The global food system is facing significant challenges due to climate change, rapid population growth, and a range of environmental and health-related factors. The resources available for food production are not being used efficiently enough, and current dietary habits have contributed to a rise in nutrition-related chronic diseases.
As the demand for food continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to find sustainable solutions. This has led to growing interest in alternative and novel resources for food production – both to ensure sufficient food for a growing population and to promote better health while reducing environmental impact. Seaweed hold considerable potential as alternative sources of nutritious products, from both nutritional and environmental perspectives. As marine raw materials, they can help increase seafood consumption in Norway, while also representing a sustainable resource – cultivation takes place in the ocean and does not require land, making them particularly attractive in a time of increasing pressure on agricultural areas. Currently, it is mainly the carbohydrate fraction of kelp that is commercially utilized, for example in the production of alginates. Other components – such as proteins – remain largely underutilized, despite their potential value in food and feed.
SEAFOODTURE is a SBEP partnership project aimed at utilizing seaweed as a protein source in the development of sustainable food products with high nutritional quality. Through the project, a protein-rich ingredient will be developed. In addition, the polysaccharide-rich residual fractions generated during the process will be used to develop bio-based packaging materials – contributing to a more circular and resource-efficient value chain. The project brings together partners from several European countries, representing a wide range of expertise – from seaweed cultivation and harvesting to processing, product development, and quality testing. The consortium includes research institutions, universities, and industry actors, and the project will study both wild-harvested and cultivated seaweed from various marine regions across Europe.
The research group at SINTEF has so far worked with dried seaweed to test its application in various food products and has formulated recipes that will be optimized with regard to technological and sensory properties.
The global food system is currently facing great challenges, motivated by climate change, population growth, environmental and health-related concerns. Existing food resources are not efficiently exploited, and the unhealthy dietary habits of modern societies are leading to a dramatic increase in diet-related chronic diseases. The food industry is actively looking for new food sources with added health benefits. In particular, alternative non-animal-based protein sources are of interest to comply with special dietary habits and promote healthier and more diversified diets.
Seaweeds present great potential as alternative sources of dietary proteins, being also rich in polysaccharides with remarkable functional and health-related properties. Currently, seaweeds are mostly used in the food industry to extract polysaccharides, whilst other seaweed components are less exploited. In SEAFOODTURE, we aim to valorize the whole seaweed biomass as a source of alternative proteins to produce sustainable, high value and high nutritional quality food products, while utilizing the polysaccharide-rich residues generated through the process to produce bio-based packaging materials.
The consortium is composed of research institutions and SMEs from European countries covering different sea basins, and the project will explore cultivated and wildly harvested seaweeds accessible in these regions. The Norwegian partner SINTEF Ocean will lead the work package dedicated to developing food prototypes incorporating protein-rich ingredients from seaweed. All partners will be involved in evaluation of the environmental, nutritional, and socio-economic footprints of the developed processes and products. In parallel, all partners will be involved in effective and impactful dissemination and communication of project outputs to relevant, diverse stakeholders to create scientific, social and commercial value.
