As Sargassum Floods Florida Beaches, Researchers Uncover New Use As Food-Grade Ingredient

New findings published in Food Hydrocolloids show that sargassum can serve as a promising source of alginate, a widely used food additive. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers from Florida State University and Florida Atlantic University.

Sargassum, a brown algae that forms massive blooms in the Atlantic Ocean, routinely washes onto South Florida beaches, where it produces strong odors, disrupts ecosystems and drives costly cleanup efforts.

Rather than focusing solely on removal, the researchers are investigating how to extract useful compounds from the seaweed and repurpose it for food and industrial applications.

“The usual approach has been, ‘How do we get rid of it?’ We wanted to ask a different question: ‘Can we use it for something valuable?'” said Imran Ahmad, a food science and technology research professor in FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management and co-author of the study.