By Nicola Lo Duca

10/08/2026

BEA METHOD · BEA AMMINO EXPANSE

The thread running through Expanse: research into fermentation, nutrition, and the microbiome

When we say that a BEA product is born from in-house research, it might sound like just another empty, hollow marketing phrase.

What often goes unnoticed is that behind this phrase lies a steep, winding journey, full of major challenges and small milestones, which we have pursued since our beginnings with determination, passion, and enthusiasm.

The Ammino Expanse journey begins back in 2011, spans aquaculture, fish pathology, microbiology, biochemistry, and animal feed, and continues today in our laboratories and production facilities.

BEA Ammino Expanse was the first core of our work. Over time, it has become a research platform for marine hydrolysates, controlled fermentations, and the functional use of microorganisms.

This also led to the development of one of the central pillars of the BEA Method: feed, animals, the microbiome, and the aquatic environment are all part of the same system and must be studied and understood together.

L’s beginning: reducing waste and transforming marine resources

BEA Ammino Expanse took shape during my university studies in aquaculture and fish pathology, within the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Bologna.

The initial aim was to reduce waste from fishery production and add value to bycatch and by-products from fish, crustaceans, and mollusks. Today, we would use terms such as circular economy or blue economy, but back then the question was very concrete: could we biologically transform these “misunderstood” high-value materials and turn them into ingredients of greater interest for animal nutrition?

Animal feed was already my second great passion, and the two paths soon converged.

The first study was presented to my professors of animal nutrition and feed science, Professor Biagi and Professor Bonaldo, and brought together expertise from different fields.

Together with the various professors, we explored possible biochemical, organic chemistry, and microbiological processes, comparing the main options available for hydrolyzing marine matrices: chemical processes, enzymatic processes, and microbial fermentative transformations.

For purely ecological reasons, I decided to focus solely on the microbial approach, and the first trials began. The project quickly grew in scope. Recovering by-products remained an important value, but the focus shifted to the properties of the fractions obtained, bioactive molecules, their application in animal feed, and the possibilities offered by controlled fermentations.

That was the beginning of Ammino Expanse.

From a valorization project to a research platform

A marine matrix contains proteins, lipids, minerals, tissues with different characteristics, and numerous compounds that vary according to species, anatomical part, freshness, and prior processing. Fish, mollusks, and crustaceans start with different compositions. Even two seemingly similar matrices can react in completely different ways during transformation.

L’hydrolysis modifies some of the more complex structures, especially proteins, producing smaller fractions such as peptides and free amino acids.

When this transformation takes place through selected microorganisms, the process also involves enzymes produced by the cultures, their metabolites, and the interactions that develop in the matrix.

The final profile therefore depends on many interconnected variables.

This is where a simple description such as “hydrolysate” or “fermented” is no longer enough.

It tells you where you start, but very little about what you get.

The same raw material can produce very different profiles depending on the cultures used, how the various stages are carried out, the degree of transformation achieved, and the intended use.

For several years now, the aquatic nutrition literature has confirmed that marine hydrolysates can have extremely interesting applications.

Experimental studies have observed effects on palatability, nutrient utilization, digestive activity, growth, and intestinal response, with results varying according to the matrix, process, species, and dose.

This variability is precisely why the value of a hydrolysate cannot be inferred from the ingredient name or production technique. It is essential to know and control how it was developed.

What BEA Ammino Expanse includes today

Today, BEA Ammino Expanse brings together hydrolysates and fractions obtained from different marine matrices, developed for different functions and formulations.

It includes microbial transformations, controlled multi-stage fermentations, functional cultures, metabolite studies, and evaluation of the fractions produced.

The work proceeds through successive selections: a culture that shows promise in a particular matrix may behave differently in another.

An effective combination in one phase may become ineffective or unstable in the next. A profile suited to fish feed may have limited usefulness in a liquid product or food intended for corals.

Each application requires its own checks.

Over the years, raw materials, cultures, microbial associations and end uses were compared as part of a long process.

Some approaches were developed, others refined and many discarded.

Failures have also helped build the platform, because they made it possible to understand which combinations were unstable, which profiles did not have the desired characteristics and which transformations did not offer a tangible benefit to the formulation.

The visible part is the ingredient that goes into the finished product; behind it are years of selection, control criteria, analysis, knowledge of the matrices and the ability to interpret how fermentations evolve.

Controlled fermentations: why are they so complex?

Fermentation is a rapidly evolving biological system: microorganisms use the available substrates, produce enzymes and metabolites, modify the matrix and interact with one another. The initial composition influences the process and is, at the same time, altered by the process itself.

The Expanse work uses functional cultures selected according to the matrix, the desired function and the intended end use. Fermentations are carried out in multiple stages and monitored with microbiological and chemical checks, as well as metagenomic analyses in research activities.

L’Data analysis is used to compare trials, track the evolution of communities and determine whether the process is moving in the expected direction.

Metagenomics alone provides information about the microbial composition detected and requires interpretation alongside other checks. The presence of DNA does not automatically prove that every microorganism is viable, active or responsible for a function.

That is why culture identity and traceability, purity, contamination control, viability, microbial concentration and stability during storage and use are also considered.

This network of checks makes it possible to move from an interesting trial to drafting a production protocol, and then to a validated process and an ingredient that can be used consistently.

The outcome depends on the combined expertise in microbiology, analytics, nutrition and production.

The strains, combinations, sequences of the different stages and process parameters that are part of BEA’s know-how are the result of lengthy, ongoing research.

We can explain the rationale behind the work and the criteria we use to evaluate it, but the architecture of the fermentations remains confidential.

From hydrolysate to complete formulation

A functional ingredient becomes meaningful when it is correctly incorporated into the formula. For BEA feeds, the choice takes into account the species, physiology, feeding habits, digestibility, palatability, and nutrient availability.

Interaction with the animal’s microbiome and the response observed over time are also carefully assessed.

In internal trials, fixed parameters are monitored, such as: feed acceptance, feeding behavior, digestion, feces appearance, animal condition, growth, coloration, recovery, and response to stress.

Comparisons between formulations, batch records, analyses conducted by external laboratories, and cases followed over time all contribute to continually refining the overall picture.

These data are of different kinds and are treated accordingly: an analytical result describes the sample tested. An internal trial allows formulations to be compared. A case followed over time adds practical experience.

Only repeated observations over the years make the body of evidence robust enough for us to continue refining formulas and production techniques.

Scientific research also provides a rationale for studying certain categories of ingredients, but we do not automatically attribute to the finished product every property described for a raw material or microorganism.

The complete formula, the process, and the intended use all affect the result. That is why we prefer to speak of functional selection, testing, and observed responses.

Probiotics, prebiotics, fermented products, and postbiotics: using the terms correctly

In recent years, terms such as probiotic, prebiotic, synbiotic, and postbiotic have entered everyday language. They are often used very broadly.

Out of respect for the complexity of the subject, we believe in maintaining a more precise distinction.

A probiotic is a live microorganism that, when administered in an adequate quantity, provides a proven benefit to the host.

Viability matters, as do the strain’s identity, the dose, and stability until use.

Its action can be effective even when its presence in the microbiome is temporary; stable colonization and biological function are two different things.

For some preparations intended primarily for the tank, it is more accurate to speak of functional microorganisms or microbial consortia.

The term probiotic does, in fact, imply a proven benefit to a host, whereas the function of an environmental culture may also involve biofilms, substrates, and processes that occur in the aquatic system.

A prebiotic is a substrate selectively utilized by the host’s microorganisms and associated with a benefit.

Fibers, gums, algae, yeast derivatives, and oligosaccharides may be of great interest in formulation, but their mere presence in a recipe is not enough to automatically define each ingredient as a prebiotic or assign it that function.

Fermented products can contain live cells, inactivated cells, cellular components, enzymes, and metabolites. Product composition and quality depend on the selection of ingredients, matrices, production process, and final treatment.

The term postbiotic also has a precise scientific definition today: it refers to preparations of inactivated microorganisms and/or their components that have demonstrated a benefit.

A generic fermentation metabolite does not become a postbiotic simply because of its origin, but must be included for a specific purpose and function.

A synbiotic, finally, combines live microorganisms and substrates selectively utilized by the host’s microorganisms, with a demonstrated benefit.

Here too, its design requires compatibility between the components. Simply including a prebiotic and a probiotic in the formula does not yet describe how they will work together. The matrix, animal, and target environment must be considered.

These distinctions may seem formal, but they help us formulate products better and communicate more transparently what a product contains and its functional purpose.

The animal’s microbiome and that of the tank are in constant communication

An aquatic animal lives immersed in its own biological environment. Water, food, mucus, and excretions keep the animal’s microbial communities in constant contact with those present on rocks, sand, biomedia, biofilm, and suspended particles.

Skin, gills, digestive tract, and mucosal surfaces represent different niches, exposed to varying degrees to environmental microorganisms.

L’feeding plays a role in this relationship. It provides nutrients and biological components to the animal, influences what reaches the intestine, and also changes what returns to the tank.

This is the basis of the BEA Method: For products intended for the animal, we mainly observe palatability, digestion, condition, and physiological response. For products intended for the environment, we instead monitor the tank’s response, the development of biofilm, and overall stability over time.

The two areas remain connected because every change in the animal affects the environment, and every change in the environment alters the conditions in which the animal lives.

The work that began with BEA Ammino Expanse has thus expanded to include feed for fish and corals, functional products for our guests, microbiological preparations for the aquarium, live cultures, and consortia designed for specific ecological niches.

Different products with different primary targets, but a shared approach to interpreting them.

What doesn’t fit on a label

A label can indicate ingredients, composition, and directions for use.

It cannot tell the story of every selection, abandoned trial, comparison between substrates, analytical check, and adjustment that led to the finished product.

BEA Ammino Expanse continues to evolve because the possibilities for microbial transformations of marine substrates are still extremely broad.

New trials allow us to study different fractions, refine culture selection, improve effectiveness, and find more precise applications in feed and functional products.

BEA Ammino Expanse represents the origin and one of the common threads running through our products. This research began in 2011 and has grown through trials, selections, and ongoing refinements into a platform that brings together fermentation, marine hydrolysates, nutrition, and applied microbiology. The work continues to this day, guided by the same original idea: to use biology to create more advanced ingredients and formulations developed with a direct understanding of what happens inside the product, the animal, and the aquatic ecosystem.

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The red thread of the Expanse: research into fermentation, nutrition, and the microbiome.