Scottish biotech company turned whisky waste into a source of omega-3

Representative Image of microalgae cultivation powered by whisky industry byproducts (AI-generated image) A Scottish biotech company is trying to solve a problem at the heart of the global omega-3 supply chain: the fact that most omega-3 fatty acids used in pet food, aquaculture feed and human supplements still come from wild-caught fish, even though fish do not actually produce these fatty acids themselves. MiAlgae, founded in Edinburgh in 2016, has developed a fermentation process that grows omega-3-rich microalgae directly, feeding the algae nutrient-rich liquid byproducts from Scotch whisky production rather than relying on wild fish stocks at all. The company is now scaling up from a demonstration site to full commercial production, with backing from both the UK and Scottish governments, as it tries to chip away at a supply chain that has long depended on stripping omega-3s out of the ocean food web.Why fish were never really the source of omega-3s to begin withThe starting insight behind MiAlgae's approach is fairly simple once explained. According to Douglas Martin, the company's founder and chief executive, fish do not naturally produce omega-3 fatty acids themselves; they ...