Smarter Aquafeeds Start Here: How the IAFFD is Redefining Feed Formulation for a Sustainable Seafood Future
Aquaculture’s rapid growth presents both an opportunity and a significant responsibility. To feed a growing global population while minimizing environmental impacts, the industry must optimize one of its most powerful tools: feed formulation.
That’s where the International Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (IAFFD) comes in. The IAFFD is a publicly accessible, scientifically grounded resource that’s empowering aquafeed manufacturers to make smarter, more sustainable decisions.
What is the IAFFD?
Developed through a global collaboration led by the U.S. Soy Export Council (USSEC) and other industry leaders, the IAFFD is a dynamic, species-specific formulation tool designed to improve the cost-efficiency and nutritional quality of aquaculture feeds.
This open-access tool helps producers balance performance, price, and sustainability by modeling feeds for key aquaculture species—including shrimp, tilapia, catfish, and marine finfish like sea bass, sea bream, and salmon.
Precision feed formulation is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. The IAFFD addresses the most pressing challenges in aquaculture feed design:
- Cost Optimization: Users can input real-time ingredient prices to determine the most economical feed formulations without sacrificing nutritional value.
- Ingredient Data Access: The database includes digestibility coefficients, amino acid profiles, and nutrient contents for over 100 commonly used ingredients.
- Species-Specific Models: Feed requirements are tailored to the biological needs and growth stages of each target species, helping avoid over-formulation or nutritional gaps.
- Sustainability Integration: The IAFFD encourages use of ingredients with a lower environmental footprint and allows formulators to consider the carbon footprint of feed ingredients—including commodity products like soybean meal and alternative ingredients like soy protein concentrate (SPC), and fermented soy.
Enhancing Formulation with U.S. Soy
U.S. Soy is one of the cornerstone ingredients featured in the IAFFD for a reason. It provides:
- A High-Quality Protein Alternative to Fishmeal: Soybean meal provides many of the same amino acids that have traditionally come from fishmeal in aquafeed and is highly digestible across many aquacultured species.
- Environmental Benefits: Soy production has a lower carbon footprint compared to most marine-sourced proteins and U.S. Soy products have a lower carbon footprint when compared to soy of other origins.
- Economic Stability: U.S. Soy offers a reliable, cost-effective protein source amid volatile global fishmeal markets.
Incorporating soy through the IAFFD’s modeling tools helps feed manufacturers reduce formulation costs, improve feed conversion ratios, and minimize waste outputs—all while supporting supply chain resilience.
As aquaculture expands to meet the world’s growing seafood needs, innovation in feed formulation will be essential to long-term success. The IAFFD is more than just a database—it’s a powerful decision-making tool that’s reshaping how we think about aquafeeds.
By aligning scientific rigor with real-world application, the IAFFD empowers producers to meet their production goals while contributing to a more sustainable, efficient, and responsible seafood industry.
See for yourself: IAFFD
Ready to learn more about U.S. Soy and its role in sustainable aquaculture? Connect with the United States Soy Export Council (USSEC) and discover how U.S. Soy is fueling the future of seafood.
This article is funded in part by the soy checkoff.