Research project

The demand for vegetable protein sources is increasing to provide a more sustainable food supply chain and to meet the desired decrease in meat consumption. In CirkAlg, we will explore the potential of Swedish seaweed as a contributor to the "protein shift" by developing a two-step circular strategy by which the protein content of seaweed products can be further raised. The first aim of CirkAlg is to investigate a novel nutrient loop where process waters from selected food industries are investigated as media for tank-cultivated seaweed. The second aim is to apply a scalable technique to concentrate the seaweed proteins into a nutritious and safe food ingredient with an attractive flavor profile. By an interdisciplinary team from academia, authorities and industry, and via five work packages, we will specifically:
- Quantify dissolved low molecular weight nutrients in process waters from four categories of Swedish food industries where these waters today are wasted
- cultivate three typical Swedish seaweed species in presence of selected food process waters with the main focus to raise the protein content and biomass yield
- further concentrate the seaweed proteins in high yield using a scalable solubilizationprecipitation process technique, and investigate the sensorial and selected safety properties (heavy metals, excessive iodine) of the produced seaweed/seaweed protein ingredients via quantitative analysis, speciation and bioavailability studies.

Members from Kristianstad University: Karin Wendin, Per Magnusson
Participating Partners: Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborgs University, Swedish Food Agency, Kristianstad University
Contributing partners: Sweden pelagic AB, Bua Shellfish, Klädesholmen Seafood and Oatly
Funding: Formas
Project time: 36 months