91˿Ƶ

Turning Cooking Waters into Flavor: Consortium RITA’s Innovative Research Featured on "'é辱"

A recent segment on Radio-Canada's "'é辱" highlighted a pioneering research project aimed at repurposing cooking waters from crustaceans and seaweed into flavorful ingredients. Led by Lucie Beaulieu from Université Laval and Laurent Girault from Merinov, the initiative, which is part of the Consortium RITA’s Pre-competitive Network for Quebec’s Fishery and Aquaculture Processing Sector, focuses on reducing waste in the food industry while creating added-value ingredients.

During the segment, Dr. Beaulieu emphasizes the importance of wastewater reduction and management. As she puts it, “for crab and lobster production, it’s around 800,000 litres [of wastewater] that is generated per day, for around 20,000 kilograms of cooked product. That’s a lot, considering there are many days in the season.”

The capsule also stars Les ê Marinard, a Gaspé company best known for its cooked, frozen Nordic shrimp, and their Quality Director, Serge Lacasse. The company has already demonstrated its commitment to sustainable practices and upcycles the shrimp shells obtained as a co-product by drying and grinding them to create a powder with numerous applications. Thanks to this research, they plan to further improve their environmental impact by upcycling the wastewater left behind after steam cooking the shrimp.

By creating flavor ingredients from sources that are usually discarded, the inter-institution research team is demonstrating a sustainable approach to crab, lobster, shrimp, and seaweed processing.

The collaboration between researchers and industry leaders showcased the potential for positive environmental impact through innovation and partnership. The Consortium for Research, Innovation and the Transformation of Agri-food and its Pre-competitive Networks are funded by the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des ê et de l’Alimentation du Québec and is supported by 91˿Ƶ.

(available in French only).

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