Speaker

About the speaker: 

Professor Undeland specializes within Marine Food Science and Blue Biotechnology with the aim to develop next generation blue foods from sustainable raw materials such as seaweed, microalgae and fisheries side streams. Marine lipids and proteins are at the heart of her research; particularly their stabilization; their isolation from complex sources, as well as their nutritional properties, including digestibility. She also targets innovative technologies for biomass fractionation, nutrient recycling and fermentation to build new blue biorefineries. She has authored ~200 scientific papers and book chapters,  is the Swedish representative in WEFTA and EuCheMS, the research coordinator of the Blue Food center and member of the National Committee for Nutrition and Food Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 

Company info:

Chalmers University of Technology is an entrepreneurial technical university fostering solutions to important societal challenges and contributing to the development of a sustainable future. Among ten strategic research areas, Ocean is one, comprising blue bioeconomy as a targeted field. The Undeland lab at the Food and Nutrition Science division, Department of Life Sciences, is here a core node, with 25 years of experience from research and innovation activities in the area of blue biomass valorization. Today the group consists of 15 PhD-students, Post docs and MSc students, targeting Marine Foods and Blue Biotechnology.  

Presentation: 

Seaweed hosts numerous values as a future food source, not least as a supplier of alternative protein, highly sought-after micronutrients, pigments and flavours. It also has potential to remediate nutrients from currently wasted (sea)food side streams. To harness these values, the entire chain from primary production to consumption however needs to be carefully designed to mitigate unwanted quality changes, tailor specific flavours and in selected cases, upconcentrate key compounds. During this presentation, case studies covering important steps of existing and future seaweed value chains will be highlighted, pointing at possibilities - and challenges.