Chitin/chitosan and collagen are two of the most important bioactive compounds, with applications in the pharmaceutical, veterinary, nutraceutical, cosmetic, biomaterials, and other industries. When extracted from non-edible parts of fish and shellfish, by-catches, and invasive species, their use contributes to a more sustainable and circular economy. The present article reviews the scientific knowledge and publication trends along the marine chitin/chitosan and collagen value chains and assesses how researchers, industry players, and end-users can bridge the gap between scientific understanding and industrial applications. Overall, research on chitin/chitosan remains focused on the compound itself rather than its market applications. Still, chitin/chitosan use is expected to increase in food and biomedical applications, while that of collagen is expected to increase in biomedical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and nutritional applications. Sustainable practices, such as the reuse of waste materials, contribute to strengthen both value chains; the identified weaknesses include the lack of studies considering market trends, social sustainability, and profitability, as well as insufficient examination of intellectual property rights. Government regulations, market demand, consumer preferences, technological advancements, environmental challenges, and legal frameworks play significant roles in shaping both value chains. Addressing these factors is crucial for seizing opportunities, fostering sustainability, complying with regulations, and maintaining competitiveness in these constantly evolving value chains.

Many bioactive peptides have been described from marine sources and much marine biomass is still not explored or utilized in products. Marine peptides can be developed into a variety of products, and there is a significant interest in the use of bioactive peptides from marine sources for nutraceuticals or functional foods. We present here a mini-review collecting the knowledge about the value chain of bioactive peptides from marine sources used in nutraceuticals and functional foods. Many reports describe bioactive peptides from marine sources, but in order to make these available to the consumers in commercial products, it is important to connect the bioactivities associated with these peptides to commercial opportunities and possibilities. In this mini-review, we present challenges and opportunities for the commercial use of bioactive peptides in nutraceuticals and functional food products. We start the paper by introducing approaches for isolation and identification of bioactive peptides and candidates for functional foods. We further discuss market-driven innovation targeted to ensure that isolated peptides and suggested products are marketable and acceptable by targeted consumers. To increase the commercial potential and ensure the sustainability of the identified bioactive peptides and products, we discuss scalability, regulatory frameworks, production possibilities and the shift towards greener technologies. Finally, we discuss some commercial products from marine peptides within the functional food market. We discuss the placement of these products in the larger picture of the commercial sphere of functional food products from bioactive peptides.

Chitin/chitosan and collagen are two of the most important bioactive compounds with applications in the pharmaceutical, veterinary, nutraceutical, cosmetic, biomaterials, and other industries. When extracted from fish and shellfish non-edible parts, by-catches, and invasive species, their use contributes to a more sustainable and circular economy. The present article reviews the scientific knowledge and publication trends along the marine chitin/chitosan and collagen value-chains and assesses how researchers, industry players, and end-users can bridge the gap between scientific understanding and industrial applications. Overall, research on chitin/chitosan remains focused on the compound itself rather than its market applications. Still, chitin/chitosan use is expected to increase in food and biomedical applications, while that of collagen is expected to increase in biomedical, cosmetic, pharmaceutical, and nutritional applications. Sustainable practices, such as the reuse of waste materials, contribute to strengthen both value-chains; the identified weaknesses include the lack of studies considering market trends, social sustainability, and profitability, as well as insufficient examination of intellectual property rights. Government regulations, market demand, consumer preferences, technological advancements, environmental challenges, and legal frameworks play significant roles in shaping both value-chains. Addressing these factors is crucial for seizing opportunities, fostering sustainability, complying with regulations, and maintaining competitiveness in these constantly evolving value-chains.

The aim of this research is to propose simple and scalable processes to obtain bioactive peptides extensively hydrolyzed starting from a tuna mixed biomass. The upcycling of this powdered biomass is challenging since it comes from the unsorted industrial side streams of the tuna canning process (cooked residues from fillet trimming) after a patented mild dehydration useful for preventing its degradation until its exploitation. Two different protocols were proposed, with and without the inclusion of an exogenous enzyme (Enzymatic-Assisted Extraction, EAE), with no relevant differences in yields (24% vs. 22%) and a comparable amino acid composition. Nevertheless, the former protocol (with EAE) provided peptides with an average molecular weight of 1.3 kDa, and the second one (without EAE) provided peptides with an average molecular weight of 2.2 kDa. The two corresponding types of tuna protein hydrolysates (Enzymatic Hydrolysates (EH) and Non-Enzymatic Hydrolysates (NEH)) were characterized by proximate compositions, pH, color profile, amino acid analysis, FTIR spectra, and molecular weight distribution. In addition, several biological analyses were performed to assess their potential use as nutraceutical supplements: special attention has been paid to antioxidant activity using three different methods to quantify it. EH showed the most promising antioxidant activity which could be exploited also in other fields (e.g., biomaterials, cosmetics).

Farmed lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) are used as cleaner fish in Norwegian aquaculture. However, once the fish reaches sexual maturity, it becomes less effective in combating lice and is often wasted or turned into silage. This raises ethical, economic, and sustainability concerns regarding whether the use is sustainable without increasing its standard of living and further use of the fish to higher value products. To improve the utilization of lumpfish, a study was conducted to investigate the differences in extraction efficiency by comparing product yield, protein content, and peptide size distribution after enzymatic hydrolysis of lumpfish using several commercial proteases (Corolase 8,000, Corolase 7,089, Endocut 01 L, Flavourzyme, and Food Pro PNL), and different pretreatment methods (pulsed electric field and high-pressure processing). The choice of enzyme did not affect the amino acid contents of the different hydrolysates. Furthermore, varying enzyme concentrations had a minor impact on the final product’s protein content. As anticipated, increased enzyme concentrations decreased the hydrolysates’ average molecular weight. The study found that biomass treated either chemically (NaOH and butanol) or mechanically with a pulsed electric field before enzymatic hydrolysis resulted in higher protein content and relatively higher amounts of collagen peptides. Initial bioactivity testing indicated that the hydrolysates had no toxic effects on hepatocellular carcinoma and non-malignant lung fibroblast cells. Previous studies have shown that farmed lumpfish contains all the essential amino acids and has high levels of EPA, DHA, B12, and D3 vitamins. The contents of environmental pollutants and heavy metals were also below the EU maximum levels. This study’s knowledge and results open for the potential use of lumpfish peptides and gelatin for, e.g., dietary supplements, feed, and biodegradable packaging.