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Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative (NutraMara)
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2017-12
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Troy, D. J., Tiwari, B. K., Hayes, M., Ross, P., Stanton, C., Johnson, M., Stengel, D., O’Doherty, J. V., FitzGerald, R. J., McSorley, E. and Kerry, J. (2017). Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative (NutraMara). Marine Research Sub-Programme (NDP 2007-’13) Series: MFFRI/07/01. Marine Institute.
Abstract
The NutraMara – Marine Functional Foods Research Initiative was conceived by Sea Change - A
Marine Knowledge, Research and Innovation Strategy for Ireland 2007-2013. The goal was to
develop a collaborative funding mechanism that would create new research capacity and build
the capabilities required to maximise the potential of Ireland’s extensive marine bioresources.
By supporting a strong interdisciplinary research team, capable of exploring marine animals and
plants as a sustainable source of materials for use as functional ingredients and foods, the vision
for NutraMara was to position Ireland to the fore in use of marine bioresources as health
beneficial ingredients.
Commencing in 2008 and supported by funds of €5.2 million from the Marine Institute and the
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the research programme was led by Teagasc
as the head of a multi-institutional consortium. The NutraMara consortium comprises marine
bioresources and bioscience expertise, with food science and technology expertise from
University College Cork; University College Dublin; the National University of Ireland Galway;
the University of Limerick and Ulster University.
Research effort was directed towards exploring Ireland’s marine bioresources – including
macro- and microalgae, finfish and shellfish from wild and cultured sources: and discards from
processing fish as sources of novel ingredients with bioactive characteristics. This discovery
activity involved the collection of over 600 samples from 39 species of algae and fish and the
analysis of 5,800 extracts, which resulted in 3,000 positive “hits” for bioactivity.
The NutraMara consortium has built a strong research capacity to identify, characterise and
evaluate marine-origin bioactives for use as/in functional foods. It further built the capacity to
develop model foods enhanced with these marine-origin functional ingredients; providing
insights to the processing challenges associated with producing functional ingredients from
marine organisms.
The consortium was actively engaged in research activities designed to identify and assess
bioactive compounds from available marine resources, including polyphenols,
proteins/peptides, amino acids, polysaccharides, polyunsaturated fatty acids and materials with
antioxidant, probiotic or prebiotic properties. A key component of NutraMara’s activities was the development of human capital. The
recruitment of M.Sc. and PhD students and their integration within a dynamic research
environment that has strong links to industry, provided lasting expertise and capabilities, which
are relevant to the needs of Ireland’s food and marine sectors. NutraMara research led to the
awarding of eighteen PhDs and recruitment of 21 post-doctoral researchers over the eight
year research programme. In excess of 80 peer reviewed publications resulted from this research and more publications are planned. A further 100 posters and conference
presentations were also delivered by NutraMara researchers and Principal Investigators.
The development and implementation of training and exchange programmes aimed at
providing early stage researchers with inter-disciplinary skills that are critical to their
development as researchers, enhanced the research capacity of institutions, the industry
sectors and the country as a whole.
Principal Investigators involved in leading the NutraMara research programme have secured
additional research grants of almost €6 million from national and international sources and are
engaged in extensive research collaboration involving marine and food research expertise; an
activity which did not exist prior to NutraMara.
The dissemination of knowledge and transfer of research results to industry were key activities
in the research programme. The research outputs and visibility of NutraMara activity nationally
resulted in 10 companies engaging in research and development activity with the consortium.
Regular workshops and conferences organised by NutraMara attracted close to five hundred
participants from Ireland and overseas.
Members of the NutraMara core PI group have contributed to the formulation of new national
foods and marine research policy and national research agenda, both during the national
prioritisation exercise and in sectoral research strategies.
This final project report describes the process by which research targets were identified, and
the results of extensive screening and evaluation of compounds extracted from marine
bioresources. It also highlights the development of new protocols designed to extract
compounds in ways that are food friendly. Evaluating the functional properties, bioactivity and
bioavailability of high potential marine compounds involved in vitro and in vivo testing. Pilot
animal and human intervention studies yielded further insight to the potential and challenges in
developing marine functional ingredients.
As a result of work completed within the NutraMara consortium, Ireland is well positioned to
continue to contribute to the development of ingredients derived from marine organisms and
in doing so support the on-going development of Ireland’s food sector.