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Food Addressing the increasing demand for seafood is one area of food supply that marine biotechnology can address and this is dealt with in more depth in Annex 6 on aquaculture. In addition, there are a number of areas where products of marine biotechnology can contribute to various aspects of food production. This is explored further in this section with particular reference to the use of seaweed162 for functional food and food ingredients. . Seaweeds are remarkable marine organisms with many new and emergent applications. Several new substances are derived from seaweeds and find their way to the markets. These include functional foods and food ingredients. The term “functional food” is commonly used for enriched or fortified food or food additives like vitamins, probiotic elements and antioxidants. Food ingredients are extracted components of the seaweed types described the previous section. In line with the requirements of EU regulation 1925/2006, all health claims that are made surrounding both feed and food ingredients must be substantiated by scientific evidence. Although seaweed and microalgae are the main sources for new biotechnological applications, the full scope is wider. In Figure 0.22 the main marine sources, ingredients, functionality and potential food applications are displayed. Figure 0.22 Main marine functional ingredients with potential food applications, sources and inherent functionality163 Crustaceans are used to produce chitin and chitosan. Apart from the pharmaceutical application of these substances chitosan is also investigated to be used as antibacterial packaging material for the food sector. Chitin is used as functional food because it helps to block absorption of dietary fat and cholesterol. 162 Seaweeds are defined as brown, red and green seaweeds. 163 Freitas AC, et al, Marine biotechnology advances towards applications in new functional foods 132 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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