Minerva seaweed biomass project

From September 2020 to August 2023, CyberColloids participated in the EU funded MINERVA project. The project aim was to valorise underutilised and/or undervalued seaweed biomass from sustainable sources across Europe with a view to developing new high value products, reducing waste in current processes and adding value. The focus was on new products for the blue bioeconomy in the food, cosmetics, biomedical and aquaculture sectors. There was also an emphasis on industry-based training and CyberColloids hosted a postgraduate student for 6 months.

CyberColloids’ key role in the project was to develop and evaluate new, seaweed derived food ingredients. In particular seaweed fibres for use as food texture ingredients. Fibres were produced from two brown seaweeds (Ascophyllum nodosum & Saccharina latissima) that had the functional benefits of alginate e.g. water binding, gelling, bake stability and freeze-thaw stability. Fibres were also produced from two red seaweeds (Gelidium corneum & Gracilaria verrucosa) that had some of the functional benefits of agar. These fibres were evaluated in a range of targeted food applications including bakery creams, muffins, vegetarian burgers and vegan seafood. They were shown to have commercially promising properties.

To find out more about the project in general, and our partners please visit the project website and download the various project outputs below.