review · Reviews in Aquaculture
Aquaculture diets conventionally rely on fishmeal, an animal protein whose rising costs and link to declining wild fisheries drive the search for sustainable alternatives. Fermented plant proteins provide accessible, affordable substitutes with enhanced nutritional value. A synthesis of experimental evidence shows that replacing fishmeal with fermented plant proteins generally boosts growth, feed utilisation, antioxidant status, and digestive enzyme activities across multiple aquatic species, irrespective of trial length or the specific plant protein used. In addition, survival rates remain unaffected, and certain metabolic enzyme activities decrease. However, outcomes vary by target animal. Carnivorous marine species show reduced growth rates and poorer protein efficiency ratios when fed fermented plant diets compared to fishmeal diets, while freshwater species show worse feed conversion ratios. Fermented plant proteins nevertheless represent a safe, viable option to support sustainable aquaculture feeds.
Declining wild fish stocks and the high cost of fishmeal threaten the long-term viability of the fish farming industry. Evaluating plant-based alternatives helps identify cheaper, environmentally sustainable ingredients for aquafeeds. Understanding how different fish species respond to fermented plant proteins ensures that feed producers can lower environmental pressures without compromising animal health or farm productivity.
This evidence supports aquafeed manufacturers and feed formulators seeking to replace expensive fishmeal with cheaper fermented plant protein ingredients. Because performance varies between species, commercial implementation requires tailored formulations, as carnivorous marine and freshwater fish showed specific growth or feed conversion penalties. The research represents a consolidated evidence base from experimental trials, indicating the approach is applied and tested, yet requires species-specific refinement before universal commercial deployment.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Abstract In the aquaculture feed industry, fishmeal is widely used as a source of animal protein due to its high palatability, excellent amino acid profile and increased digestibility. However, the incorporation of fishmeal in aquaculture diets increases the costs of production due to the declining wild fish stocks hence an urgent need to search for sustainable and cheaper alternative protein sources. The use of fermented plant proteins as substitutes for fishmeal in aquaculture diets has recently gained attention due to their improved nutritional quality, easy availability and low costs. Therefore, a systematic review and meta‐analysis were conducted to quantify the effects of fermented plant proteins as substitutes for fishmeal on the growth performance, feed utilisation, survival, antioxidant, metabolic and digestive enzyme activity of several aquaculture species. Results of the meta‐analysis indicated that replacement of fishmeal with fermented plant proteins in aquaculture diets enhanced the growth performance, feed utilisation, antioxidant and digestive enzyme activities of several aquaculture species regardless of experimental duration and source of fermented plant protein. Likewise, metabolic enzyme activity (i.e., Alanine aminotransferase and Aspartate aminotransferase) was reduced in experimental dietary treatment groups relative to the fishmeal control groups. To elucidate the influence of moderators on the observed effect sizes, a mixed‐effects model was conducted and the results indicated that fishmeal substitution levels and aquaculture species influenced the observed effect sizes in both antioxidant and digestive enzyme activity. No significant differences were noted in survival between the experimental dietary treatment groups and fishmeal control diets among all aquaculture species. However, carnivorous marine species exhibited lower values for specific growth rate and protein efficiency ratio in experimental dietary treatment groups compared to the fishmeal control diets. Likewise, freshwater species exhibited poor FCR values in experimental dietary treatment groups relative to the fishmeal control diets. Overall, the replacement of fishmeal with fermented plant proteins in aquaculture diets is a safe and viable solution for increased and sustainable aquaculture production.
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DOI: 10.1111/raq.12701
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