A study on revision of regulations to promote bio-materialization of fishery processing Industry residue

Abstract

Despite many seafood processing by-products such as intestines, shells, heads, and bones being discarded in Korea, these raw materials are used as the ingredients for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and health-functional foods. Fortunately, the Fisheries By-products Recycling Promotion Act (officially unnamed, hereinafter referred to as FBRPA) was enacted in July 2021, providing a legal basis for the recycling of fishery by-products. The possibility of industrial use of seafood by-products is systematically secured, but the Enforcement Decree only includes shells excluding organic by-products. Therefore, we attempted to find the relevant rationale for why the organic by-products should be included in the FBRPA by analyzing the data on the discharge of fishery products processing residues, which are currently managed by the Wastes Control Act. The amount of fish by-products generated in 2020 is 1.3 times higher than that of shellfish by-products. As of 2020, there were 3,538 domestic fisheries processing facilities, of which 1,354 HACCP facilities account for 38 % of the total facilities. Over the past 5 years, 295,908 metric tons of seafood by-products were emitted from 234 seafood processing industries, which was only 6.6 % of all seafood products processing facilities in Korea. The reason why fishery by-products are treated from only a few facilities are treating under the Wastes Control Act is that a place of businesses that discharge less than 300 kg of seafood by-products per day are excluded from the scope of places of business. Although statistics quantifying the amount and utilization of fishery processing residues are lacking, it can be inferred that the loss of potential economic value (93.4 % by-products) from the domestic fishery processing industry is observing till now. Therefore, we propose to add organic by-products, including fish by-products, to the Enforcement Decree in the FBRPA to achieve a circular economy of fish to the fullest. The estimates of each fish by-product emissions through statistical analysis of relevant statistical data are presented in our session.