Future-proof microalgae-based foods (FAF): the research project

Future-proof microalgae-based foods (FAF)

Future-proof microalgae-based foods (FAF) is a project funded by FutureFoods, a partnership under the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme. At its first call launched in 2024 — ‘Transforming Food Systems: Reshaping Food System Interactions, Fostering Food Innovations, and Empowering Sustainable Food Choices‘ — FutureFoods aims to promote innovations that transform food systems, focusing on system-level change, product development, and consumer behaviour. (1)

The call encouraged projects capable of:

• improving the sustainability and resilience of food supply chains;

• developing new food processes and products;

• promoting sustainable choices among consumers.

The call was funded by 36 national organisations from 19 Member States and by the European Commission, with a total budget of €32 million. FAF is one of 23 projects selected from 275 proposals received from across Europe. This result also represents a success for the Netherlands — where FAF’s coordinator, Wageningen University, is based — which funded 8 projects under this call. (2)

The topic selected by FAF is Topic 2: New foods – Fostering innovations in food design, processing and supply via demand-and-supply reorientation — which aims to steer the evolution of supply and demand towards innovations capable of addressing key challenges such as improving dietary habits and reducing the environmental impact and import dependency of foods and feeds.

Project objectives

Microalgae represent a valuable source of proteins, omega-3 fatty acids, micronutrients, and bioactive compounds, with the added advantage of being cultivable without land use through bioreactors. Their considerable potential remains largely untapped, however, due to limited public awareness of microalgae properties and benefits. Their use is still confined to a handful of species, such as the cyanobacterium Spirulina, in food supplements and a few high-value functional foods.

The FAF research project aims to promote the uptake of microalgae in the mass market — and thereby their positive impact on food systems and public health — through:

• innovative approaches to the low-energy, low-solvent extraction of proteins, omega-3 fatty acids, and bioactive compounds from microalgae;

• incorporation of microalgae-based ingredients into seven product categories: chocolates, cakes, fish analogues, algae caviar, functional beverages, freeze-dried snacks, and functional powders;

• an action plan — comprising market analyses, business cases, and guidelines — to accelerate the market introduction of microalgae-derived ingredients and biomass.

The first selected species is the microalga Tetraselmis chuii, authorised for use as a novel food in the EU under specific conditions. The ProFuture project had already trialled its indirect and hybrid solar drying — to reduce the environmental and economic costs of production — as well as its use in various foods. (3)

The research consortium

The FAF consortium comprises 8 partners based in 4 Member States and 2 third countries associated with the Horizon Europe programme:

1. Wageningen University (WUR) – Netherlands (coordinator);

2. Associação Oceano Verde – Laboratório Colaborativo para o Desenvolvimento de Tecnologias e Produtos Verdes do Oceano (GreenCoLab) – Portugal;

3. WIISE S.r.l. società benefit – Italy;

4. Tetis Biyoteknoloji – Turkey;

5. Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn – Italy;

6. University College Dublin – Ireland;

7. UiT – The Arctic University of Norway – Norway;

8. ETİ Gıda San. – Turkey.

The diverse competencies of the partners converge in a multi-stakeholder approach designed to stimulate the production of microalgae-based products and to foster their acceptance among consumers, industries, policy makers, and trade associations.

Main work areas

The principal activities of the research project are organised into 6 work packages (WPs):

• WP1 – Sustainability, regulatory & techno-economic aspects: a guide to the sustainable production of microalgae and their use as food ingredients will be developed through a Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA), a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and a set of guidelines covering the applicable EU regulatory frameworks;

• WP2 – Ingredients bioactivity & optimization: selection of strains with optimal nutritional and antioxidant properties, assessment of extract bioactivity with a focus on the prevention of metabolic syndrome risk factors, and identification of the genes and metabolic pathways involved in the biosynthesis of the bioactive compounds of interest;

• WP3 – Ingredient scale-up and biorefinery: a low-energy, low-solvent extraction process will be developed for lipid extraction from T. chuii, within a cascade biorefinery approach capable of fractionating further compounds (e.g. proteins, peptides), with a view to industrial scalability;

• WP4 – Food prototyping & consumer behaviour and acceptance: innovative products with balanced nutritional profiles will be developed from freeze-dried T. chuii biomass and extracts, and subsequently subjected to consumer sensory evaluations to assess market acceptance;

• WP5 – Communication and dissemination activities: the objective is to ensure broad visibility for the project and its results, among both general and specialist audiences, while promoting business models for the production and commercialisation of innovative microalgae-based products, including through stakeholder engagement;

• WP6 – Project, ethics, and data management: management of the project’s technical (e.g. data management), administrative, and ethical aspects (e.g. non-use of GMOs, gender equality in tasting trials, privacy).

WIISE benefit’s role

WIISE benefit participates in the FAF project by contributing its expertise in strategic, legal, and regulatory matters. In continuity with the ProFuture project — in which WIISE participated alongside Wageningen University — to ensure compliance and to seize the opportunities offered by the regulatory framework in view of the trialling and use of the species Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis, Chlorella vulgaris, Nannochloropsis oceanica, and T. chuii.

As the regulatory partner, WIISE will be responsible for ensuring the full regulatory compliance of all project activities, with regard to both food safety and consumer protection, and to the market introduction and commercial valorisation of products containing microalgae. Specifically, activities will include:

• development of a guide addressed to food business operators wishing to develop and place on the market microalgae-based products, incorporating circular economy and sustainability principles to enhance value chain performance;

• strategic advice for the correct positioning of FAF’s innovative products on the EU market, and to facilitate sensory analysis trials through consumer testing;

• engagement of consumer communities for the communication and promotion of microalgae-based products, with a view to facilitating market acceptance — including through the involvement of various stakeholders (e.g. competent authorities, certification bodies, research platforms and consortia) in a policy advisory board;

• communication and dissemination of project results through the Food Times, WIISE benefit, and Great Italian Food Trade websites.

Preliminary conclusions

The FAF project launches on 1 April 2026, with the aim of contributing to the wider use of microalgae — obtained through sustainable technologies and processes — in mass-market food products. It will also support the development of nutritious and functional foods with appealing sensory profiles, so as to create value markets for the various actors in the food supply chain, ‘from bioreactor to fork’.

WIISE will contribute its expertise to the success of the project, while also providing consultancy services to all companies wishing to incorporate various microalgae species into their product formulations.

Dario Dongo and Andrea Adelmo Della Penna

Notes

(1) First Joint Transnational Co-Funded Call. ‘Transforming Food Systems: Reshaping Food System Interactions, Fostering Food Innovations, and Empowering Sustainable Food Choices’. https://www.futurefoodspartnership.eu/call-1-projects

(2) NWO. Eight Dutch projects for FutureFoodS (2024) have been launched. https://www.nwo.nl/en/news/eight-dutch-projects-for-futurefoods-2024-have-been-launched

(3) Dongo D. (2023, 15 September). The role of microalgae in food and feed, the state of the art. #ProFutureEU. Food Times.  https://www.foodtimes.eu/research/the-role-of-microalgae-in-food-and-feed-the-state-of-the-art-profutureeu-2/