Trends and Status of Dietary Coconut Oil in Aquaculture Feeds

Abstract

The global prominence and rapid growth in size and annual total production in the aquaculture industry has resulted in the need to seek for alternative and pragmatic measures to reduce the cost of feed production and feeding of captive fish species, which covers approximately 60%. This work presents an overview of the advances of ongoing research in coconut oil as alternative lipid sources in aquafeeds. The article further discusses the status and trends on some of the findings associated with coconut oil up-to-date with respect to cost effectiveness, availability, and price, as well as qualities in comparison to other vegetable oils and fish oil. The review establishes that, coconut oil does not compromise the quality of the resulting product when used exclusively or partially in aquafeeds and positively impacts it. It is therefore suggested that, as global scenarios now changing toward the use of non-toxic plant products having multifarious uses, coconut oil in aquafeeds should be well accepted and further evaluations should be carried out to explore the concealed areas and their practical applications, which can be used for the benefit of the aquaculture industry and also the welfare of humanity.