FLORIDA - Copious amounts of smelly seaweed known as sargassum have washed up along the shores of South Florida, causing major problems for numerous coastal cities.
Officials across the state are trying to think outside the box to address the issue.
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Now, researchers at three universities, Florida International University (FIU), Florida State University and Florida Atlantic University, are exploring ways to turn the foul-smelling seaweed from waste into valuable food and medicine products.
"It’s not edible, but it has some food components that can be utilized," Imran Ahmad, a co-author of the study and a food scientist at FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, said. "And it’s already been utilized in the food industry from other sources."
The research teams found that sargassum contains compounds such as alginate, which can be extracted at extremely high levels.
Alginate is a complex carbohydrate commonly used in sports nutrition products. It is also widely used throughout the food industry as a stabilizer and thickening agent in dairy and dairy-like products, including ice cream and cream sauces.
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"It’s a natural compound. It’s a carb, it is a complex polysaccharide, and it digests slowly in our body," Ahmad said. "Instead of using some other modified starches, it’s a natural solution for our food industry."
To extract alginate from sargassum, the researchers used a process called high-pressure processing.
Instead of using heat, which can damage nutrients and structures, the team applies extremely high pressure to kill bacteria and other contaminants while keeping the material fresh.
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Once it is preprocessed, the sargassum is dried and undergoes ultrasonic processing, which removes unwanted components while isolating the alginates.
"Think of putting the equivalent of 10 elephants on top of something," Ahmad said in an FIU article. "That high pressure kills harmful microorganisms, but preserves the useful compounds we want to extract."
Although the team found a way to make sargassum usable in food-related products, regulations surrounding its classification as a food source remain a challenge.
According to Florida law, the seaweed can carry harmful bacteria or contaminants. There are also regulations governing how it can be collected, and it must wash ashore naturally before it can be handled.
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"We are not really allowed to harvest it from the ocean because it is part of the coral reef and the ecosystem," Ahmad said. "So once it’s dead and washed up on the shore, only then can we collect it. We move it to the lab, we clean it with chlorinated water, and then we start our processing."
For now, researchers are working on turning their discoveries into actual products the public could eventually use.
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But Ahmad said that reality is still a long way away and would require more testing, funding and regulatory approval.
"Sargassum has economic and environmental impacts which affect tourism, create cleanup costs and can even cause public health concerns. If we can turn it into something useful, we shift the conversation from disposal to opportunity. It’s all about sustainability."
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