Department of Chemical and Material Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan; Research Center for Smart Sustainable Circular Economy, Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chemosphere. 2021 May;271:129800. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.129800. Epub 2021 Jan 28.
Offering a potential solution for global food security and mitigating environmental issues caused by the expansion of land-based food production, the carbon-hunger and nutrient-rich microalgae emerged as a sustainable food source for both humans and animals. Other than as an alternative source for protein, microalgae offer its most valuable nutrients, omega-3 and 6 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids where the content can compete with that of marine fish with lower chemicals contamination and higher purity. Furthermore, the colorful pigments of microalgae can act as antioxidants together with many other health-improving properties as well as a natural colorant. In addition, the supplementation of algae as animal feed provides plentiful benefits, such as improved growth and body weight, reduced feed intake, enhanced immune response and durability towards illness, antibacterial and antiviral action as well as enrichment of livestock products with bioactive compounds. The significant breakthrough in algal biotechnology has made algae a powerful "cell factory" for food production and lead to the rapid growth of the algal bioeconomy in the food and feed industry. The first overview of this review was to present the general of microalgae and its potential capability. Subsequently, the nutritional compositions of microalgae were discussed together with its applications in human foods and animal feeds, followed by the exploration of their economic feasibility and sustainability as well as market trends. Lastly, both challenges and future perspectives were also discussed.
为全球粮食安全提供了潜在的解决方案，并缓解了陆地粮食生产扩张所带来的环境问题，富碳且营养丰富的微藻成为了人类和动物可持续的食物来源。除了作为蛋白质的替代来源，微藻还提供了最有价值的营养物质，即 omega-3 和 6 长链多不饱和脂肪酸，其含量可与海洋鱼类相媲美，且具有更低的化学污染和更高的纯度。此外，微藻的有色色素可以作为抗氧化剂，同时具有许多其他改善健康的特性以及天然着色剂。此外，藻类作为动物饲料的补充提供了许多好处，例如提高生长速度和体重、减少饲料摄入、增强免疫反应和对疾病的耐受性、抗菌和抗病毒作用以及使畜产品富含生物活性化合物。藻类生物技术的重大突破使藻类成为食品生产的强大“细胞工厂”，并导致藻类生物经济在食品和饲料行业的迅速发展。本文首先概述了微藻的一般特性及其潜在能力。随后，讨论了微藻的营养成分及其在人类食品和动物饲料中的应用，接着探讨了其作为经济可行性和可持续性以及市场趋势的潜力。最后，还讨论了挑战和未来展望。
