POTENSIAL FOR MAKROALGER SOM MAT I EN NORDISK SAMMENHENG

Despite the fact that Norway is a seafood nation, seaweeds as food are currently both under-rated and under-utilized in this country. Although macroalgae are highly nutritious and healthy and represent a local resource along the entire coastline, they are currently not used to prepare food. In contrast to large parts of Asia where seaweeds represent an important component of the general diet and are recognized as having enormous health benefits, the use of seaweeds in Norway is largely limited to the extraction of alginate. The ALSMAK project represents a first step towards using seaweeds as a natural, healthy and locally available element in a diet rich in seafood and with a special Nordic character. The project has exposed seaweeds as a marine resource of high potential for human food production. In particular, ALSMAK has (i) demonstrated the potential for utilizing seaweeds as human food products, (ii) exposed potential customers to a new dietary experience based on seaweeds, (iii) placed seaweeds as human food into the context of a distinctly Nordic cuisine (iv) explored the possibilities for future developments concerning seaweeds as human food products in Norway. Through a study tour to Brittany, France, where seaweeds have a long tradition as human food, the three main project partners provided a European reference to seaweed food developments and seaweed cuisine in Norway. Sensory analysis of four seaweed species common to Norway (the kelps Alaria esculenta, Laminaria digitata, and Saccharina latissima and the red seaweed Palmaria palmata), provided a baseline for a subsequent cooking workshop with invited professionals (chefs). During the workshop, a wide range of dishes including seaweeds as ingredients was developed. A consumer test where seaweeds were used as flavour ingredients for several seafood dishes confirmed the hypothesis that seaweeds do not negatively impact the taste experience of such dishes. Seaweeds as raw materials, their cultivation and harvesting and the primary processing methods affecting product quality as human food are major aspects to be explored further in a new project entitled “PROMAC” (Energy efficient processing of macroalgae in blue-green value chains), funded by the Norwegian Research Council from 2015 to 2018.