NutraMara: Food Research & Development targeting societal challenges in Europe
Dr Maria Hayes,
Teagasc Food Research Programme
The Marine environment represents an almost inexhaustible source of bioactive compounds and molecules for use in a myriad of applications including food, chemical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and bioengineering.
Functional foods are foods that impart health benefits to the consumer that go beyond those of basic, human and animal nutrition. The Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative, also known as the NutraMara programme, was established by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) and the Marine Institute (MI).
Functional foods
NutraMara aims to drive the development of the marine sector and assist food companies by identifying functional food and bioactive ingredients from Irish marine resources. These include seaweeds, microalgae, marine processing co-products and aquaculture materials.
NutraMara researchers have developed procedures for the isolation, characterisation and quantification of many bioactive marine-derived ingredients including antioxidants; heart beneficial compounds such as bioactive peptides; carbohydrates and lipids, using state-of-the-art technologies including high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); mass spectrometry (MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).
These technologies are available at the Teagasc Nutraceutical Research Facility, which was opened by the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation & Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn in 2010.
Complete identification of isolated marine bioactive compounds is necessary for Irish food companies to make EFSA health claims. NutraMara researchers have isolated and characterised marine bioactive compounds that have potential beneficial health effects against diseases important in Irish, European and World societies today. These include obesity, diabetes, heart health, cancer and inflammatory diseases.
For example, novel, peptidic inhibitors of rennin – an enzyme important in the regulation of blood pressure and salt-water balance in the human body – were isolated by NutraMara researchers from the red seaweed Palmaria palmata, commonly known as Dulse.
This work was published in the Journal of Agriculture, Food and Chemistry. Other successes include the characterisation of valuable carbohydrates such as laminaran, fucoidan and chitin.
Once characterised, these marine ingredients may be incorporated into suitable food vehicles; for example: cereal snack and bread products and dairy products such as yoghurts and cheese.
Bioactive components
NutraMara also looks at understanding the role and mechanisms of marine derived bioactive compounds with identified beneficial effects on human health by looking at physiologically relevant end-points. For example, Dr Bojlul Bahar is working on the effects of chitosan generated at Teagasc from marine shellfisheries co-products and its effects on the leptin gene.
NutraMara research is contributing to developing novel food ingredients and products for uptake by Irish and European companies with potential for the development and sale of functional foods targeted at disease prevention rather than treatment. NutraMara is therefore assisting in tackling the major societal challenges of obesity and the diseases associated with metabolic syndrome in Europe.
Overfishing is a persistent ecological problem. NutraMara research is also developing innovative methods for using the whole fish catch, thereby reducing the ecological footprint of fish and shellfish processing on the marine ecosystem.
Due to the specific targets set under EU Council Directive 1999/21/EC, 1999 and laws governing dumping of by-product at sea, it is no longer economically feasible or environmentally acceptable for marine processors to dispose of by-products at landfill, or at sea.
NutraMara is helping to tackle this problem by developing isolation and characterisation methods for valuable proteins such as collagen and gelatine and carbohydrates such as chitin, chitosan and chitosanoligosaccharides from by-products.
