What is the development and application of algae food?

Algae, a kind of autotroph with photosynthetic pigments in the plant kingdom, is widely distributed in the sea, inland waters and other environments, and is one of the important food resources for human beings. It is an important aquatic product resource with various kinds, rich in nutrients, and has many uses such as food, medicine, ornamental and health care. To date, more than 6,000 different species of seaweed have been discovered. According to the definition in GB 19643-2016 “National Standard for Food Safety Algae and their Products”, algae is a class of aquatic plants without real roots, stems, and leaves of the most primitive lower plants.
Algae nutrition is balanced, comprehensive, easy to be absorbed by the human body, known as “micro nutrient bank”; Moreover, the mineral and vitamin content of algae food is quite rich, especially the iodine content is higher than the general terrestrial plant food, and it is a special food for iodine supplementation in most areas of China. In addition, algae also contains many kinds of physiological active substances, with special health functions, such as immune regulation, antioxidant effect, lowering blood sugar, lowering blood lipids, moistening bowel and so on.
Therefore, the nutritional value of algae has been recommended and praised by many authorities such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations World Food Association and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Development status of algae raw materials in China
The application of algae in our country has a long history, as early as in the “Compendium of Materia Medica” and “Materia Medica” recorded on the ground fungus, Ge Xianrice and other cited as medicinal content. At present, more than 100 species of edible algae are known in the world, of which about 50% are occupied in China, mainly concentrated in the ocean.
Due to the special needs of algae for climate, water environment, light and so on, China’s algae industry shows obvious concentrated distribution characteristics, mainly concentrated in the southeast region, both north and south, but less in the western region.
According to statistics, in 2018, the total output of artificial seaweed in the world reached 32,400 million tons, and China’s share exceeded 57%, about 18,500 million tons; At present, the annual production of algae in China is about 10,000 tons of dry powder, mainly spirulina, chlorella, rhodococcus pluvialis and Dunaliella salina, accounting for 80%, 10%, 8% and 2% respectively.
Due to the short development history of China’s algae industry, the production mode and facility construction are still in the exploration stage, and algae enterprises are mostly small scale, widely dispersed, and factory production is not complete. At the same time, the relevant algae standards are also very few, mainly spirulina related standards, accounting for about 50% of the total number of relevant algae standards, and the standard content is mainly concentrated in planting, primary products, and the relevant standards of refined and deeply processed products are very lacking.
Development and application of algae raw materials
New food raw materials include animals, plants and microorganisms that have no traditional eating habits. At the moment, China’s new algae food raw materials include Salina and its extract (Dunaliella Salina) (Ministry of Health Announcement No. 18 of 2009), DHA algae oil (Crypthecodinium cohnii, Ulkenia amoeboida, Schizochytrium) sp.) (Ministry of Health Bulletin No. 3 of 2010), Haematococcus pluvialis (Ministry of Health Bulletin No. 17 of 2010), Chlorella pyrenoidesa) (Ministry of Health Announcement No. 19 of 2012), Euglena gracilis (Health and Family Planning Commission Announcement No. 10 of 2013), Nostoc sphaeroides) (NHC Announcement No. 10 in 2018), Nannochloropsis gaditana (NHC Announcement No. 5 in 2021) 7 species.
Common foods include algae items listed in the “China Food Composition List”, new food resources listed in the general food management, and items with a long history of consumption.
Algae as a food, has its special nutrients, not only taste delicious, but also a certain therapeutic effect, mainly kelp, seaweed, seaweed, sea frozen vegetables, chlorella, sargassum, small leaf seaweed, spirulina, spirulina and so on. The nutrients in algae mainly include protein and amino acids (3%-8%), sugars (20%-60%), fats (unsaturated fatty acids), vitamins and inorganic trace elements and other five categories.
As a kind of special raw material in health food, algae is similar to fungi, and its selected raw materials and declared health functions also show relatively concentrated characteristics.
At present, among the edible algae health food, the use of spirulina, DHA algal oil, kelp/laminaria is the highest frequency. Among them, laminaria belongs to ordinary food, laminaria commonly used in Chinese medicine (medicinal source for laminaria or laminaria) belongs to both food and drug raw materials, DHA alga oil belongs to new food raw materials, spirulina for ordinary food there are two varieties, blunt spirulina and great Spirulina.
The health functions claimed by the approved and registered algae health food are mainly enhancing immunity, assisting in improving memory, assisting in lowering blood lipids, losing weight, improving hypoxia tolerance, anti-oxidation, and assisting in protecting radiation hazards.
The health function of the product is closely related to the algal food raw materials used in the formula. For example, the products with health function to help improve memory are mainly formulas containing DHA algal oil; The products with health function for weight loss are mainly formulations adding kelp/laminaria. Because the raw materials in the formula are mostly spirulina products, the health function of enhancing immunity is also the most, accounting for more than 50%.
Development direction of algae food
Adapt to consumer demand, develop a diversified series of products. China’s algae resources are rich, algae consumption and medicinal history has a long history, with the concept of healthy life deeply rooted in people’s hearts, people’s demand for algae health food is gradually increasing, the use of algae raw materials made of food and health food in the market by people’s love and sought after.
However, at present, the algae raw materials commonly used in food and health food in China are still relatively limited, and the algae health food widely recognized and accepted by the majority of consumers in the market is also less, algae products have not been diversified and serialized development, and the development of the entire industry obviously lags behind the growing market demand.
In view of this situation, the development of algae food and health food in China should be in accordance with scientific methods, due to local and material conditions, combined with traditional Chinese medicine dialectical formulations, the development of new dosage forms, new tastes, new products, improve the quality and grade of products, to meet the needs of market diversity and multi-level.
We will increase intensive processing and develop high value-added products. The core element of algal food and health food development is the application of algal biological functional active ingredients, and the premise of application is to understand the function and activity intensity of the active ingredients.
Therefore, to further explore the new food raw materials of algae, and to isolate, purify and identify the active functional factors are the future basic research focus of algae health food.
On the one hand, fully learn from the research results of algae functional food in other Marine countries and regions in the world; On the other hand, the comprehensive use of modern biotechnology and new technologies in the food industry, through the preparation of functional active substances, target structure modification, safety quality control and industrial development and other means, the development of sophisticated processing technology, the introduction of new algae health food, improve its added value, to meet the needs of society for algae food diversification, nutrition, safety and quality.
Problems and countermeasures in the development of algae food
Control and monitor the quality and safety of raw materials at source. Algae can enrich minerals such as iron, zinc, and calcium from the environment, which is considered to be a major nutritional advantage. However, it can also enrich heavy metals from the environment, such as lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, etc. Heavy metal pollution can have an important impact on the growth of algae and the safety of algae food, such as lead content will cause serious damage to the human body, especially children’s brain nervous system and kidney; Excessive arsenic content can cause carcinogenesis of dermal base cells and squamous cells.
Therefore, in the use and processing of algae must be timely detection and effective control of the content of lead and arsenic, “National Standard for Food Safety algae and its products” GB 19643 requires that the pollutant limit should comply with the provisions of GB 2762, In GB2762, the lead limit of algae and its products (except spirulina and its products) is 1.0mg /kg, and the lead limit of spirulina and its products is 2.0mg /kg.
In addition, during the culture process of algae, if the culture environment is polluted by some toxin-producing algae, toxins produced by toxic algae, such as microcystins (MCYSTs), may pollute spirulina, thus challenging the safety of algal health food.
It was found that there were different levels of microcystin pollution in the production process of spirulina and in the market products in China. In view of the harm of microcystin to human body and the pollution status in health food containing algae, the limit of microcystin in health food containing algae should be gradually established.
Strengthen the industrialization and standardization of food and health food production. At present, the domestic algae food and health food R & D and production enterprises are relatively small, lack of macro-control and overall planning, processing and aquaculture standardization, standardization is not enough, the degree of industrialization is still relatively low, so there are low per unit yield, quality instability, poor scale efficiency and other problems.
Among them, many enterprises are still in the manual workshop or semi-manual, semi-mechanized production state, and the products produced are difficult to meet the quality requirements of health food. In addition, the related functions of algae active ingredients need to be further studied and refined.
Although most of the bioactive ingredients have been obtained by means of separation, there is still a lack of research on their efficacy, which seriously affects the development speed and product types of algal food and health food. The structure-activity relationship, dose-effect relationship and synergistic evaluation of functional components of most of the active ingredients in the approved algal health food are still unclear, resulting in poor product quality and serious low-level repetition.
Only by establishing a standard system from research and development to production as soon as possible, can there be innovation and breakthroughs, and more new algae health foods can be launched on the market to make greater contributions to human health.
As an important aquatic product resource in China, algae has high nutritional value, and abundant geographical conditions in China provide great convenience for its development. However, as a seafood, algae will enrich certain toxic substances such as heavy metals, and the development of food and health food, the primary consideration is safety.
Therefore, we should further develop the processing technology of algae raw materials, actively participate in international algae-related technical exchanges, fully learn the successful technical cases at home and abroad, and combine practice to constantly improve the deep-processing technology of algae, and improve the quality standards of algae raw materials in China.
In addition, the training of researchers’ professional knowledge should be strengthened, and the research depth of algal active ingredient extraction process, action mechanism, health function and related product development should be strengthened, so as to give full play to the largest health function of algal functional food and health food and improve the market competitiveness of products. Effectively promote the development and industrial development of functional food and health food of algae raw materials, continuously break through the existing technical barriers in the development, and enhance the international influence of health food of China’s algae raw materials.