Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
https://hdl.handle.net/10216/123167
Author(s): | Francisco Malcata Ângela Macedo Franciele Camacho |
Title: | Potential industrial applications and commercialization of microalgae in the functional food and feed industries: a short review |
Issue Date: | 2019 |
Abstract: | Bioactive compounds, e.g., protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids, vitamins and minerals, found in commercial form of microalgal biomass (e.g., powder, flour, liquid, oil, tablet, or capsule forms) may play important roles in functional food (e.g., dairy products, desserts, pastas, oil-derivatives, or supplements) or feed (for cattle, poultry, shellfish, and fish) with favorable outcomes upon human health, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antiviral effects, as well as prevention of gastric ulcers, constipation, anemia, diabetes, and hypertension. However, scale up remains a major challenge before commercial competitiveness is attained. Notwithstanding the odds, a few companies have already overcome market constraints, and are successfully selling extracts of microalgae as colorant, or supplement for food and feed industries. Strong scientific evidence of probiotic roles of microalgae in humans is still lacking, while scarce studies have concluded on probiotic activity in marine animals upon ingestion. Limitations in culture harvesting and shelf life extension have indeed constrained commercial viability. There are, however, scattered pieces of evidence that microalgae play prebiotic roles, owing to their richness in oligosaccharides-hardly fermented by other members of the intestinal microbiota, or digested throughout the gastrointestinal tract of humans/animals for that matter. However, consistent applications exist only in the dairy industry and aquaculture. Despite the underlying potential in formulation of functional food/feed, extensive research and development efforts are still required before microalgae at large become a commercial reality in food and feed formulation. |
Subject: | Ciências Tecnológicas, Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias Technological sciences, Engineering and technology |
Scientific areas: | Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias Engineering and technology |
URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/10216/123167 |
Related Information: | info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/P2020|COMPETE - Projetos em Todos os Domínios Científicos/PTDC/BBB-EBE/1374/2014 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016640/DINOSSAURDinoflagelados para a produção sustentada de compostos activos em fotobiorreactores optimizados/DINOSSAUR info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/P2020|COMPETE - Projetos em Todos os Domínios Científicos/POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029284//PROMETHEUS info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Projetos Estratégicos/UID/EQU/00511/2013 - POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006939/Laboratório de Engenharia de Processos, Ambiente, Biotecnologia e Energia/LEPABE info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/Comissão de Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte/P2020|Norte2020-Projetos Integrados ICDT/NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000005/LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION/LEPABE-2-ECO-INNOVATION |
Document Type: | Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional |
Rights: | openAccess |
Appears in Collections: | FEUP - Artigo em Revista Científica Internacional |
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339626.pdf | 413.26 kB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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