Milk drinks that lower blood pressure, meat products that reduce the risk of heart disease, chocolate that calms you down and a new range of foods that can fight obesity can be created from marine animals and plants. Japan already has several product ranges on the shelves and research programmes are underway all over the world to create more.
Ireland is already well on the way to becoming a player in this worldwide multi-billion euro industry, according to research results of the NutraMara project presented by leading scientists today (Wednesday 14th October) at the Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre in Dublin, today.
NutraMara is a marine functional foods joint research initiative, led by Teagasc Ashtown Food Research Centre and funded by the Marine Institute and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. Launched in April 2008, the initiative is led by DeclanTroy of Teagasc, Ashtown, and involves collaboration of up to 30 scientists across Ireland working in Teagasc Moorepark Food Research Centre, University College Cork, University College Dublin, NUI Galway, University of Limerick, and the University of Ulster.
"Our seas are a huge reservoir for bioactive compounds that can be incorporated into food additives which can be harnessed for human health," said Dr Maria Hayes, Scientific Project Manager of the NutraMara Project, which aims to identify novel marine food ingredients and products, allowing Ireland to develop a functional foods industry of its own.
Researchers are already isolating, characterising and incorporating marine derived functional ingredients into food products. Dr Pádraigín Harnedy, is researching seaweed as a source of "biofunctional peptides" - protein molecules that promote health by blocking certain harmful chemical pathways in the human body, such as the laying down of cholesterol in blood vessels. "Irish seaweeds have great potential as a source of biofunctional peptides," she said, "particularly with the small red seaweeds found along our shores. Such compounds have a wide range of positive effects on human health, including killing harmful bacteria, lowering hypertension, assisting our immune systems and preventing thrombosis."