News update on the ProFish project in Benin

Rob Nout and Anita Linnemann of Wageningen Food Quality and Design are visiting Benin in the context of the ARF project ProFish. They were given a demonstration about the progress in the fish feed formulation.

The ProFish project in Benin targets the production of fish feed for the breeding of catfish. Currently, most fish feed is imported from Europe, which increases the production costs and therefore the price that has to be paid by the local population for this high-quality protein source. The main two challenges of the project are:

(1) Finding the right, cheap, locally available raw materials for the feed which, for example, must contain sufficient protein.

(2) Creating such a texture (by means of extrusion) that the feed floats on the water; if it drops directly to the bottom, the fish will not eat it and thus the feed will pollute the water.

The photographs show that after extrusion the same mixture of cassava flour, cottonseed meal and soya protein drops to the bottom when you add 35% water and floats when you add 30% water.