POTENTIAL OF THE GREEN SEAWEED Codium FOR HUMAN FOOD PRODUCTION: FROM LINE SEEDING TO BIOMASS PROCESSING

Aquaculture Europe 2025 Conference Valencia, Spain, September 22-25, 2025 Presentation included. Potential of the green seaweed Codium for human food production: from line seeding to biomass processing E.-j. Malta*1, D. Marín1, T. Picò1, P. Fajardo2, M. Alonso2, S. Scarfi3, M. Moussa3, M. Chiantore3 and M. Macías1 1) Centro Tecnológico de Acuicultura de Andalucía (CTAQUA), Muelle Comercial S/N, 11500, El Puerto de Santa María, Spain. Presenter: [email protected] 2) ANFACO-CECOPESCA, Ctra. Colexio Universitario 16, 36310, Vigo, Spain 3) Department of Earth, Environment and Life Sciences, University of Genova, 16132, Italy Introduction Seaweeds have a longstanding tradition in their use for human consumption in many Asian countries. In the western world, their use has long been limited to limited coastal areas and has been associated for a long time with episodes of hunger and war. This view has been changing drastically as the need for new prime matter for human food production has been growing. Seaweeds are now also in the Western world increasingly being considered as a more sustainable, high-quality food source. Against this background, several R&D projects have been executed in the last 5 years, focusing on cultivation of seaweeds and their use in human food production, such as the Spanish INNOVALGA project (2020-2023) and the EU Horizon Europe project NOVAFODIES (2023-2026) that both aimed to stimulate diversification, efficiency, innovation, and upscaling of European micro- and macroalgae solution. In this contribution, we will present an integral overview of a potential production chain based on the green seaweed Codium, from line-seeding to biomass composition and production of a food prototype. The genus Codium has a worldwide distribution and a traditional use in various countries both within and outside Europe, and various interesting functional properties. Its taste is generally considered subtle, reminiscent of crustaceans. It is therefore considered to be a promising ingredient for the food of the (near) future.