Atlantic Canadian commercial seaweeds: food product development and sensory evaluation

可食用海藻是一种具有独特成分的植物成分，在加拿大大西洋地区收获，但在加拿大的消费量非常有限。该项目将与加拿大领先的海藻生产和生物加工公司Acadian Seaplants Limited （ASL）合作进行，该公司将海藻加工成供人类消费的增值产品、宠物食品和牲畜饲料产品，以及旨在促进植物生长和作物生产的成分。这种被称为crispus的海藻产品由ASL以Hana TsunomataTM的商品名商业化，已经在日本市场上取得了成功。虽然海藻含有丰富的微量营养素成分和多种生物活性成分，但由于缺乏文化经验和烹饪用途，它们在加拿大的消费量明显有限。更好地了解海藻的感官特征，包括它们的视觉外观、味道、适口性、风味和质地，以及它们对身体舒适和饱腹感的影响，将有助于制定广泛的功能性食品，这些食品可以被引入和接受到加拿大的饮食模式中。最近推出的新版加拿大食品指南，以促进植物成分的消费，与可食用海藻的探索产生共鸣，它们的感官特性和各种食物，它们可以被纳入。该项目将对商品海藻的感官特性及其作为功能性食品配料的潜力产生新的认识。该项目的创新部分是利用国内生产的海藻设计新产品，并评估其感官特性，这是以前没有评估过的。这项研究将为开发包括国内生产的海藻成分和加拿大人消费的美味食品提供新的方向。

Edible seaweeds represent plant ingredients with a unique composition and are harvested in Atlantic Canada, however, their consumption in Canada is very limited. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Acadian Seaplants Limited (ASL), a leading Canadian company in production and bioprocessing of seaweeds into the value-added products for human consumption, products for pet food and livestock feed, and ingredients designed to enhance plant growth and crop production. The seaweed products known as Chondrus crispus and commercialized by ASL under the trade name Hana TsunomataTM are already successful on the Japanese market. While seaweeds have rich micronutrient composition and multiple bioactive components, their consumption in Canada is significantly limited due to the lack of cultural experience and culinary use. A better understanding of the sensory characteristics of seaweeds including their visual appearance, taste, palatability, flavour and texture, as well as their effect on physical comfort and satiety, will help to formulate a broad range of functional foods that can be introduced and accepted into the Canadian dietary pattern. A recent introduction of the new edition of Canada's Food Guide known to promote the consumption of plant ingredients resonates with this exploration of edible seaweeds, their sensory properties and varieties of foods in which they can be incorporated. This project will result in new knowledge in sensory characteristics of commercial seaweeds and their potential as functional food ingredients. The innovative component of the project is the design of new products using domestically produced seaweeds and evaluation of their sensory properties that were not assessed before. This study will provide new directions for the development of tasty food products that will include domestically produced seaweed ingredients and be consumed by Canadians.