The EnRichMar Project

Consumers are increasingly searching for food products with either natural ingredients or bioactive ingredients so that they can improve their health or even avoid diseases. The market for such products is growing rapidly. Marine-based ingredients such as seaweed or fish oil offer a good option as healthy ingredients to be included in convenience foods.

The aim of the EnRichMar project is to increase the value of dairy and cereal products by adding functional ingredients with confirmed health effects and produced from marine-based raw materials or by-products from fish processing, The focus is placed on ingredients, such as seaweed extract and fish oil. Those ingredients may induce positive health effects, enhance flavour and enable salt reduction in food products, and improve the stability of the products. The functional properties of the enriched products will be studied via intervention research. Finally, comprehensive consumer studies will be performed, and a marketing strategy and implementation plan will be developed to strengthen the competiveness of the companies involved in the EnRichMar project in order to create business opportunities in European markets.

The partners of the EnRichMar project are two ingredient producers – Marinox ehf (Iceland) and BioActive Foods As (Norway) – and three food producers – Grimur Kokkur ehf (Iceland), den Eelder (Netherlands) and Ruislandia Oy (Finland). The project is being coordinated by Matís ohf (Iceland) and conducted in collaboration with three other RTD partners: VTT (Finland), TNO (Netherlands) and University of Milan (Italy).

Bioactive ingredients

One of the bioactive ingredients is seaweed extract harvested from the seaweed Fucus vesiculosus. Seaweed is a rich source of not only nutrients but also of different kinds of bioactive substances including sulphated polysaccharides, carotenoid pigments such fucoxanthin, and phlorotannins (polyphloroglucinol phenolics), the largest group of polyphenols, with potential health benefits such as antioxidant activity, anti-diabetic and anti-inflammatory properties. Phlorotannins, derived from brown algae, have recently been found to possess multiple physiological activities such as antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, antibacterial, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties. Therefore, many types of seaweed have great potential as functional ingredients in food. Preliminary R&D work has demonstrated that Fucus vesiculosus, more than any other seaweed researched, contains extremely bioactive antioxidants (polyphenols) as well as other very interesting bioactive ingredients such as bioactive polysaccharides like fucoidans.

Health effects of seaweed

Seaweed extracts have previously been shown to be excellent antioxidants in washed cod muscle and cod protein isolates. Seaweed-based ingredients, both extracts and isolated compounds, could be used as active ingredients in the functional food and nutraceuticals sector as well as improving oxidative stability of food products. Seaweed also contains polysaccharides that could provide health benefits, since a range of effects has been attributed to the use of some poly and/or oligosaccharides. This includes prebiotic effects, immunomodulation, affecting the ability of white blood cells to attack tumour cells, reduction of the symptoms of respiratory tract infections, and protection against infectious disease.

'omega-3 fatty acids may play a role in cognitive development, may increase learning ability and are associated with cognitive performance'

During the last decades, intake of omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-6 PUFA) has increased in the Western diet, causing an imbalance in the omega-6/omega-3 ratio. The target for a healthy omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid balance is 1:1 to 2:1. Among other things, a correct balance is important for maintaining homeostasis within the body and can have both immediate and long-lasting health effects, including a better capacity to resist disease, faster tissue repair, strengthened mental health and protection against lifestyle diseases. Since they are essential fatty acids, which means the body cannot synthesise them, omega-3 PUFAs have to be taken in through food or supplements. There are different subtypes of omega-3 PUFAs, including -linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosohexaenoic acid (DHA).

Positive effects of omega-3 fatty acids on dementia, schizophrenia and other central nervous system diseases have been reported. A relative deficiency in dietary ω-3 PUFAs has been implicated in major depressive disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, impulse control problems, including aggressive behaviour, and schizophrenia. In some but not all preliminary clinical trials, supplementation with the long-chain omega-3 PUFAs has been shown to improve mood in patients with major depression and bipolar disorder.

Better cognitive performance

In recent decades, it has been shown that omega-3 fatty acids may play a role in cognitive development, may increase learning ability and are associated with cognitive performance. However, the results are far from conclusive and have yielded mixed results so far. The EnRichMar project has been set up to show whether there is a relationship between the intake of omega-3 fatty acids and increased cognitive development.

Determining the bioavailability

The bioactivity of the omega-3 oil respectively omega-3 powder and the bioactivity of the seaweed extract is analysed by in vitro experiments (TNO gastro Intestinal Models or ‘TIM’). This model system mimics the digestive tract of humans. The model is a dynamic computer-controlled multi-compartmental system with adjustable parameters for the physiological conditions of the stomach and intestine. Temperature, peristalsis, bile secretion, secretion of saliva, stomach and pancreas enzymes are all fully adjustable. The TIM system is used to study the behaviour of oral products during transit through the stomach, the small intestine and large intestine. Commonly performed studies concern the digestibility of food and food components, the bioaccessibility for absorption of pharmaceutical compounds, proteins, fat, minerals and (water- and fat-soluble) vitamins.

The result of the TIM study is used to decide which physiological effects and which effects on stress and mental health of consuming food enriched with seaweed extract and omega-3 powder will be tested by human volunteers in an intervention study (in-vivo).

Human intervention study

A human intervention study will be part of the research in this project. The intervention study will look at the effect of consuming food enriched with either omega-3 or seaweed extracts on oxidative cell stress, cognitive performance and mood.
Omega-3 is thought to have beneficiary effects on health. In addition, antioxidants which release the oxidative stress in the body are important for health. By supplementing foods with either omega-3, seaweed extracts (high in antioxidants) or a placebo, the bioactivity, physiological effects and effects on cognition of the food supplements will be investigated.

Physical and mental health is fundamental to our personal well-being and the quality of our society. There are many ways in which the modern diet predisposes to degenerative diseases, but it appears likely that an important mechanism is that it creates a pro-inflammatory climate within the body, in combination with smoking, obesity and a lack of adequate physical activity. Many scientific studies have provided evidence that several of these illnesses can be prevented significantly through adopting a dietary approach. This means ensuring a diet consisting of foods that are rich in bioactive components and health-promoting compounds as found in fruit, vegetables, seafood and edible plants. Two compounds of interest are omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (ω-3 PUFA) and seaweed extracts (high in polyphenols), both of which have their own proposed beneficial effect on health, cognition and/or mood. In this project, the developed product prototypes will be tested to gain information on the effect of consuming food enriched with omega-3 and seaweed extracts on mental health and cognition, inflammatory and oxidative stress markers as well as anti-diabetic effects. This will be tested in subjects with (mild) obesity, because the beneficial effects of food enriched with either seaweed extracts or omega-3 may be more visible in this population.
In practice
                                           
While the intervention study is running, the partners will carry out research on the applicability of the addition of the bioactive components in their recipe. This means the research will focus on stability in taste and colour, on shelf life and microbiological aspects. When the development of the recipe is finished, a consumer acceptance study will be carried out to test the intention to purchase.

When the project is finished and the results can be shared with the audience, a new contribution on this topic will be written.

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