Mission
AFIRE represents the Aquaculture Feed Ingredient Resource Engine. AFIRE's goal is to enable feed companies to compare fishmeal and fish oil substitutes for efficacy, showcasing scientifically relevant information.

Background
Aquaculture now provides over 50% of the world’s seafood, and continues to grow. However, aquaculture faces a supply-chain bottleneck – fishmeal and fish oil derived from forage fish to feed farmed fish. Heavy reliance on forage fish threatens food security worldwide as well as the future of ocean wildlife such as seabirds and marine mammals like whales, seals, and dolphins. To feed the ever-increasing global populations and protect the health of our oceans, the aquaculture industry must innovate sustainable fish-free substitutes for fishmeal and fish oil.

F3 – Future of Fish Feed is a collaborative effort between NGOs, researchers, and private partnerships to accelerate and support the scaling of innovative, substitute aquaculture feed ingredients such as bacterial meals, plant-based proteins, algae, and yeast to replace wild-caught fish. In 2017, the F3 Team developed F3FIN.org to encourage sustainable innovations in aquafeeds by sharing experimental protocols, open feed formulas, resources for purchasing and testing ingredients, and access to experts in fish nutrition. The AFIRE database adds further functionality to F3FIN by allowing feed and ingredient companies to directly compare ingredients and complete feeds based on scientific data from multiple sources. This database originates from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Digestibility Database, and has since been enhanced with feedback from experts in aquafeed formulation, aquaculture research, and software development.

AFIRE Committee
The AFIRE Committee includes experts from different sectors of the aquaculture and aquafeed industries. Together, the Committee has created standardized experimental protocols for feed and ingredient evaluation based on extensive experience and investigation in best practices in aquaculture research. These protocols guide the Committee in their review of AFIRE inputs to ensure that the findings are legitimate and relevant to the database.

AFIRE Users

• Researchers - Review F3FIN experimental protocols for feed and ingredient evaluation, share experiment results, view the latest research with fishmeal and fish oil substitutes.
• Fish Farmers - View performance metrics of ingredients and feeds, including fish growth, health, and nutritional quality.
• Feed Formulators - Compare ingredient composition and performance, utilize complete feed formulas as a foundation for custom feeds.
• Ingredient Companies - Showcase your ingredient’s characteristics and demonstrations of performance.

To contribute data to AFIRE, click “Register” from the main navigation menu and follow the instructions to upload your experiment or feed/ingredient. For more information, email f3fishfreefeed@gmail.com.