Abstract
The world population is continuously growing, so it is important to keep producing food in a sustainable way, especially in a way that is nutritious and in a sufficient quantity to overcome global needs. Seaweed grows, and can be cultivated, in seawater and generally does not compete for arable land and freshwater. Thus, the coastal areas of the planet are the most suitable for seaweed production, which can be an alternative to traditional agriculture and can thus contribute to a reduced carbon footprint. There are evolving studies that characterize seaweed’s nutritional value and policies that recognize them as food, and identify the potential benefits and negative factors that may be produced or accumulated by seaweed, which are, or can be, dangerous for human health. Seaweeds have a high nutritional value along with a low caloric input and with the presence of fibers, proteins, omega 3 and 6 unsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, and minerals. Moreover, several seaweed sub-products have interesting features to the food industry. Therefore, the focus of this review is in the performance of seaweed as a potential alternative and as a safe food source. Here described is the nutritional value and concerns relating to seaweed consumption, and also how seaweed-derived compounds are already commercially explored and available in the food industry and the usage restrictions to safeguard them as safe food additives for human consumption.
Highlights
The world population is growing to a level where the current system of food production is not capable of regularly providing food for over 9 billion people, and it is expected to grow even more, while trying to mitigate climate change and environmental pollution
There is a rise in consumer awareness worldwide regarding food security, which leads to a demand for natural and sustainable additives of food products [203]
There is a gap that is necessary to tackle with further research, which is to determine the stability of carrageenan (E407 and E407a) in food products, namely the byproducts resulting from acidic degradation of these food additives
Summary
The world population is growing to a level where the current system of food production is not capable of regularly providing food for over 9 billion people, and it is expected to grow even more, while trying to mitigate climate change and environmental pollution. Seaweeds have high potential to be an important alternative to the world’s vegetable diet, augmenting the food supply chain In this offshore cultivation technique, there is no need to use additional nutrients, unlike agriculture that is highly based on irrigated crops, which come at a great cost to the environment and collectively leave an enormous carbon footprint and the eutrophication of aquatic systems [5,6,7,8,9]. The seaweed market is a sector growing mostly under the blue economy and the flagship of the SDGs by countries to promote more companies and start-ups to take a bow for a blue and circular economy, encouraging the creation of more sustainable businesses and the change of mindset, to reduce the danger of environmental collapse [4,70] This blue economy can target food security in developing countries, whose economy cannot hold a high price solution without an economic return. This review highlights the seaweeds’ compounds that have already been legalized to be commercialized and applied in food industry, as food additives or food supplements
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