Spirulina in the 21st century: Five reasons for success in Europe

The commercialised Spirulina (scientific name, Limnospira spp.), a filamentous multicellular blue-green cyanobacterium, is increasingly cultivated and utilised worldwide, including in Europe, as food and feed, due to its high nutritional value and health benefits. Its global usage has surged nearly tenfold over the past two decades, with annual production levels reaching around 30,000 tonnes of biomass according to FAO. The growing popularity of Spirulina stems from a rising demand but also from general acceptance as a protein alternative and a healthier and more sustainable source of food, thereby underlining the nutritional limitations and environmental impacts of conventional agricultural systems. Recognised as a healthy and safe food product, Spirulina is listed in the EU Food Catalog and, since 2017, has been officially categorised under the existing "Marine Algae" EU category and hence incorporated into the RCE 889/2008 EU regulation of organic products. The evolution of Spirulina research topics, on the number of large-scale cultivation sites and use of safe industrial processing technologies have brought Spirulina biomass to a global international scale providing safe products now able to be marketed under official EU regulation. Looking ahead, Spirulina's application has extended beyond the sole nutritional supplement benefit to become an ingredient in mainstream foods and a source of bioactive molecules. This expansion is propelled by technological advancements, exemplified by innovations such as strain selection to better adapt to local growth conditions and enhance nutritional value, improved cultivation technologies coupled with cost-effective production methods, and product developments aimed at expanding Spirulina markets in the 21st Century.