Challenge FAQ

The lead entrant must be a company that sells a qualifying fish oil alternative formulation (“Qualified F3oil”) that it owns or licenses directly to End Customers or Distribution Channels, as defined in the Challenge Rules, for actual consumption in aquaculture operations during the Challenge Period.

The lead entrant can form partnerships with other companies to create an Entrant Team. For each partnering company, the lead entrant should send the following information to f3fishfreefeed@gmail.com:
(1) the name of company and website
(2) the name, title, address, work phone number, mobile
phone number, and email address of the contact person at the company, and include
(3) a brief description of the partnership, and

If the lead entrant is partnering with other companies for purposes of aggregating total sales of qualifying F3 Oil Types to End Customers, then for each such partner, in addition to (1)-(3) above, please also include:
(4) a description of the partner company’s sales territory.

Partnering companies can be added to Entrant Teams until November 30, 2018.

The lead entrant of the winning team will be awarded the prize (and be responsible for splitting the prize at its discretion among its Entrant Team partners) as described in the Challenge Rules.

有充分的理由加入这项挑战赛。首先，由于挑战赛技术难度较大，即使是试点规模的努力也极有可能获胜。其他好处还包括媒体宣传和受邀参加F3大会。

• 媒体宣传：若您的产品还未发布，挑战赛的广泛媒体宣传将有助于您在商业发布之前收到预订；若您的产品已在商业销售中，挑战赛的广泛媒体宣传将有助于您增加订单。挑战赛的宣传覆盖了英语国家、中国和东南亚市场。
• Networking event: Contestants who have submitted samples by Nov. 2018 will be invited in Feb. 2019 to a networking event with large feed companies and others interested in innovative ingredients for aquaculture.

Yes, feed companies can participate as long as the feed company is teamed up with a company that sells a Qualified F3oil. In this case, sales of Qualified F3oil from the oil company (lead entrant) to the partnering feed company should be reported during the sales periods of the Challenge.

The company that sells the Qualified F3oil should register for the Challenge (as the lead entrant) and will need to include the following information for the partnering feed company:
(1) the name of company and website
(2) the name, title, address, work phone number, mobile
phone number, and email address of the contact person at the company, and include
(3) a brief description of the partnership

Please send the aforementioned information (1)-(3) to f3fishfreefeed@gmail.com.

There are 2 main options:

1: One approach would be to have one vendor mix fatty acids from all sources and sell that product to you. That vendor can mix different oils for different species as long as it fits the criteria. In this scenario, the vendor would be the lead entrant in the contest (since they are the one selling the F3oil product(s)) and could include you on their contestant team.

2: If you have formulated a Qualified F3oil in house and are selling it to another division of the company for aquaculture feed production, then you can register for the contest as the lead entrant, as long as one or both of the following conditions are met:

a) The ingredient providers are included as partners of your Entrant Team
b) You make the Qualified F3oil commercially available (at an equivalent cost)

The minimum levels of DHA, EPA, and ARA were averaged from the fatty acid profiles of Sardine (Pacific), Anchovy, Herring (Atlantic), and Menhaden fish oils (NRC, 2011).

The fatty acid content concentration of fish oil will vary considerably dependent on many factors including but not limited to species, season and water temperature. There are probably additional important substances in fish oil besides ARA, EPA, and DHA, but inclusion of more substances was thought to go beyond the scope of this challenge. These three fatty acids were chosen due to the considerable research available on the effect on fish health, growth and reproduction and the effect on human heart and brain health. It has been demonstrated that with several species there is limited ability to synthesize these fatty acids, so inclusion in the diet is important.

Known sources of ARA include some fungi and whole egg powder made from inedible broken eggs, but other sources may be in development.

First, we will verify that a submitted F3oil product meets the minimum DHA, EPA, ARA levels for qualification. Then, we will calculate the amount of fatty acids sold (DHA + EPA + ARA) based on their concentrations in the given F3oil product and quantity of F3oil product sold between Oct. 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019. The contestant team with the greatest amount of fatty acids sold from qualifying product(s) at the Challenge end date will win. Note that we are not looking at the amount of DHA, EPA, and ARA in an end feed product that uses the F3oil but the concentrations found in the F3oil product itself.

Yes, because this challenge is not focused on the end feed product but on the F3oil product (ingredient). Our only requirement is that the F3oil product meet the criteria mentioned, including being free of fishmeal and fish oil. We want to increase sales of fish feeds that use alternative ingredients, so we encourage full or even half replacement.

A company must register for the Challenge by April 30, 2018. Then you have until Nov. 30, 2018 to send in a sample of your qualifying product and add any partners to your contestant team. After, sales reporting will begin in Jan. 2019 and include 4 quarterly sales reports, and conclude in Sept. 2019 when a winner will be announced.

The winner is chosen by 3 judges, from sponsoring institutions.

We will use DNA testing and chromatography to ensure that the fish oil is from non-marine animal sources. Then, the judges will verify sales records with on-site visits and other validating techniques.

是的，挑战赛面向全球。但是，英语是挑战赛提交样品和所有其他通信的官方语言。国际参赛公司需要在提交样品和通信联络的时候使用英文。

No. In fact, we are considering another prize targeted towards recycling farmed fish waste. However, for this prize we want to increase the options available for alternative oil sources for aquafeeds since the supply of wild caught fish and in particular forage fish, which are the most common source of oil used in aquafeeds, is at risk. More innovation is needed to find additional ingredients and cost effective formulations if the industry is to continue to grow.

While we acknowledge that aquaculture by-products are a responsible source of fish oils, at this time, testing does not allow differentiation of aquaculture by-products from wild capture fishery products.

有很多关于兼捕和水产加工副产品的好信息，它们通常被用作生产其他鱼类的饲料原料。让这些资源得到有效利用是件非常好的事情，但也存在许多问题。兼捕和水产加工副产品已经越来越多被用于人类直接消费。此外，从海洋中移除饵料鱼类和兼捕会影响海洋食物链中营养级别较高的动物，如海鸟、哺乳动物和大型鱼类。许多研究也证实了因此造成的大型掠食性动物的减少。另外值得注意的是，由于优质蛋白质和油类已经被移除，加工下脚料目前得到的鱼粉和鱼油质量仍然较低。剩余的部分以骨质、鳞片等劣质成分为主，这样得到的鱼粉质量非常差，但仍占全球鱼粉供应的10-15％，并随着世界某些地区过度捕捞的继续，某种程度上补充了鱼粉的供应。

由于鱼粉和鱼油成本较高，水产饲料公司对它们的替代原料非常感兴趣。但是，原料替代是有风险的。为了向水产饲料公司证明您的原料具有很大的前景，我们建议您参照此处此处的原料评估程序。

While EPA and DHA can be synthesized from ALA and SDA in the human body, due to low conversion efficiency, it is highly recommended to obtain EPA and DHA from additional sources, including fish and other marine products¹. Studies have shown a great deal of variability, but typically less than 10% of ALA is converted to EPA and DHA^{2, 3}.

¹ http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/other-nutrients/essential-fatty-acids#metabolism-bioavailability
² https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9637947
³ http://www.dhaomega3.org/Overview/Conversion-Efficiency-of-ALA-to-DHA-in-Humans