Date: 04/08/2025

Crustacean aquaculture poses complex nutritional challenges that require innovative approaches to optimize productivity and sustainability. In this scenario, bioactives represent a value-added strategy in the development of various products, such as shrimp feed formulations.

By understanding the main advantages of incorporating bioactives into crustacean diets, it becomes possible to apply these compounds efficiently, improving feed conversion, modulating the immune response, and increasing resilience to environmental stressors.

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What are bioactive ingredients?

Bioactive ingredients consist of compounds added to various foods, such as aquatic and pet foods. These compounds aim to enhance feed quality and animal health, while also reducing environmental impacts and mitigating economic losses (Jitemdrasinh; Kotita, Dipakbai, 2024).

In Brazil, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (Anvisa) regulates the production of bioactive ingredients (including requirements for quality, safety, food labeling, etc.).

According to the regulatory agency's regulations, the minimum daily protein intake is 2.85 g, and the carbohydrate intake is 19.5 g. Minimum amounts are also established for vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. However, the inclusion of substances considered doping by the World Anti-Doping Agency is not permitted.

Labels must include the names of each nutrient, including bioactives or enzymes, as well as the corresponding category names. It is also necessary to provide the source from which each substance was extracted.

Bioactive ingredients, therefore, are a broad concept, and these substances can include flavonoids, polyphenols, carotenoids, phytosterols, phospholipids, etc. According to Anvisa, bioactives can originate from plants, minerals, microorganisms, fungi, animals, among other sources.

Because there are many different bioactives, there is broad chemical diversity, and their effects on living beings vary. They have applications, for example, in food production, medicine (including the development of penicillin), and other areas. They are all organic compounds with low molecular weight (Embrapa).

How do they work in crustacean nutrition?

Bioactives have diverse nutritional properties, which promote the growth of crustaceans such as shrimp. Additionally, bioactives improve the immune system and are antioxidants and antimicrobials, contributing to increased arthropod life expectancy (Jitemdrasinh; Kotita; Dipakbai, 2024).

With the increasing demand for fish and other aquaculture products, bioactives are very useful. They allow the exploration of alternatives for feed development.

What are the main advantages of bioactive ingredients?

Bioactive ingredients are widely used in various sectors and provide a variety of positive effects, including nutritional and food safety issues.

Nutritional benefits

Bioactives are rich in protein and help improve the immune system. They are also antioxidants and antimicrobials, contributing to the increased life expectancy of animals, including arthropods.

Food safety

Because bioactives are an alternative for crustacean nutrition, they play a key role in food security. This is because they expand production processes aimed at providing crustacean feed.

Environmental preservation

Bioactives help mitigate environmental impacts because they come from sustainable resources, such as plant ingredients or extracts (Jitemdrasinh; Kotita, Dipakbai; 2024), materials of animal and microbial origin, among other possibilities.

Animal health

Considering the benefits mentioned above, it can be said that bioactives are allies for animal health and help to increase the life expectancy of living beings.

What are the main uses of bioactives?

Studies show that biogenic supplements can have a variety of uses, including:

● Herbs: the use of botanical extracts in these supplements promotes increased antioxidant concentrations, growth, and resistance to various diseases present in aquatic environments;

● Probiotics: can be derived from soil, water, and other materials and help improve the intestinal health of living beings, including crustaceans.

What are BRF Ingredients' solutions for aquaculture?

BRF Ingredients, with more than 8 years of experience in the market, boasts technical expertise in the production of quality ingredients for animal nutrition, which can be applied in specific formulations for aquaculture, including crustaceans.

Some of these ingredients are BioActio brand hydrolyzed proteins. They have low molecular weight and are rich in bioactives to improve nutrient absorption by animals.

Sustainability is another distinguishing feature of BRF products. The ingredients are produced by adding value to animal byproducts from the agricultural chain, promoting environmental preservation, and mitigating climate impacts.

What are the differentiators of BioActio Efficiency in crustacean feed?

BioActio Efficiency is BRF Ingredients' enzymatic feather hydrolysate, rich in bioactive peptides, providing efficient nutrition for animals and optimizing performance in aquaculture.

The bioactive ingredient is produced through the enzymatic hydrolysis of chicken feathers and offers several advantages in aquaculture, including shrimp. Key benefits include:

● Improved immunity: this contributes to increased life expectancy, as the animals become more resistant to diseases and parasites;

● Weight gain: the ingredients are easily absorbed and metabolized, promoting weight gain;

● Digestibility: enzymatic hydrolysis facilitates the production of nitrogenous compounds with lower molecular weight, facilitating digestion.

As can be seen, formulating feeds with bioactives for crustaceans represents a breakthrough in shrimp nutrition. Implementing this approach, however, requires an understanding of the technical aspects of selecting, processing, and including these compounds in diets. Dosage accuracy, molecular stability, and bioavailability are factors that impact the efficacy of bioactives.

Therefore, continuous research and technological development are essential to unlock the full potential of bioactives and consolidate their application on an industrial scale.