Algae as Food in Europe: An Overview of Species Diversity and Their Application

Abstract

Algae have been consumed for millennia in several parts of the world as food, food supplements, and additives, due to their unique organoleptic properties and nutritional and health benefits. Algae are sustainable sources of proteins, minerals, and fiber, with well-balanced essential amino acids, pigments, and fatty acids, among other relevant metabolites for human nutrition. This review covers the historical consumption of algae in Europe, developments in the current European market, challenges when introducing new species to the market, bottlenecks in production technology, consumer acceptance, and legislation. The current algae species that are consumed and commercialized in Europe were investigated, according to their status under the European Union (EU) Novel Food legislation, along with the market perspectives in terms of the current research and development initiatives, while evaluating the interest and potential in the European market. The regular consumption of more than 150 algae species was identified, of which only 20% are approved under the EU Novel Food legislation, which demonstrates that the current legislation is not broad enough and requires an urgent update. Finally, the potential of the European algae market growth was indicated by the analysis of the trends in research, technological advances, and market initiatives to promote algae commercialization and consumption.

Keywords: EU novel food legislation; algae market; food; macroalgae; microalgae; novel food; seaweed.

Figure 1

European historical marks on algae consumption as a food and food supplements (image not scaled) [6,14,58,59,60,68,72,73,74,75,76,77,78,79,80,81,82,85,86,87,88,91,93,99,100,101,102,103,104,106,107,108,109,111,112,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143,144,145,146,147,148,149,150,151,152,153,154,155,156].

Figure 2

Global and European algae market trends from 2016 to 2023. Data from Statista (2020) [167].

Figure 3

Algae species consumed in Europe, subdivided into Microalgae and Seaweeds (the Chlorophyta, Phaeophyceae, and Rhodophyta groups). Highlighted novel food (NF) species are presented in the Novel Food Catalog; food supplements (FS) are those Food Supplements listed on the European Union list. Species with consumption evidence before 1997 are highlighted *. A detailed table with the common names and referenced evidence is given in the Supplementary Material (Table S2).

Figure 4

Overview regarding EU funding for algae-related projects. (a) Funding per year for microalgae-related projects in the European Commission, within the framework programs FP4-H2020; (b) the number of H2020 projects led, per country; (c) EC projects funding per leading country; (d) main areas of the projects funded; and (e) the proportion of projects connected to microalgae or seaweed [296].

Figure 5

Schematic summary of this review.