About five decades ago, the mass production of certain protein-rich micro-algae was considered as a possibility to close the
predicted so called “protein gap”. Comprehensive analyses and nutritional studies have demonstrated that these algal proteins are of
high quality and comparable to conventional vegetable proteins. However, due to high production costs as well as technical
difficulties to incorporate the algal material into palatable food preparations, the propagation of algal protein is still in its infancy.
To date, the majority of micro-algal preparations are marketed as health food, as cosmetics or as animal feed.
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