Researchers in Sweden have heard your complaints about the fishy taste of dried seaweed products, and they believe they have the answer. The key is fermentation, which they said lowers the fishy flavor while maintaining the desirable umami of seaweed.
The Lund University team described its research in a news release and said it offers a path for seaweed to provide a tasty, healthy, and eco-friendly treat in the future. It isn't the first group to look at seaweed as a highly nutritious and sustainable food source. A team of Chalmers University of Technology scientists are working on enhancing seaweed's protein and making food products as ambitious as burgers out of it.
Fermenting seaweed with lactic acid, though, is a newer approach that comes with other advantages over the conventional method of drying it. For one, it avoids the energy-intensive drying process. Additionally, it can cut down on potentially harmful metals through the lactic acid material that forms during fermentation.
Seaweed is highly appealing from an environmental standpoint because there are large areas to grow it without sequestering land, per the news release. It offers benefits to the planet while being very low maintenance for growers.
"Seaweed could help clean the Baltic Sea and other oceans, as it utilises carbon dioxide present in seawater," said research team leader Eva Nordberg Karlsson. "It also absorbs nitrogen and phosphorus and therefore needs no fertilizer or watering for that matter."
Other exciting findings from the team's studies pointed to seaweed of all types promoting gut health and releasing healthy short-chain fatty acids. The team used an intestinal simulator to study seaweed's effects. Fermenting "reduced substances so that the seaweed meets the requirements of the Swedish Food Agency," per Karlsson.
The flavor testing was done through a panel of 20 people who unanimously preferred the fermented seaweed to dry or fresh options. It was combined with an African fruit, baobab, to enhance the flavor even more, and the scientists said the "blend was highly appreciated and rated very highly."
This iteration of seaweed is particularly exciting in providing consumers with another meat-free alternative for protein and other nutrients. It also has advantages over conventional global staples like rice, potatoes and wheat, which are facing increasing challenges due to the rapidly changing climate. Seaweed is already a staple food and popular in Asia, but the rollout has been slow in Europe.
"We are beginning to understand more and more," Karlsson said. "A lot has happened in the last three or four years, not only in terms of using whole seaweed but also isolating different components to increase its utilisation."Â
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Cheapest option 💰 Karlsson admits there remains "a lot to do" when it comes to fermented seaweed with only a few research teams examining it, and even fewer products, but the team is confident consumers will see the fruits of their labor soon.
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"If everything goes according to plan, you will be able to buy seaweed/baobab spread in the shops in a few years," declared Karlsson.
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