You can only manage what you can measure.
The peer-reviewedMalcorps et al. (2026). Fish as Food or Feed? Aligning FIFO with LCA and Food System Objectives. Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture, 1–15.Newton et al. (2025). Fish as Feed: Using the nutrient Fish In: Fish Out ratio (nFIFO) to enhance nutrient retention in aquaculture. Aquaculture, 742332.Newton et al. (2023). Life cycle inventories of marine ingredients. Aquaculture, 565:739096.Kok et al. (2020). Fish as feed: Using economic allocation to quantify the Fish in : Fish out ratio of major fed aquaculture species. Aquaculture, 528:735474. Fish In: Fish Out (FIFO) tool helps you measure and optimise your FIFO ratio, compare species diets, and benchmark alternative ingredient scenarios. Greater efficiency supports a healthier ocean, reduces waste, and helps ensure more high-quality food for everyone.
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Introduction to the FIFO tool
Measure and optimise your FIFO score
Validated marine resource efficiency metrics
Know your Fish In : Fish Out (FIFO) scores. The FIFO tool helps you measure and optimise your FIFO ratio, because better efficiency helps make a healthier ocean, reduces waste and means there is more quality food for everyone.
Why fish as feed?
Wild (forage) fish in the form of fishmeal and fish oil play a vital role in many aquaculture diets due to their unique nutrient profile. They enhance the health and welfare of the farmed fish and the nutritional quality of the final product for human consumption.
What is FIFO?
It tells us how much wild fish we use to feed farmed fish. A FIFO score of 2 means we use 2 kg of wild fish to grow 1 kg of farmed fish.
Why does it matter?
A lower FIFO means less dependency on wild fish stocks and a FIFO of less than 1 means more fish is produced than used (a net producer). Efficient resource use is important, but FIFO scores should be viewed in context to ensure that a growing aquaculture industry does not increase pressure on fisheries. When possible, food-grade fish should be prioritised for human consumption. The FIFO metric, alongside certification and broader food system strategies, helps optimise nutrient availability from both aquaculture and fisheries.
Where does the science come from?
The FIFO Performance Tool is a free, user-friendly, and up-to-date adaptation of research published in peer-reviewed papersMalcorps et al. (2026). Fish as Food or Feed? Aligning FIFO with LCA and Food System Objectives. Reviews in Fisheries Science & Aquaculture, 1–15.Newton et al. (2025). Fish as Feed: Using the nutrient Fish In: Fish Out ratio (nFIFO) to enhance nutrient retention in aquaculture. Aquaculture, 742332.Newton et al. (2023). Life cycle inventories of marine ingredients. Aquaculture, 565:739096.Kok et al. (2020). Fish as feed: Using economic allocation to quantify the Fish in : Fish out ratio of major fed aquaculture species. Aquaculture, 528:735474., co-authored by leading researchers from the Universities of Stirling, Aberdeen, Lancaster, Cambridge, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and Blue Food Performance. The tool helps increase the impact of this research for the benefit of society by making it more accessible and actionable.
The goal of using FIFO performance
Optimise the use of marine ingredients
Use fewer fish (suitable for human consumption) in aquafeed without compromising the health, nutritional quality, or welfare of the farmed fish. The tool offers various options, including adjusting individual species inputs, price ratios, and FCR. This allows users to prioritise species considering food/feed competition, reduce oil, or increase fish by-product inclusions. It also weights ingredients according to their price, reflecting market volatility that is assumed to be a result of availability and therefore the sustainability of the supply. The tool also offers a benchmarking feature that enables users to compare FIFO performance against species-specific industry average diets and assess the impact of ingredient changes. This helps the industry become more efficient and reduces its reliance on fish stocks.
The FIFO tool is aligned with industry standards and LCA methodologies, empowering organisations to seamlessly integrate the outputs into comprehensive sustainability assessments and reports.
- Access to easy-to-use metrics that are widely endorsed and grounded in robust scientific principles.
- Leveraging high-resolution marine ingredient data—including species-specific meals and oils from whole fish, by-products, and their omega-3 content—the tool enables comprehensive calculations. The tool also offers the option to utilise representative average values for non-species-specific whole fish and by-product meals and oils.
- Scoring of conventional FIFO metrics (FFDRmeal, FFDRoil, and FIFO mass no by-products).
- Scoring of LCA aligned FIFO metrics based on mass (mFIFO), and economic (eFIFO) allocation. Economic allocation creates incentives to use fish by-products in meals and oils, reducing the risk of food/feed competition. Acknowledging the need to also account for the use of terrestrial feed resources.
- Exclusive access to the new nutrient FIFO (nFIFO) metric using mass (nmFIFO), and economic (neFIFO) allocation. nFIFO demonstrates management of key nutrition (omega-3) efficiencies that are a major consideration for marine ingredient inclusion and efficiency.
- Gain insights into the effects of price adjustments (by-products, fishmeal, and fish oil) on economically allocated FIFO metrics, linked to volatile supplies.
- A benchmarking feature that allows you to compare FIFO performance against species-specific industry average diets and assess the impact of ingredient changes.
Smarter use of marine ingredients and alternative Inputs
Supported by forward‑thinking companies across the aquafeed value chain
Marine ingredients such as fishmeal and fish oil play an important role in aquafeed, delivering exceptional nutrition, digestibility, and palatability, alongside a relatively low carbon footprint. However, limited and uncertain supply, environmental pressures and rising costs mean these resources must be used more efficiently. The FIFO Performance Tool supports this transition by helping users optimise marine ingredient use and understand the impact of substitution on FIFO metrics, with support from companies whose alternative ingredients are included in the platform.
Create your free account and get free access to the FIFO performance tool to improve efficiency and optimise the use of marine ingredients.