SEAFOOD-AGE tackles a common social and economic challenge in the Atlantic Area: an ageing population. Healthy ageing requires a healthy diet, and seafood products provide essential nutrients not always accessible to older adults. The project will exploit the maritime dimension of the Atlantic Area regions and will adopt circular economy concepts to generate ready-to-eat seafood for healthy ageing, produce novel eco-packaging and develop a smart label for better quality, safety and minimum food waste.

INDIGO will be involved in the sustainable production of algal ingredients for ready-to-eat seafood, particularly process and product optimization for maximum quality, and develop competencies for innovation. We will mostly be involved in WP4 where we will determine the effect of the deployment time and harvesting time of near-shore long-line cultivation of the seaweed Alaria esculenta on compounds such as phlorotannins, fucoxanthin and other yet-to-be-determined bioactives, and their effect on in vitro antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. We will optimise processes to ensure the highest quality product with high levels of active compounds and as part of WP5, contribute to co-design and marketability of the bioactive compounds identified and the potential of the seaweed final product as an ingredient in ready-to-eat seafood for the elderly.