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Replacing Fishmeal
Without Losing Intake

August 2026 · Technical Insight

Fishmeal inclusion rates across Asian aqua and livestock feeds have fallen steadily for a decade, and the economics say they will keep falling. The formulation challenge is no longer whether to substitute — it is how to substitute without paying for it in intake and FCR.

What the animal actually tastes

Fishmeal earns its palatability from a specific profile of free amino acids, nucleotides and volatile marine compounds. Plant proteins not only lack this profile — they add their own anti-nutritional off-notes: bitterness from rapeseed glucosinolates, beany notes from soy, astringency from tannins. The animal notices before your FCR data does.

Two levers: signal and digestion

SILSEP's approach pairs two mechanisms. First, biomimetic attraction: VS1437 AromaBoost™ reproduces the key attractant molecules of marine raw materials, restoring the feeding signal that substitution removes — and holding it for 180 days in tropical storage. Second, digestive efficiency: as fats and oils shift with the protein matrix, LPC (lysophospholipid) emulsification at HLB 8–12 helps emulsify dietary fat into absorbable micelles, protecting FCR as oil inclusion rises in high-energy formulas.

Validate in your system, not ours

Substitution formulas differ too much for universal claims. We recommend a simple parallel design: your current formula as control, the substitute formula with and without the palatant-emulsifier pair, measured on intake, FCR and rejection behavior over 6–8 weeks. Talk to us and we will support the trial protocol and samples.

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Formulating for a hot, humid market?

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