Microalgae-based products for the food and feed sector: an outlook for Europe

The European Union has adopted recently an ambitious strategy for developing the Bioeconomy in Europe. In this context, algae represent an emerging biological resource of great importance for its potential applications in different fields, including food and feed. Algae have been already used as food, feed and fertilizers for centuries, and nowadays approximately 200 species of algae and micro-algae are used worldwide in different sectors, like energy, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. This report provides an analysis of the technological and market developments in the field of microalgae-based food and feed products. The analysis is based on literature search, interviews to experts and Delphi survey to stakeholders. It provides important insights on four issues concerning microalgae-based products: production systems; current markets, products and future developments; R&D and prospects for micro-algae biotechnology and genetic engineering; safety and regulatory aspects of food and feed applications in Europe and the USA. Main results show that the global market for microalgae-based food and feed supplements/nutraceuticals is well developed and with a great potential for growth. Europe has the potential to become market leader in micro-algae based products for the food and feed markets in the next decade, in particular thanks to scientific and technological developments going on in this field. However, experts highlight two major factors limiting the European potential: the insufficient European domestic demand for microalgae products and the difficulties in achieving commercial authorization of algae-derived products in the EU markets due to the complexity of the regulation of novel foods in Europe.