NOFIMA, Norway

Greater value from the sea

Nofima Marine is engaged in R & D, innovation and knowledge transfer for the national and international fisheries and aquaculture industry. Our primary professional areas cover breeding and genetics, fish health, feed and nutrition, efficient and sustainable production as well as capture, seafood - process and product development.

Industrial processing

The activity builds on incoming trade knowledge, and has as an objective to identify and show how processing procedures in the industry can result in healthy and safe seafood, better end quality, processed products and increased profits.  The activities will also be a premise supplier for choice of packaging and optimal logistics. A further objective is to develop cost efficient industrial solutions for processing of pelagic fish, leftover raw materials and plankton. Nofima will contribute to an improved competitive situation for the industry through its work with processing procedures and efficiency improvement. Through this, the industry can be offered competence and test facilities with a broad spectrum of unit operations for development of alternative processing solutions and new commercial end products. Nofima will be at a high international level within processing of marine raw materials.

Knowledge of raw materials

Knowledge about marine raw materials has always been important for us. What affects the fish while it lives, what mechanisms contribute to breaking down the fish flesh after the fish is slaughtered, and why?  Nofima has long experience and a lot of knowledge about handling of marine raw materials. 
Our scientists know a lot about the basic mechanisms for why different types of seafood behave differently during processing and storage. Our sensory laboratory also contributes to providing the Institute and the fishing industry with a thorough understanding about this. To an ever-increasing degree, consumers are demanding to be able to select different seafood products according to price, quality and origin. Stronger focus on traceability also means that this will become a requirement in the future. It is therefore important that scientists, fishermen and the fishing industry understand the functional characteristics of seafood. This applies to all raw materials from catch, live storage and farming. During feeding, slaughter and storage, optimal product quality and food safety should be a basic idea throughout the entire process.  An important sub-area includes knowledge about the composition in feed and fish (proteins, lipids and trace elements), and the changes that take place through processing, conserving and storage of raw materials from all types of marine species, including new raw material sources such as krill and copepods.