Availability of Japanese domestic scrap meal as a protein source in fish feed in place of white fish meal was investigated by chemical analyses such as proximate and amino acid compositions. The samples were scrap meal with fish solubles produced from raw materials consisting of different levels of round fish and waste of canning materials, and those from fish offal and viscera of fish processing without fish solubles. They were collected monthly from two factories in Choshi district, Chiba pref., from May 1981 to April 1982, and their nutritional quality was examined by comparison to that of white fish meal and round fish meal.
The quality of domestic scrap meal fluctuated from lot to lot, depenaing upon the constituent of raw materials used. Scrap meal prepared mainly from round fish was found to be nutritious, because of their high protein and low ash levels, together with a high EAA index. Consequently, the nutritional quality of this meal was almost comparable to that of white fish meal; whereas those manufactured from deteriorated round fish or waste product of canning were far inferior to white fish meal in quality.