Brett Glencross
Technical Director
IFFO The Marine Ingredients Organisation
United Kingdom
Brett is Technical Director of IFFO (The Marine Ingredients Organisation) since June 2021. Prior to this role, he was the Professor of Nutrition at the Institute of Aquaculture at the University of Stirling in Scotland, where he maintains a position as a honorary professor.
Over the past 25 years he has worked in various academic, industrial, and institutional roles across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania. His career has been characterized by a close working relationship with many aquaculture production (farming) and feed companies throughout each of these regions. His research achievements have delivered many industrial outcomes resulting in the development of new processes, products, and applications.
For his achievements in this regard, Brett received multiple awards and commendations from both Government and Industrial organizations. At an academic level, he was one of the former editors of the journal Aquaculture Nutrition from 2008 to 2016. He is the current Chair of the International Scientific Committee of the International Symposium for Fish Nutrition and Feeding (ISFNF) and was the convening chair of the Feeds and Feeding thematic review at the recent FAO Global Conference on Aquaculture held in Shanghai. He has been a director of the Asia-Pacific Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (2013 – 2016) and have undertaken leadership roles at the CSIRO in Australia and the Institute of Aquaculture.
Brett has honours and master’s degrees in biochemistry from the University of Western Australia and a PhD in Animal Nutrition from the University of Queensland, Australia.
| Speaker | Precision Fish Nutrition, Health Interventions and Feed Efficiency |
| Presentation | The Evolution of Ingredient Assessment: A Feed is Still Only as Good as its Ingredients… |
Abstract
How we assess an ingredient can have a strong impact on the interpretation of its quality. In this presentation we will look at what information we need to formulate modern precision nutrition feeds, and how the use of a standardised assessment process, with a clearly structured approach, allows us to evaluate the quality of ingredients. This strategy builds on decades of work specialising in the science of ingredient assessment, across a wide range of strategic, traditional, and novel ingredients.
The standardised assessment process proposed is based on defining the critical information that formulators require to make appropriate decisions in the use of ingredients. This leads to a series of four steps (and the order in which they should be done) to develop a comprehensive data set on ingredient quality; Step 1 Characterisation, Step 2 Palatability and Digestibility, Step 3 Utilisation, Step 4 Accessory assessments. Once these steps had been achieved, only then can a formulator make the appropriate choice as to whether to use any particular ingredient, and with what constraints to impose on their use. Without any one of these steps, the risk exposure substantially increases as the formulator needs to make assumptions, and this increases the risk of a feed failing in one or more criteria.
In recent times we have witnessed considerable progress in the science of ingredient evaluation, and an expansion in the number and types of ingredients available. However, expectations from the users of those ingredients have also evolved. We need to consider further what are our most sustainable feed ingredient options to feed growth of the aquaculture sector. Much of that story hinges on the definition of “sustainability”. In recent years the science of sustainability assessment has also evolved considerably to become more holistic, using lifecycle assessment (LCA) analyses has been a step-change in the right direction. We are also increasingly seeing that circular resource use in the feed sector, with the adoption of a mantra of “no such thing as waste” is driving responsible feed development. Combined, we will explore how a feed is still only as good as it’s ingredients.