CHAPTER

Seaweed sustainability – food

and nonfood applications 1
Brijesh K. Tiwari, Declan J. Troy
Department of Food Biosciences, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin, Ireland

1 INTRODUCTION
At present sustainability is one of the main societal challenges. The core objective of
global sustainability is to match the supply of food, feed, and fuel with the demand
of the world’s burgeoning population in the most appropriate way possible. With the
era of seemingly plentiful and cheap resources coming to an end, and with the com-
bined impacts of climate change and current agriculture production and consumption
patterns undermining our planetary habitat, it has been estimated that based on cur-
rent trends, the equivalent of more than two planet Earths will be needed by 2050 to
support the growing global population. As we look toward unlocking the potential
of our seas and oceans as a reserve of much needed resources to sustain our planet,
our responsibility is to do so while protecting, improving, and helping our seas and
oceans to flourish in order to increase their value to the economy, society, and the
environment. Cultivation of seaweed has the capacity to grow massive amounts of
nutrient-rich food for human consumption. Ocean farms are seemingly more sustain-
able compared to land-based agriculture because cultivation of seaweeds requires
no fresh water, chemical fertilizer, or land, which constitute some of the significant
negative factors to land-based cultivation. Apart from being an excellent source of
food, seaweeds can be a substantial feedstock for biomass, biofuel production, and
for animal feeds.

1.1  HISTORY OF SEAWEEDS

Seaweeds have been used all over the world for thousands of years for various food
and nonfood applications. Traditionally, in China, Korea, and Japan seaweed has
been used as food for over 2000 years. In Japan seaweed is used to make “nori”
from Porphyra species, which is a dried sheet of seaweed used in the preparation
of sushi. In Malaysia and Indonesia seaweeds are eaten fresh as salad. South East
Asian countries have a long history of seaweed application in food whereas the
application of seaweeds in the western world was mainly associated with nonfood
applications. In Greece seaweeds were used to feed animals as early as 100 BC. In
Mediterranean countries red seaweeds were used for medicinal purposes. In Ireland
Seaweed Sustainability. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-418697-2.00001-5 1
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 CHAPTER 1  Seaweed sustainability – food and nonfood applications

and Scotland seaweeds were used by farmers for agricultural applications, such as,
mulch for soils. The most common system for seaweeds in Europe is harvesting
of natural stocks whereas in Asian countries seaweeds are cultivated for various
applications.

1.2  RELEVANCE OF SEAWEEDS

Seaweeds, which are often neglected or ignored, have significant academic, biologi-
cal, environmental, and economic roles in the coastal ecosystem. The term seaweeds
(“sea” and “weed”) often invokes an image of smelly and rotting masses found
on beaches, which does not present a positive image in various western countries.
“Kaiso” is a generic Japanese term for all varieties of edible seaweeds derived from
the term “kia” (ocean), which can represent water, plants, and trees – a more ac-
ceptable term representing photosynthetic organisms from oceans (Nisizawa, 2002).
China is the major producer of seaweeds, followed by Japan and Korea. Most people
around the world knowingly or unknowingly use seaweed or products derived from
seaweeds in various forms, including processed dairy, meat, and fruit products as
well as domestic commodities like paint, toothpaste, solid air fresheners, cosmetics,
and pharmaceuticals (Dhargalkar and Pereira, 2005).
Nowadays, the seaweed processing industry in Europe is comprised of several
sectors including biopolymers, cosmetics, agrifood, and functional food additives
with various health properties. In the European Union, seaweeds are primarily used
for the commercial production of additives for both food and nonfood applications
(e.g., alginates). Like any processing industry, the production of additives from al-
gae generates several by-products and waste, which are usually discarded. Disposal
of these by-products is not justified from the economic, social, and environmental
perspective, given the fact that these by-products contain valuable bioactives (e.g.,
health-promoting biochemicals), fine biochemicals (e.g., dyes and pigments), and
biomolecules (e.g., proteins, oils, etc.). Bioactives from seaweed processing waste
are reported to possess several biological activities including (i) antimicrobial ac-
tivity (disinfection), (ii) antioxidant activity (potential replacement for chemical
antioxidants used in the food industry), and (iii) inhibition of lipid peroxidation,
antiproliferative activity, antidiabetic effect, and anti-inflammatory substances for
various pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. Seaweeds have also been in-
vestigated for fuel applications. Integrated biorefinery solutions will allow sufficient
scale to enable the economic production of fuel from seaweeds (Boxes 1.1–1.3).

BOX 1.1 
Saccharina/Laminaria is one of the most important macroalgal genera of brown algae (Phaeophyceae)
in temperate to polar rocky coastal ecosystems, especially in the northern hemisphere. It is chiefly
found in the northern Pacific Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean at depths from 8 m to 30 m.
Exceptionally, it was found at a depth of 120 m in the warmer waters of the Mediterranean Sea and
Brazil. Recently, the genera Saccharina/Laminaria was shown to be polyphyletic and a separation into
the two genera Laminaria and a resurrected Saccharina was proposed (Figure 1.1).
 1 Introduction 3

FIGURE 1.1  Saccharina japonica

Source: Painting drawn by Chen Jiaxin.

BOX 1.2 
Undaria is a genus of kelp that includes a few species, such as Undaria pinnatifida, Undaria
crenata, Undaria peterseniana, and Undaria undarioides. It grows from the low intertidal area to
subtidal depths of around 15 m on any hard surface including shells, reefs, ropes, wharf piles, vessel
hulls, moorings, and other artificial structures.
U. pinnatifida (Figure 1.2) is the most common and widely distributed species in genus
Undaria. It is native to the northwestern Pacific coast, mainly Japan, Korea, southeastern Russia,
and some eastern parts of China. It occurs widely around the world and now can be found in
Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Belgium, and Holland), the United States (California),
Mexico, Argentina, Australia, and New Zealand due to accidental introduction and cultivation. U.
peterseniana and U. undarioides are found in Japan and South Korea and U. crenata in Udo Strait,
Cheja, Korea.
4 CHAPTER 1  Seaweed sustainability – food and nonfood applications

FIGURE 1.2  U. pinnatifida

Source: Painting drawn by Chen Jiaxin.

2  BOOK OBJECTIVE
The overarching objective of this book on seaweeds is to provide information on
seaweeds and their potential food and nonfood applications for multidisciplinary
professionals, educators, industry personnel involved with food, feed, and fuel
applications of seaweeds, and researchers providing up-to-date insight into seaweed
processing and utilization. Various aspects of seaweed sources, characterization,
harvesting, processing, and applications for human food, animal feed, and fuel are
highlighted.
 2 Book objective 5

BOX 1.3 
Porphyra, commonly known as “nori,” is the name for a genus of red algae that grows in intertidal
to shallow subtidal areas of coastal waters around the world. The major areas where Porphyra is
grown in commercial aquaculture are China, Japan, and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). In
China, Porphyra yezoensis (Figure 1.3) is mainly found in Jiangsu Province. Porphyra haitanensis
is mainly found in Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces.

FIGURE 1.3  P. yezoensis

Source: Painting drawn by Zhu Guotao.
6 CHAPTER 1  Seaweed sustainability – food and nonfood applications

3  BOOK STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The book contains 16 chapters outlining sources and processing aspects of seaweeds;
characterizations and compositional analysis of seaweeds, which finds applications in
various sectors and applications of seaweeds in various sectors. Worldwide production
and utilization of seaweeds for various purposes is outlined in Chapter 2. Chapter 3
describes the fundamentals of seaweed farming, harvest, and postharvest techniques,
ecological and economic considerations, and a perspective on opportunities and chal-
lenges. Chapter 4 outlines various aspects of seaweed processing and unit operations
including harvesting, drying, and storage of seaweeds for food and nonfood applica-
tions. Chemical characterization and composition of seaweeds, including major and
minor constituents, are discussed in Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. Seaweeds are an excel-
lent source of phenolics, polysaccharides, proteins, peptides, and pigments. Various
conventional and novel extraction techniques employed for the extraction of biomol-
ecules from seaweeds are outlined in Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 outlines a wide range
of conventional and novel sample preparation techniques for accurate identification
and quantification using various chromatographic methods. The relevance of sea-
weeds and future challenges for seaweed production and utilization are discussed in
Chapter 11. Chapter 12 outlines the potential of algae for food, feed, and fuel ap-
plications along with the importance of algal strain selection for identified applica-
tions. Finally, Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16 outline food, nutraceuticals, feed, and fuel
applications of seaweeds.

REFERENCES
Dhargalkar, V., Pereira, N., 2005. Seaweed: promising plant of the millennium. Sci. Cult. 71
(3–4), 60–66.
Nisizawa, K., 2002. Seaweeds Kaiso: Bountiful Harvest From the Seas. Japan Seaweed
Association, 106p.