Development of tasty sports nutrition product based on lysed Swedish blue mussels

Important results from the project

The purpose and goal with the projects was to map the smell and taste substances in mussel substrate in order to be able to develop the world´s first tasty sports nutrition product based on Swedish blue mussels. The project succeeded very well in characterising smell and taste elements, as well as with producing a delicious edible prototype with 27% protein content which got a shared 4th place in Vinnova´s taste competition.

Expected long term effects

The project resulted in a protein bar based on Swedish blue mussels, presented in three different flavours. Tests on preliminary target groups have been very successful, it seems that there is a good market potential for this product. The expected effect from this is commercial interest from external parties and that we from this can mobilise further resources necessary to go from prototype to finished product.

Approach and implementation

The foundation of the project was to map smell and taste elements in lysed mussel meal and substrate, as well sensory as molecularly, in order to be able to develop a recipe where attractive tastes ´mask´ less appealing ones. This turned out to be a very good approach where also development of taste in the mussel meal over time was an important factor.