Chalmers University of Technology: Exploring sea lettuce’s potential in existing protein systems
02 Dec 2024 | Chalmers University of Technology
João Trigo, a post-doc researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, discusses the development of a new method to extract protein from sea lettuce three times more efficiently than conventional ones. The extraction method could be applied to other algae to tap into seaweed’s culinary properties and other benefits for a sustainable food system beyond just protein.
Hi, I'm Anvisha Manjal, senior journalist with Food Ingredients First.
Joining me today is Joao Trigo, a postdoc researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
He was one of the lead scientists on Project Circ Alt, which has developed a new method to extract protein from sea lettuce, 3 times more efficiently than a conventional one.
It's great to have you with us, Joao.
Thank you.
Nice to meet you.
Same here.
So, Joao, what excites you most about working with sea lettuce as a protein source?
Yes, so I have actually started the journey with with sea lettuce since the beginning of my PhD at Shelmer, so that was in 2019.
So I've been working with it, for let's say the past 5.5 years.
So of course we, we have made, many interesting results also on protein extraction, but, but also on the digestibility of this protein, so there is plenty to that, that I could talk about it, but Of course, the the main motivations to, to then choose sea lettuce as like or or or ulva as the main model species was one of the reasons was then the productivity.
So how much of this seaweed can we produce per hectare per year and it's actually the value is, is quite higher than, than soy for instance.
So I brought you some values.
So we are expecting for instance a 410 dry weight per hectare per year for ulva, whereas for, for soybean that value is around 2.5 times.
So of course it's almost 100% increase in productivity.
So that's a big reason and then the other one is, of course, it's obvious species in, in Europe, so it can be, it can be cultivated in the, in the Swedish west coast and we have a, a company that we collaborate with, which is Nordic Sea Farm and they have this offshore, cultivations for, for, for sea lettuce, and they are keeping, optimizing the, the, the, the.
The production and then that's where also we got these values of creativity with, with working with them.
And And also about the, the, the, the, the protein levels of, of the sea lettuce, so, usually the protein content of, of this biomass is higher than kelps or the brown seaweeds.
So it's usually between, let's say 10 to 15% protein.
And of course this is good, but it could be even better and we are also collaborating with some nice researchers at the at the Gothenburg University where they actually even were able to increase even more the protein content to, to around 25, 30%, which puts us very close to, to, to the levels of, of soybean and pea.
So then it becomes an even more interesting material to work for protein extraction.
And And maybe another reason is also on the, on the, on the food safety.
So, actually, at the beginning of my PhD we also worked a bit with with kelp, so with saccaria latissima, but we noticed, OK, this has too much iodine.
So it's very difficult to get ingredients in the end that could be safe or maybe one would just need to consume very little to be on the safe side, and we don't have that issue, at least with the, with the sea lettuce that we have been cultivating in, in, in, in Sweden.
So, that's really good.
So there are many, many motivations to, to, to use sea lettuce, yeah.
Thanks for sharing.
That's really interesting for us to know.
How do you see sea lettuce protein being integrated into existing food systems, especially in combination with soy or pea?
Yeah, yeah.
I think we, we have to be a bit pragmatic, because currently, , the production, the seaweed production volumes that, that we have in Europe are, are quite low and especially compared to, to, to Asia.
I think Asia produces almost 98% of all the seaweed in the, in the world.
So, Of course, unless we, we, we can increase this production volumes of seaweed.
The way I see it is, more as, for instance, incorporating these protein ingredients, let's say in some hybrid meat analog, where it could be maybe a component that provides micronutrients such as vitamin B12, or it could be more on the the fish analog where we, one would could maybe increase the The the the amounts of of these ingredients and and then since it contains all these marine flavors which is desirable in a fish analog, right?
So, And of course this fish, fish oil could also be a hybrid ingredients, for instance, where one could have pea.
Maybe pea would make more sense since we can also cultivate it in the north northern Europe.
So, yeah, hm.
I'd also like to know if there are any surprising applications for this protein that you think could reshape the plant-based market.
Yeah.
Mm.
Yes.
So that was one of the questions.
So.
After we, we developed the method, of course, then we, we, we, we are, we are currently trying to, to patent the technology and that was one of the questions we got from the investors, is that OK, you, you have a very good yield, but right now we have pea and soy protein that are much more abundant and and and cheap.
So what do you bring of new to the, to, to the field, right?
And Of course, as I said, the sensory part is very important because we are bringing an ingredient that has a unique sensory profile.
But then also, of course we noticed, maybe this is not enough, so, we also measure this vitamin B12 because we know that sea lettuce is a source of vitamin B12 and just for context, then, B12 is usually lacking in plant-based diets and especially in, in those that are strictly vegan.
So, , yeah, these ingredients are then, are then a eye source of actually a vitamin B12 and then we calculate it, based on, on, on the, on the EU nutritional claims and actually we could label this protein ingredient as an eye source of vitamin B12.
And, and then as a consequence also on the 8 authorized health claims for, for B12, so it's both the nutritional and the, and the health claims.
So, a, a product with this ingredient could potentially be claimed as having, both nutritional and and health claims with the, with the vitamin, which is really good.
Usually, our soy and pea do not naturally contain B12, so that, that's a unique value proposition, , along with, with all the sensory attributes like a umami taste and and also the, the marine odor.
Yeah.
Have you identified any unique culinary properties of sea lettuce that could make it stand out in the alt protein market?
Mm Yes, we, we haven't yet focused on culinary, but we have focused on, on the sensory properties and we actually have a paper that was published this year together with , with some researchers from Grandstadt University in , in, in Sweden, in South Sweden.
And then what we found out was that we could, for instance, modulate these sensory properties, depending, for instance, on, on, on the oil content of, of the food formula.
So let's say for instance that we increase the oil in in in in this food formula that contains the protein ingredient, and then what we have seen is that for instance, this marine odor also gets reduced.
So this is very important because it, it could mean that we can also probably incorporate the, the, the, the, the ingredient in other products where it's not expected to, to have a strong marine taste.
So, And we did that not only for, for the protein ingredients but also for the, the raw biomass.
We also did some tests with the, with the raw biomass and also with the biomass that was processed with with some washing step.
And it was also very interesting to see that these emulsions that we created so that this washing of the biomass also reduced the, the, the saltiness.
So that can also be It could be very important from a culinary perspective because we are reducing maybe the the salt and still retain, for instance, the, the, the umami taste.
Could this extraction method be used or adapted for other types of algae?
Yes, yes, it can probably, be, so we haven't tried that, so we have so far focused on, on the seaweed, but we know that, , the, the, the, the potential will, will be even, greater if the technology is expanded to, to other green biomasses or photosynthetic biomasses.
So of course it's, it's, it will be very interesting to see.
How it looks, for instance, for, for grass protein or to extract protein from grass, for alpha alpha for instance as , and , and maybe microalgae.
Because, the way we designed the, the, the extraction method was based on, on, on the, on the type of proteins that are present in, in, in the In this type of biomasses, in these photosynthetic biomasses.
So of course I, I would expect.
That it would work in in leaf, grass, but we have to try.
What I'm doing right now is getting more in-depth insights or, so why did we get a threefold increase in the protein extraction.
Because I think as soon as we understand the, the, the, the exact the thing that trigger this, then maybe we know, OK, maybe it will work for, for, for, grass but maybe not for microbialgae.
So, there are still things to, to explore and I'm, I'm, I'm a bit more interested on, on, on going deep rather than on, on, on, on, on expanding maybe on a later stage, I think definitely we, we, we, we should try, yeah, yeah.
That's definitely exciting, for the F&B industry as.
What role do you see seaweed playing in creating a more sustainable food system and reducing reliance on traditional agriculture?
Seaweed is a very broad category, right?
We have the browns, we have the reds, and we have the, the, the green seaweed.
And Based on the color, at least, and all of them have different compositions, so some are rich or more rich in proteins, and for instance, we have some red seaweeds which can be up to 30% protein.
So I would expect that.
That, in the future food system that we not only use sea lettuce, but, but, all different types of seaweed because they will bring different things to, to, to, to the food system.
For instance, certain kelp species that are low in iodine.
They could be a source, for instance, of mainly fiber, since they are quite rich in, in, in, in, in fiber.
So, in that, in that aspect, maybe partially replace some, some, I don't know, leafy vegetables, in, in, in our diet.
Then, then of course, protein, then depending on, on, on the species, then of course it could be a red seaweed species, but still it will be a bit eye rich in, in, in, in, in fiber.
So that's why it's important that we try to concentrate, the protein and get these protein ingredients so that they have less fiber.
So it, it, it really depends on , What, what we want to, to, to achieve in the, in the, in the food system.
We want to, to To get more, more fiber, we also don't eat too much fiber, so, , it's not all about the protein, of course, but , Yeah, and I, I think, it's a very versatile food commodity, right?
So definitely not only focusing on, on yattas as we did here.
But also on, on, on, on, on other species.
That's also a main message that I want to give is not only about the sea lettuce, there are other equally interesting species out there, that have very unique properties.
Yeah.
Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us, Joao.
Thanks for your time.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
