Industry chain and challenges of microalgal food industry-a review

Abstract

Currently, the whole world is facing hunger due to the increase in the global population and the rising level of food consumption. Unfortunately, the impact of environmental, climate, and political issues on agriculture has resulted in limited global food resources. Thus, it is important to develop new food sources that are environmentally friendly and not subject to climate or space limitations. Microalgae represent a potential source of nutrients and bioactive components for a wide range of high-value products. Advances in cultivation and genetic engineering techniques provide prospective approaches to widen their application for food. However, there are currently problems in the microalgae food industry in terms of assessing nutritional value, selecting processes for microalgae culture, obtaining suitable commercial strains of microalgae, etc. Additionally, the limitations of real data of market opportunities for microalgae make it difficult to assess their actual potential and to develop a better industrial chain. This review addresses the current status of the microalgae food industry, the process of commercializing microalgae food and breeding methods. Current research progress in addressing the limitations of microalgae industrialization and future prospects for developing microalgae food products are discussed.

Keywords:

• Breeding
• microalgal food
• microalgae food market
• microalgae industrialization
• microalgal nutrition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant [number 41976125]; the Program for University Innovation Team of Guangdong Province [number 2022KCXTD008], the Natural Science Foundation of China grants [number NSFC 42206116], and Innovation Project of Guangdong University under Grant [number 2018KCXTD012].