Food-grade prebiotic production, merging marine and forest resourcess for moving up the cellulose value-chain

Purpose and goal

The overall aim of ForceUpValue was production of low-cost food-grade prebiotic cello-oligosacharides (COS) from non-edible resources. Our approach was to use forest and marine residues for the production of prebiotics to be used as health beneficial products both for human consumption and for sustainable aquacultures.

Expected results and effects

ForceUpValue has resulted in the development of novel processes for the production of well-characterised food-grade prebiotics (COS) from cellulosic forest and marine residues. The produced COS has shown promising prebiotic potential, when their ability to support survival of selected probiotic bacterial strains where tested. The targeted products (prebiotic) has the potential to contribute to a healthy-functional food concept, and the overall sustainability of food production as the used resources do not compete with food production for land or fresh water.

Planned approach and implementation

By using pretreatment and enzymatic processes, well known in the biorefinery area, the aim was to create novel application routes and added value for both marine and forest resources. The cellulose sources used originated from, i.e. forest cellulose from harvesting/logging activities and marine cellulose from Ciona tunic. To cover the whole value-chain, ForceUpValue included partners with competence in forestry, tunicate production, biomass pretreatment, cellulose hydrolysis, aquacultures, development of functional food, business development and product branding.