The Effect of Fermentation on Increasing the Physico-Chemical Quality of Fish Feed Based on Food Waste

Abstract

Fish feed is the crucial aspect of aquaculture activities, 70% of production costs are spent on feed availability. However, the high price of commercial feed causes a decrease in farmers' profits, so a solution is needed to reduce feed costs. Food waste has a good potential to be used as a fish feed material. The fermentation of food waste should improve its quality and ensure that food waste is safe to use as feed material. As a result of various tests of Proximate, FTIR, SEM, and Physical Quality test it has been shown that the fermentation process can significantly improve the nutritional quality of food waste without changing the functional groups and the reduction of the particle size after the fermentation process is also capable to improve the physical quality of feed. We conclude that the fermentation process is the best method of improving the physical and chemical quality of food waste and the addition of fermented food waste meal to feed did not negatively affect the physical quality of feed produced.