It's Good For You

Day 28 June 18 – It’s Good For You

Today I spent the day at the Nutrition Department laboratories; there are three of them at Abassa. One is a lab for making experimental fish foods, one is a wet lab for testing the fish food on tanks of Tilapia, and the third is a lab used to analyze the chemical makeup of foods.
Here is part of what I learned today..
1Kg of Tilapia Fingerlings Feed consists of
140g Fish Meal (ground up dried less valuable fish)
365g Soy Bean (provides plant protein)
165g Wheat Bran (ground up- adds mass to the food, filler)
195g Ground Corn (provides plant protein)
20g Cod Liver Oil (provides amino acids)
20g Corn Oil (also provides amino acids)
10g Vitamins (C K E D are the major vitamins)
20g Mineral Mix (Fe Cu Mg)
25g Cellulose (makes it all stick together)
40g Starch (also helps it stick together)
*This mixture is 35% protein
*Fish meal can be 75% replaced with dried chicken parts at 1/7th the price
*Adult fish are given 25% protein in their food.

The fish pellets are made by a quick and simple process. First, all the pieces are ground up until they resemble a powder. Then each ingredient is precisely weighed and added to a large pan. Once all the ingredients are added, everything is poured into a large industrial blender/beater. The “cook” then adds the correct amount of water to make the food just sticky enough that it will hold its shape. Then the mixture is scooped into a giant machine that spits out fish pellets. The pellets are still very soft so they must be dried in an oven for approximately one hour before the food can be given to the fish.
The water content of the food is also important. The perfect amount of water is between 9 and 10 percent of the foods weight. If the food has too much water it will mold and made the fish sick. If it is too dry the food will be too hard, making it hard for the fish to eat. If it is so hard it will also sink, most fish food is eaten at the surface; some of the food that sinks in wasted.
After another good discussion about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I headed home. I laid around with nothing to do for a few hours until I found Gladiator on TV. After everyone goes home this place is pretty boring, especially with no internet.