Lead institution:
Lund University (ULUND) – Sweden
The ForSea project aims to enhance the nutritional, safe, and functional properties of cultivated brown and green seaweeds and formulate food and food ingredients, via sustainable processing technologies, including fermentation, and utilization of both complete harvests and residual biomass from the developed processes.
The project will further develop, characterize, and formulate novel food prototypes, evaluated by sensory trials, and with validated health-promoting properties via prebiotics verification and a clinical trial on a selected promising product. In addition, environmental and economic, aspects will be assessed at different process stages, along the value chain.
One of the biggest societal challenges today, is to feed the growing world population. The global food system today causes major environmental problems (e.g. loss of biodiversity, greenhouse gas emissions, water overuse, and pollution) and there is a great need to implement a sustainable system. Cultivated macroalgae have the potential to be a pillar in such a sustainable system. Macroalgae are a staple food in Asian diets and are a resource that can be cultivated without the need for freshwater, with no fertilizers, and at the same time sequestering CO2, avoiding further compromise of the sustainability and biodiversity of natural resources. Seaweeds, however, still face challenges in penetrating western markets due to low nutritional content, and low inclusion rates in foods because of sensory properties, needing innovation in product development, and closing of knowledge gaps regarding safety and health benefits.
The ForSea consortium consists of 8 partners and 4 subcontractors (including universities, research institutes, industry partners (SMEs), and a municipality center) representing four countries (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Portugal) and will utilize marine resources from both the Atlantic Ocean and Baltic Sea. Key technologies in the project include biomass cultivation, pre-processing, extraction (by solvents and enzyme aided), microbial processing, food formulation, and safety, sensory and clinical trials as well as environmental and techno-economic assessments. New knowledge, methodology and prototypes will be developed based on renewable and sustainable marine biomasses, contributing to the growth of the blue economy, via development of scientific excellence, and work towards solving key societal challenges.
Start Date: 1/1/2025
End Date: 31/12/2028
Lead Contact: Eva Nordberg Karlsson (eva.nordberg_karlsson@biotek.lu.se)