LA “FICOGASTRONOMIA”: UN ASPETTO INNOVATIVO DELL’ACQUACOLTURA MULTITROFICA INTEGRATA

Abstract

In the Remedia Life project, financed by the European Union, an Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system was created in the Mar Grande of Taranto to mitigate the negative effects of a fish farming plant on the environment. Among the bioremediation organisms, the green alga Chaetomorpha linum (O.F. Müller) Kützing) and the red alga Gracilaria bursa-pastoris (S.G. Gmelin) P.C. Silva have been cultivated to reduce the nitrogen salts concentration in the plant. Cultivated macroalgae have a very interesting nutritional profile rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids especially of the ω3 and ω6 series. Given the considerable algal biomass obtained, it was decided to use them as "novel food". Therefore, a book was realized entitled: "Algae our allied: novel food from the Mare Nostrum" which reports the ecological characteristics, the bioremediation capacity, the antimicrobial activities and the nutritional profile of the investigated algae as well as the recipes made with the cultivated algae.