Krill Meal
Krill meal is a dried, ground marine protein meal produced from Antarctic krill, Euphausia superba, a small planktonic crustacean harvested in the Southern Ocean. It comes as a reddish-brown to pink free-flowing powder or as compressed pellets, and it carries the whole animal, so the meal delivers protein, phospholipid-bound omega-3 fatty acids, the carotenoid astaxanthin, chitin and a natural mineral fraction in a single material.
Functionally the meal is used both as a nutrient source and as a palatability agent. Its protein content typically runs between 55 and 65 percent on a dry basis, with a residual lipid fraction of 8 to 20 percent depending on whether the meal is made from whole krill or from the press cake left after oil extraction. A large part of that lipid is phosphatidylcholine carrying eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid, which distinguishes krill from fish meal, where the omega-3 fatty acids are bound in triglycerides. Free amino acids, nucleotides and trimethylamine oxide in the meal act as strong feeding stimulants for aquatic species.
The meal is not water soluble. It disperses in water and settles, and the chitin fraction is insoluble in both water and oil. Because the residual lipid is highly unsaturated and the tissue carries an active phospholipase, krill meal oxidises and darkens if it is not stabilised with antioxidant at the point of manufacture and stored cool, dry and out of direct light.
We source bulk Krill Meal from top China manufacturers for our partners. The manufacturer is in Jiangsu. A smaller requirement can ship in a combined container with other ingredients.
Please send the grade you need, the volume and your destination port, and we will come back with a solution and a price.
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- Function
- Nutraceutical
Specifications
| Item | Specification |
|---|---|
| Appearance | Reddish-brown to pink free-flowing meal, free from foreign matter |
| Odour | Characteristic marine odour, free from rancid or putrid notes |
| Crude protein, dry basis | Not less than 56 percent |
| Crude fat | 10 to 20 percent |
| Phospholipid content | Not less than 30 percent of total lipid |
| Astaxanthin | Not less than 80 mg/kg |
| Moisture | Not more than 8.0 percent |
| Ash | Not more than 14 percent |
| Salt as sodium chloride | Not more than 3.0 percent |
| Fluoride, deshelled grade | Not more than 200 mg/kg |
| Arsenic, inorganic | Not more than 1.0 mg/kg |
| Cadmium | Not more than 2.0 mg/kg |
| Total plate count | Not more than 100000 cfu/g |
| Salmonella | Absent in 25 g |
Common Markets Grades
The principal distinction in trade is between whole krill meal, made from the entire animal with its lipid intact, and defatted or low-fat krill meal produced from the press cake remaining after krill oil extraction. Whole meal is specified on crude protein, crude fat, astaxanthin content and phospholipid content; the defatted grade is specified mainly on protein, which rises to 70 percent and above as the lipid is removed. A separate hydrolysed krill meal, produced with added protease before drying, is sold where a high content of soluble peptides and free amino acids is wanted as an attractant.
Meals are further divided by fluoride content, since krill exoskeleton concentrates fluoride and the shell fraction carries it into the meal. Deshelled or low-fluoride grades are made by separating the exoskeleton before drying and are the grades used where the meal enters human nutrition or feeds for species sensitive to fluoride accumulation. Particle size is offered as a coarse meal for extrusion and a fine milled powder for premix and capsule filling, and antioxidant addition, usually tocopherol or ethoxyquin depending on the destination market, is stated on the specification.
Applications
- Marine fish and shrimp starter and broodstock feeds, where the free amino acid and nucleotide fraction acts as a feeding attractant and improves feed intake in early stages
- Salmon and trout grower diets, supplying phospholipid-bound eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid and contributing astaxanthin to flesh pigmentation
- Shrimp and prawn feeds, where dietary phospholipid and cholesterol from krill support moulting and survival
- Ornamental fish feeds, where the astaxanthin and canthaxanthin fraction deepens red and orange colouration
- Pet food and treats for cats and dogs, used at low inclusion as a palatant and as an omega-3 source
- Piglet creep and weaner diets, where palatability at weaning decides feed intake
- Aquaculture broodstock conditioning diets, where phospholipid supply affects egg quality and larval viability
- Human nutraceutical capsules and tablets in the deshelled low-fluoride grade, sold as a whole-krill alternative to extracted krill oil
- Raw material for krill oil extraction and for krill protein hydrolysate production
China Manufacturers of Krill Meal
Top Krill Meal manufacturers in China.
Company names and logos are the property of the manufacturers themselves. They are listed here because our own directory records them as producing this ingredient. A listing is not an endorsement by them, and we do not represent them or speak on their behalf.
Regulatory Status
In the United States krill meal enters the market principally as an animal feed ingredient, defined and listed in the Association of American Feed Control Officials ingredient definitions and subject to the general feed safety provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. For human consumption, krill-derived products have been the subject of GRAS notifications to FDA covering krill oil and krill protein preparations, and no objection letters have been issued for defined preparations at specified use levels; a krill meal intended for human food must fall within such a determination or be independently supported. Antarctic krill fisheries are managed by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and catch documentation is a practical requirement for import into most markets.
In the European Union the Regulation on the placing on the market and use of feed and the Catalogue of feed materials cover krill meal for feed. For human food, preparations from Euphausia superba fall under the Novel Food Regulation (EU) 2015/2283, and specific krill oil preparations have been authorised as novel foods with defined specifications and conditions of use, so the permitted form and use level follow the terms of the individual authorisation. Krill is a crustacean and must be declared as an allergen under the food information rules in the European Union and under the equivalent allergen labelling provisions in the United States. Codex Alimentarius has no krill meal standard; the applicable Codex texts are the Code of Practice for Fish and Fishery Products and the general contaminant standards.
Manufacturing Process
Krill are taken by continuous pumping trawl in the Southern Ocean and processed on board within hours of capture, because krill tissue contains the animal's own powerful proteases, which begin to break it down immediately after death. The catch is washed and dewatered, then cooked with steam in a continuous cooker, which coagulates the protein and denatures those enzymes. The cooked mass is pressed in a screw press to remove press liquor, and the liquor is centrifuged to recover oil and a stickwater fraction that is concentrated in an evaporator and returned to the press cake.
The recombined cake is dried, usually in a low-temperature steam disc or vacuum dryer, to a moisture content below 8 percent, since high drying temperatures darken the meal and degrade both astaxanthin and the long chain fatty acids. Antioxidant is dosed into the meal as it leaves the dryer. The dried meal is milled and sieved to the specified particle size, then either bagged or pelleted. Where a deshelled low-fluoride grade is being made, the shell is separated from the soft tissue by mechanical peeling or by a density separation step before cooking. Where the destination is krill oil, the dried meal is extracted with ethanol or a supercritical carbon dioxide and ethanol system, and the residual cake is redried and sold as the defatted meal.
