Europe is looking for alternatives to animal protein consumption: is edible seaweed an option? In Denmark, researchers at AlgaeFood, a European interregional project, are convinced. In addition to classifying it, they act to promote its use and raise awareness among the new generations.
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00:00Our societies are looking for alternatives to animal protein consumption.
00:07Are edible algae an option?
00:10In Denmark, researchers at Algae Food, a European inter-regional project, are convinced.
00:17Algae is recognized as green gold.
00:20It is right now the right time to go away from production of fish or cows and meat from land
00:30to something that can offer higher nutritional values,
00:35low fat and also lower carbon footprint when it comes to production.
00:45Mads is Denmark's largest producer of edible seaweed.
00:49Its farm is located off the coast of Kertemund in the southeast of the country.
00:54It cultivates two of the project's star algae.
00:57Palmaria palmata and Saccharina latissima are a mainstay of Japanese cuisine.
01:02They insert and attach the spores directly to the ropes to guarantee more than one harvest per year
01:08and is committed to sustainability.
01:10They can harvest on the same plant year after year, maybe up to three, four, five years.
01:16And that way you have a lower waste of material because you can use the rope for maybe up to five years.
01:22I could produce roughly 300 to 400 tons of Saccharina.
01:27It's a new thing and we need to have the whole value chain in place before we scale up.
01:35Another objective of this project is to raise awareness about seaweed consumption.
01:40Researchers and students are creating a cookbook involving four secondary schools.
01:45Including the Leinland Boarding School.
01:49This one is called the bacon of the sea.
01:52And it also contains a lot of protein. Just use this instead of bacon.
01:56It's more sustainable and it's also more healthy.
01:59That's why the education part is so important.
02:01It's because of the youth.
02:03Because they're the future.
02:05And they're the future consumers.
02:07Two countries are participating in algae food.
02:10Denmark and Germany.
02:12The total budget, 1.9 million euros.
02:1565% of which comes from European cohesion policy.
02:21The best way to discover a new food and its benefits is to try it.
02:26These students and the school chef have prepared seaweed-based dishes.
02:31A first for Ray Henneth.
02:33It has like a little chewy, crunchy texture.
02:36It's not something I usually eat or is served at the school.
02:39It's really unique.
02:41What I've learned about algae is that it has ten times more minerals than normal vegetables.
02:47Which is really nice.
02:48I think I'm going to be eating seaweed more after this experience.