Thai Union Ingredients

Thai Union Ingredients’ new research and development facility in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, will explore more efficient and specialized Omega-3 oil refining for use at scale for customers.

The centre is now open to all interested parties for trials and collaboration.

BANGKOK, May 4, 2022 – Thai Union Ingredients (TUI) has started operations at its Omega-3 Centre of Excellence (O3C), a state-of-the-art facility designed to explore more efficient and specialized methods for refining various Omega-3 oils. It is now officially open for all interested companies for collaboration and research on Omega-3 oils for infant nutrition, dietary supplements and nutritional foods.

Located on the site of the Company’s crude fish oil facility in Samut Sakhon, Thailand, O3C and its three scientists and technicians have 225 square meters of state-of-the-art laboratories and research facilities at their disposal to develop all products related to the health benefits of Omega-3 oils. They are set up to work in coordination with TUI’scutting-edge Omega-3 oil refinery in Rostock, Germany.

O3C’s played a central role in optimizing the refinery process for UniQ DHA, TUI’s tuna oil product. Now, its scope has widened to cover other Omega-3 oils including other fish oil and algal oil. The facility will enable TUI to test and scale oils with different nutritional values, sensory attributes, and concentrations of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)—a key ingredient in baby formula.

Highest production standards from start to finish

The processes undertaken at O3C involve sourcing suitable materials, refining the oils using the latest technological developments and delivering the products in line with quality standards and customer requirements. Once the process is complete, the materials are transferred to Rostock where they are tested at a larger scale before being shipped to customers around the world.

O3C is a central part of TUI’s strategic plan to derive value from every part of the fish Thai Union processes. This also goes for marine plants, providing healthy and nutritious ingredients to support the lifestyles of consumers of all ages.

Thiraphong Chansiri, Thai Union’s CEO and President, said: “Our goal of Healthy Living, Healthy Oceans is core to the future of Thai Union and the common thread across our business strategy. Our new Omega-3 Centre of Excellence epitomizes this vision, making sure we not only maximize the value from every fish and plant we use but also help people of all ages stay healthy and active.”

Leonardus Coolen, Managing Director of TUI, said: “Our Omega-3 Centre of Excellence is the next step on our journey to ensuring TUI delivers the healthiest and highest quality ingredients to our customers. It is particularly exciting for potential customers as it allows us to optimize the final point of our end-to-end supply chain at our Rostock plant to deliver the highest quality Omega-3 oils to customers both in Europe and around the world. In the very near future, we will install pilot scale facilities that resemble our facilities in Rostock even better to help validate the process from lab scale to commercial scale. All companies interested in the production of highest quality Omega-3 applications are welcome to collaborate with us – we have the people, the expertise and the processing facilities to meet their expectations.”

If you are interested in the O3C and the products TUI has to offer, please feel free to talk to our executives Leonardus Coolen, Managing Director of TUI, and Linda Ren, Commercial Director, at Vitafoods Europe in Geneva from May 10-12 (physical) or from May 2-13 (online): https://www.vitafoods.eu.com/en/home.html

About Thai Union

Thai Union Group PCL is the world’s seafood leader, bringing high quality, healthy, tasty and innovative seafood products to customers across the world for 45 years.

Today, Thai Union is regarded as one of the world’s leading seafood producers and is one of the largest producers of shelf-stable tuna products with annual sales exceeding THB 141.0 billion (US$ 4.5 billion) and a global workforce of more than 44,000 people who are dedicated to pioneering sustainable, innovative seafood products.

The company’s global brand portfolio includes market-leading international brands such as Chicken of the Sea, John West, Petit Navire, Parmentier, Mareblu, King Oscar, and Rügen Fisch, Thai-leading brands SEALECT, Fisho, Qfresh, Monori, OMG Meat, Bellotta and Marvo, and ingredient and supplement brands UniQ^®BONE, UniQ^®DHA and ZEAvita.

As a company committed to innovation and globally responsible behavior, Thai Union is proud to be a member of the United Nations Global Compact, and a founding participating company of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). In 2015, Thai Union introduced its SeaChange® sustainability strategy. Find out more at seachangesustainability.org. Thai Union’s on-going work on sustainability issues was recognized when the company was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for the eighth consecutive year in 2021 and ranked number two in the world on the Food Products Industry Index. Thai Union was also named to the FTSE4Good Emerging Index for the fifth straight year in 2020.