A study on the marine bio-industrialization of seafood by-products in Jeju Island

Abstract

In Korea, most fishery by-products are disposed of in the form of landfill, incineration, and marine discharge, and only a small portion is recycled as feed and fertilizer under the Waste Control Act. Simultaneously, illegal dumping, neglect, and landfill of the by-products generate sewage and odors, causing various environmental pollution problems such as damaging the surrounding landscape, contamination of ground water, and breeding of pests. It is estimated that more than 200 tons of marine product waste is generated from 2016 to 2018 only in the fisheries industry in Hallim-eup area and these by-products represent between 25 to 53 percent of the whole fish. Despite a large amount of the by-products being discarded and stated to be low-value product, demand for raw materials and nutrients for health functional food derived from fish by-products, which did not exist statistically until 2017, started to arise from 2018. The raw materials of fish by-products increased 45% in 2019 than the previous year. Some of health functional food and pharmaceutical manufacturers are already manufacturing biomaterials by importing natural-dried fish scales and skin from Vietnam, Thailand and China. In this study, therefore, the current status of use of marine biomaterials using domestic and foreign fishery by-products was reported, and requirements for the biomaterials were presented. The factors on hinder the marine bio-industrialization of the by-products were derived in order to increase the utilization of raw materials for the development of high value-added by-products as marine biomaterials. The baseline of raw materials that can be used directly as marine biomaterials are i) sanitation and safety can be secured through the certified facilities such as HACCP, and ii) raw materials preserved in low-temperature storage facilities, iii) stable raw material supply by statistically, and iv) separating and discharging for each process. In accordance with the Food Sanitation Act, not the Waste Management Act, which is a conventional treatment method of fishery by-products, the by-products generated at seafood processing facilities can be reused as seafood products and supplied as raw materials for biomaterials. Finally, the Act on Promotion of Recycling of Fishery by-Products was enacted in 2021, providing a legal basis for recycling of fishery by-products. Therefore, as the possibility of utilizing fishery by-products is systematically secured according to this law that will be enforced from July 2022, it is necessary to present a strategic direction to promote the use of value-added fishery by-products.