The blue mussels from the Baltic Sea are a separate species. Today, the small ”Baltic Sea mussels” are not used for food, but Ecopelag develops techniques to harvest them and produce a protein-rich feed for dogs, cats, chickens, fish and pigs. Upplandsbygd's project Richer water has been involved in supporting part of their development journey.
Feed with benefits for animals, the climate and the health of the Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a relatively small sea, surrounded by agriculture and large cities, which receives far too much nutrition. The result is algal blooms, dead seabeds and less life in the sea. The mussels naturally absorb this nutrition by eating phytoplankton. When the mussels are harvested, the nutrition is returned to land, which helps to reduce eutrophication. If the mussels can also replace soy or fish meal that is fed to chickens, pigs and fish, it could significantly reduce climate emissions. According to Ecopelag's partner, Anders Kiessling at SLU, mussel feed means a halving of carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional feed[1]. But there are other challenges with mussels.
Toxic algal blooms are causing problems – could larvae be the solution?
Algal toxins are something that mussel farmers around the world test to ensure safe products. In the Baltic Sea, toxic algal blooms can occur during certain parts of the year, which can make the mussels inedible even for animals. Today, people avoid harvesting at these times, but in a large-scale future scenario, they may need to harvest all year round. Martin and Martin therefore asked themselves the question of whether larvae could help to take advantage of mussels that contain algal toxins? Here came Cecilia Lalander at SLU in Uppsala into the picture, a researcher who is an expert on fly larvae that eat various waste and then become food. Cecilia, Viktoria Wiklicky and two high school students writing their thesis examined the issue more closely.
”"The result was positive. The levels of toxins were low in the larvae that ate the mussels," says Martin Reutgard.
However, some protein was lost along the way in the transformation from mussel meat to larva. There is still more research to be done to make the mussel-eating larvae a good feed, but this is an important step on the way.
From mussel harvest to market products
In parallel with the experiments with the larvae, Martin and Martin have started a factory in Västervik. They have already started developing products from mussels harvested during safe periods. The first one on the market is the dog snack set "”Seagull”". They also sell premium feed to organic egg producers.
”"It is currently more expensive compared to, for example, fish meal, but is well suited for those who have around 300–500 chickens and farm sales," says Martin Karlsson.
Right now, three small producers in the Upplandsbygd area are going to try the new feed on their chickens. Maybe there are more producers in our area who want to try it? We at Upplandsbygd are happy to have been part of supporting part of Ecopelag's journey towards economically viable products that are part of a cycle.
[1] Langeland et al. 2023, "Greenhouse gas emissions of rainbow trout fed conventional and novel feeds from Baltic region, evaluated using Life Cycle Assessment", Mistra Food Futures Report #13