Production of High Quality Fish Oil by Thermal Treatment and Enzymatic Protein Hydrolysis from Fresh Norwegian Spring Spawning Herring By-Products

There is an increasing demand for omega-3 containing fish oils. By-products from fish fillet production can be utilized for the production of fish oils and be a valuable source of omega-3 for human consumption. The aim of this work was to evaluate industrial processes for production of quality oil for human consumption made from Norwegian spring spawning herring by-products. A mobile production plant was used to compare two industrial processes, thermal treatment (wet rendering) and enzymatic protein hydrolysis, for production of oil from herring by-products immediately after filleting. Results show that high quality herring oil can be produced from fresh by-products. The use of by-products immediately after filleting resulted in a low amount of free fatty acids for all the produced oils (below 0.4%). Thermal treatment at 70°C resulted in an oil with lower oxidation status and higher stability compared to the oils produced by enzymatic protein hydrolysis. Nevertheless, both processing methods gave a crude oil of high quality compared to crude oils on the market.