Naima BOU M’HANDI
National Research Institute of Marine/Fisheries (INRH), Seafood Processing Technology Center (CSVTPM), BP: 1050 Poste principale, Agadir- Morocco
In Morocco, fisheries are very diversified. However, the sources used are dominated by small pelagics. According to FAO, Morocco's fisheries production in 2014 amounted to one million tonnes. This record is due to a single species, sardine (Sardina pilchardus), which Morocco is both the largest producer and exporter worldwide.
The establishment of a regulatory environmental policy increasingly strict encourages Moroccan manufacturers to consider waste / by-products resulting from the processing of fish. The search for biologically active molecule extracted from these co-products begins to generate interest. It seems interesting, as part of the new strategy of development of the fisheries sector in Morocco called "Halieutis Plan" and the development of a National Charter for Environment and Sustainable Development, to develop a new technique to guide enhancement of marine by-products into high value products rather than considering them as waste low interest.
It is in this context that the present project is part of the value scales of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) to reduce the pollution load discharged and recover valuable biomolecules with high added value, the collagen in this case.
The preliminary results of this study demonstrated the ability to produce, in the pre industrial scale, collagen powder form sardine scales with a yield of 26%. This collagen contains a large amount of 78% protein and a medium amount of ashes 16.8%. Regarding the amount of water, it represents only 9.5%. Biomass scales representing 2% of the weight of the fish and is not even valued, can become raw material for the production of collagen used for health nutrition, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biomedical.