Seaweed- A Sustainable Food Source in the Food Industry

The global demand for seaweed consumption gaining immense popularity due to the presence of valuable components such as protein, essential minerals, bioactive compounds, antioxidants, vitamins, fatty acids, and polysaccharides. These components possess a wide range of applications in the food and nutraceutical industries. Furthermore, the presence of bioactive compounds employed a key role in preventing cancer, obesity, thyroid, malnutrition, metabolic disorders, hyperglycemia, and heart disease. Seaweed unique polysaccharides such as ulvan, fucoidan, agar, alginate, agarose, and carrageenan, etc., have become a widely used functional ingredient in the food sector due to its impressive functionalities in improving shelf-life and textural properties of food products. These polysaccharides act as antioxidant, gelling, thickening, emulsifying, and solidifying agents. The seaweed could be a functional ingredient in developing ‘noble food’ products, like Palmaria palmate (4% protein hydrolysate) used to enrich bread in order to enhance amino acid profile. Gracilaria domingensis has been used as a texture modifier in fermented milk. Alginate oligosaccharides obtained from Laminaria hyperborean act as preservatives in yogurt, while Ascophyllum nodosum and Fucus vesiculosus have been used as functional ingredients in milk to improve milk quality and in extending the shelf life. Gluten-free fresh pasta has been developed with Laminaria ochroleuca. The classification of seaweed, their nutritional benefits, utilization for developing value-added food products, challenges and scope of integration into food industry have been discussed in this chapter.