The Pep4Fish project, a EU€21.7 million research initiative assessing sustainable diets for European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), has entered its open-water testing phase off the Algarve coast in southern Portugal.
Funded through Portugal’s Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) under the EU’s post-pandemic recovery framework, the project is evaluating novel feed formulations under commercial production conditions for the first time. The trials aim to improve fish resilience to stress and bacterial infections, reduce economic losses and enhance end-product quality. With aquaculture supplying around half of the fish consumed globally, the project also seeks to support more sustainable Portuguese aquaculture by reducing reliance on finite, conventional feed ingredients.
The trials are being carried out at Seaculture, a Jerónimo Martins Agro-Alimentar company and consortium partner. As the project’s final demonstrator, Seaculture is assessing the performance of the new feed formulations under real offshore aquaculture production conditions at its facility in the Algarve.
The experimental diets contain new protein hydrolysates, produced by breaking down proteins from underutilised resources into compounds that are more readily absorbed by fish. These ingredients are intended to improve fish health, robustness and growth while supporting the development of more sustainable aquaculture feeds within a circular bioeconomy.
For Seaculture, the open-water trials represent the transition from research to commercial application, demonstrating how advances in aquaculture nutrition can help address challenges related to production resilience, sustainable feed ingredients and fish quality.
