Exploring the Culinary Potential of Sea Lettuce in Grant Solutions Funded Project
Another seaweed project. Not at all a coincidence. Seaweed has an obvious place in a healthier and more sustainable food system. When it grows, it has the ability to clean water, and as an ingredient, it provides us with plenty of nutrition while satisfying our umami cravings. We are part of a huge project about farmed seaweed, to explore its culinary potential and future market.
Funded by Grant Solutions and Innovation Fund Denmark with a total budget of 19M DKK, the SeaFree project aims to integrate an innovative seaweed production system into existing land-based, circular fish farms. This will clean the water and, in return, produce emission-free fish and shrimps. The seaweed used is specifically sea lettuce (ulva).
The sea lettuce has to be harvested to replenish and keep its cleansing function. This is where Kost Studio comes in. The sea lettuce shouldn’t go to waste. It has fantastic culinary and nutritional qualities. You will find it used in Asian cuisines, yet its potential in the Western world is largely untapped.
The main obstacle to unlocking its culinary potential is the low knowledge and consumer acceptance. Danish consumers do not generally know how to cook it and what flavors it can add to a dish. We will explore the qualities of sea lettuce and to address the obstacles, we will:
- Experiment, creating new food products and meals
- Conduct product testing on Danish consumers
- Follow up on success through surveys
The food products are successful if they attract more than a niche group. They need to target the mainstream audience. And to do so, they need to taste really good. We believe that taste is ironically often forgotten in food innovation. Fortunately, Danes no longer eat to survive. It is much more complex. Mostly, we want the food we eat to be delicious.
We look forward to starting off this project together with the many participants. Aarhus University, University of Copenhagen, Kattegatcentret and Pure Algae, who designs the land-based seaweed cultivation system, to name a few.