The current food system is seriously challenged by evolving consumers needs and by the rapid world population growth, which could peak to 9.7 billion people in 2060. To provide food system with high nutritional value ingredients, it becomes of paramount important to harness the potential of the oceans in an environmentally responsible manner. Microalgae are a highly promising source of aquatic biomasses and find applications in a wide range of fields, including nutrition and well-being. Currently, no large-scale industrial production site provides access to the exceptional biodiversity of microalgae in an efficient way. Only a few species are produced globally with dedicated production sites. For instance, 70% of the market is currently represented by Spirulina and Chlorella. The SCALE project strives to build and operate a first of its kind Flagship plant producing ingredients with high nutritional value derived from the untapped microalgae diversity, for food, food supplements, feed and cosmetics sectors, through economically-sound processes and in an environmentally friendly way. This Flagship project is based on the unique and cutting-edge CAMARGUE photobioreactor technology developed and patented by Microphyt, a French leading SME in microalgae-based natural solutions for nutrition and well-being. The CAMARGUE technology currently operating and running at demo plant offers both high differentiation potential and the ability to supply natural active ingredients in an industrial and standardized way. SCALE will transfer this technology from the demo plant to the industrial Flagship plant able to produce large-scale volumes of high-value ingredients of unique microalgae species that cannot be supplied from other production technologies. To do so, SCALE project gathers 12 key EU and international partners in an integrated value chain from microalgae production to high value ingredients extraction of bioactives compounds and end-use applications in food, food supplements, feed, and cosmetic domains.

The overall objective of this multi-actor, participatory project is to facilitate the use and increase the value of Neglected and Underutilised Crops (NUCs) in food chains to foster healthier diets and more sustainable food systems. To achieve this, DIVINFOOD will focus on interactive short and mid-tier value chains that can meet the growing consumer demand for: 1) healthy plant-based food; 2) products with a local/regional identity, and 3) diverse services and benefits received from agriculture and food. DIVINFOOD will study minor cereals and legumes in 3 geographical regions that face various climatic hazards and diverse socio-economic challenges to developing agrobiodiversity-rich value chains. DIVINFOOD will: - Co-develop, with consumers, new interactive marketing modes and channels valuing biodiversity use and its services/benefits, with the support of participatory guarantee systems and digital tools - Co-produce new and diversified plant-based healthy and appetising products and recipes from NUCs meeting consumers’ needs, from minimal or mild food processing and formulations better expressing NUCs’ potential - Benchmark diverse agroecological farming systems and techniques that improve NUCs’ performance, inter-specific biodiversity and the provision of citizen-focused agro-socio-ecosystem services - Breed more performant cultivars of cereals and legumes with local adaptation, intra-specific biodiversity, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, and potentiating nutritious and appetising food - Demonstrate new business models that diversify income and activities for farmers and small-scale processors who are using agrobiodiversity - Co-design pilot multi-actor territorial networks/social cooperatives in charge of managing, propagating and promoting NUCs. Design policy recommendations to promote their replication - Disseminate the results to relevant stakeholders to optimise their exploitation

The world is facing the daunting challenge of increasing and improving the quality of its food production to match its population growth, and simultaneously of making its food production system more sustainable if it wants to reach the goals set in the Paris Agreement on climate change (more than a quarter of greenhouse gases are generated by the food production system). In the EU, an additional challenge comes up since about 75% of protein production is imported. This dependence on imports represents a weakness as supply chain disruptions have become much more common, due to pandemic crises or geopolitical upheavals. ARB has developed a high-quality protein ingredient, called SylPro, that addresses all these challenges. It valorises under-used feedstock (such as agricultural or forestry residues) as raw material and harnesses the power of a proprietary yeast to produce a protein rich ingredient that can be used directly for human food or animal feed. ARB’s technology can thus produce proteins both locally and on a very large scale since lignocellulosic material and agricultural side streams are available in huge quantities. Thanks to a robust and efficient process, it also has a low environmental footprint, making its product one of the protein ingredients with the lowest CO2 emissions. SYLPLANT is building on the success of its demonstration program SYLFEED, a 4-years innovative collaborative project financed by BBI-JU (2017-2021).For this project, ARB proposes to move to the next step, building its first-of-a-kind commercial plant with a capacity of 10 kt/year of SylPro and developing market applications with various partners. Upon completion, SYLPLANT will then deliver an industrial plant producing a high-quality protein ingredient, innovative market products in the food, petfood and aquafeed sectors, and a roadmap for building larger plants combining ARB and FIB’s technologies, making the vision of creating food from under-used and local resources a reality.

In the context of improving food sustainability, while ensuring food safety and security, the search for innovative foods is crucial for the future. The French macroalgae sector is of interest because of the nutritional potential of this naturally available marine resource. Whole macroalgae are indeed little exploited as food source while they are nutritionally dense and contains relatively high levels of bioactive compounds with demonstrated potential health benefits. The multidisciplinary collaborative project ALGOMENU “Potential of macroalgae as a new sustainable food source” aims to assess the potential of whole macroalgae on the French market as a new safe food source contributing to a healthy diet through gut ecosystem modulation. We propose to 1) select macroalgae species of potential interest by biochemical composition characterisation of nutritional and bioactive profiles and test eco-friendly processes to reduce contaminants and increase bioactive compound biodisponibility ; 2) assess in vivo tolerance and impact of the selected macroalgae consumption on diet-nutrient handling as well as impact on digestive ecosystem and systemic metabolic repercussions (in particular metabolism of metals) in animals fed balanced diet vs high calorie diet, representative of the Western population; and 3) assess consumer’s acceptability of edible macroalgae and formulated products containing macroalgae into diet by sociologic, food testing and perception approaches. The results of the project will help to determine whether whole marine macroalgae are good candidate for food transition with nutritional and/or nutraceutical benefits.