be noted that the ability of research groups or personnel to bring about change might be limited, typically due to their placement within a larger organization (e.g., a higher education institute). The recent COVID-19 pandemic, has hastened the shift to remote working practices for many organizations. Recent surveys indicate that more than 80% of respondents would like to work remotely, at least some of the time, after the pandemic. This modal shift in working practices offers an immediate opportunity for environmental relief. It is recommended that O-LCA be incorporated into groups and organizations to support their decision-making practices to foster responsible and sustainable research.This work was supported by the MOREFISH (14SF872) and EcoAqua (17/KGS/004) projects.peer-reviewe