Academics from the Department of Food Engineering at the University of La Serena seek to open new opportunities for the development of marine bioproducts.

The use of by-products, project opportunities, technological support and new process lines were discussed in the Web Seminar “Development of Cuttlefish Bioproducts”, within the framework of the Innovation Fund for Competitiveness, FIC-r, “Squid” project. Giant: Development of Bioproducts”.

Academics from the Department of Food Engineering at the University of La Serena develop this project, which seeks to open new opportunities for the development of these marine products, aiming to turn them into strategic assets for the region.

Dr. Ronny Martínez, academic at the Department of Food Engineering at the ULS and Director of the project, highlighted the development of the day and emphasized that “it is critical for the long-term success of these initiatives to be able to share the results and experiences with the community, generating points of interaction between the various actors and interested parties that can continue with the application of the results we have obtained in this project”

The University of La Serena leads a project focused on the study of uses of the by-products of the Cuttlefish resource, focused on identifying and evaluating four possible uses: oil extraction, collagen and gelatin extraction, generation of hydrolysates and the use of enzymes present in the viscera of the animal.

The event aroused significant interest, which was developed within the framework of the “Giant Squid: Development of Bioproducts” project, financed by the Regional Government of Coquimbo and supported by Corfo's MásMar program.

Ailyn Rojas, entrepreneur, Master in Environmental Sciences PhD in Sustainable Environmental Sciences University of Tsukuba, Japan, pointed out that the activity shared important knowledge and experiences for the development of bioproducts from fishing waste in the region and "motivated processors and entrepreneurs , to get involved in the development and production of bioproducts, demonstrating that they have great economic potential in the market."

For his part, Mario Suárez, Coordinator of the Innovation Fund for regional competitiveness, pointed out that "for Mayor Lucia Pinto, one of the main focuses of her management is to generate a knowledge economy and this is achieved with this initiative, in the which the academy develops research that can be applied by cuttlefish producers, which would provide added value to their production, improve sales prices and reduce waste generated in the industry, enabling the generation of a circular economy in the regional fishing industry, since in addition, these results obtained with cuttlefish can be applied to other products of said industry.

Written by Sergio Muñoz, Office for the Dissemination and Diffusion of Science and Technology