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Farm-Raised Fish Vs. Wild-Caught
Not all fish are created equal! There has been some debate around farm-raised fish vs. wild-caught, but it is worth noting that there are differences in the fish and seafood that we eat versus the fish caught for our collagen. Read on to learn why the sourcing of fish used for collagen really matters.
Which fish has the lowest carbon footprint?
Here at Indigo, we take our sourcing and environmental impact very seriously. The fish we use is wild-caught, deep-sea whitefish because studies show it has one of the lowest impacts on the environment.
What Are Wild-Caught Fish?
“Wild-caught” is a term used to describe fish that are caught in their natural environment by fishermen. Wild-caught fish have the benefit of not containing antibiotics because they don’t have the same risk of disease of infection as farmed.
What is farm-raised?
The term “farm-raised” refers to fish that are commercially raised in controlled pens. These pens can exist in bodies of water, like oceans, or large tanks on land. Fish are farm-raised to make fish cheaper and more readily available.
Environmental Impact of Wild-Caught and Farm-Raised Fish
Food production of any kind has environmental costs. For wild-caught and farm-raised fish, most of the environmental costs derive from either fertilizer used in feed production, fuel for fishing boats, and circulation of water in aquaculture (fish farms).
The environmental impact for aquaculture (fish farms) will depend on whether the fish are fed and whether the production requires energy for water circulation.
The environmental impact of capture fisheries (wild-caught) depends primarily on the amount of fuel used. There is also the question of overfishing. However, the fish used in Indigo Collagen is whitefish, which has shown to have one of the lowest impacts on the environment.
The lowest impact forms of animal protein come from species that feed naturally in the ocean and can be harvested with low fuel requirements.
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Why Indigo Marine Collagen?
Since our fish are caught from deep water schools of white fish in their natural habitats, our collagen is protected from direct exposure to harmful antibiotics and hormones.
Our marine collagen powder is fished in the wild, processed in our facility, and packaged by our team, allowing us to ensure strict quality controls and produce a product that meets our values and expectations for excellence.
Indigo’s Sustainability
The fish that go into our pure marine collagen is sourced from wild-caught North Atlantic fish. These fish are collected from food fishermen in Canada, the United States, and Europe to provide the quality raw material. From there, we take the fish skins that would normally be thrown away but instead extract Type 1 collagen.
Before the extraction, the skins receive a thorough wash with water to clean the skins and reduce any allergens to undetectable levels. No genetically modified materials are used in this product or any of our fish collagens. After filtering and purification, the hydrolyzed fish collagen is spray-dried, resulting in our fish collagen powder.
We don’t stop there! The waste material is then used as fish meal back into the animal industry. Our supply chain is a cycle of sustainability!
Sources:
http://www.kenneyandross.com/images/raw-material-info-pdf/NEW_HFC_Brochure.pdf
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/fee.1822#support-information-section
