Frequently asked questions about Blue Food
Blue Food - Center for the future of seafood arouses curiosity. Here we collect and answer questions from seminars and meetings.
What is the Blue Food vision?
"To support increased production, value creation and consumption of innovative, sustainable and healthy seafood in Sweden through pioneering research, capacity building and co-creation of knowledge with all parts of society."
Which organizations make up Blue Food?
Blue Food consists partly of the so-called consortium:
Firstly, by over 40 external partners, companies, regions and other organizations with activities and interests in the seafood sector. These include both co-financiers and what we call supporting parties. Co-financiers contribute money, goods or services and, not least, working time. The supporting parties are involved in Blue Food without currently contributing with funding.
How is Blue Food funded?
Period 1: 2021-2024
We were one of four centers that were granted funding in the research council Formas' call for Centers for Sustainability and Competitiveness in the Food System 2020. Formas funded the center with a total of SEK 48 million during the period 2021 through 2024. Region Västra Götaland co-financed Blå mat with SEK 4.2 million during the same period. KTH also contributed SEK 4 million during the period.
In addition to the three funding organizations, a large number of consortium members and Blue Mat partners contributed their time, infrastructure and other resources.
Period 2: 2025-2028
As one of three of the original four centers to receive funding from the Swedish Research Council Formas, Blå mat was granted additional funding for a second period. This time, the center received SEK 40 million over a four-year period. This is in addition to co-funding from a number of Blue Food's partners.
What does Blue Food want to achieve?
You can read more about our impact and overall objectives on the 'About Blue Food' page.
What do you research?
We have a broad perspective, and Blå Mat's areas of interest include:
- Wild caught and farmed fish
- Extractive species such as algae, mussels, oysters, sea cucumbers and scallops
- Saltwater, freshwater and brackish water species
- Species found in seas and lakes, and species grown in terrestrial facilities
- Co-cultivation of species and the health and welfare of farmed organisms
- Interaction with agriculture
- Impact of production on the local environment
- Consumer behavior and fears of unfamiliar foods
- Legal, laws and regulations
- AI and digitalization
Do you include animal welfare aspects in your projects, how?
One of our research areas is 'Animal and consumer health and welfare'. This includes creating optimal environments for farmed organisms.
What about residues from seafood production? Can it be used efficiently?
Residual raw materials are a major focus and we will work with different technologies to add value to these valuable raw materials such as protein ingredients, oil and ferments.
Do you address the issue of transportation? Seafood has an expiry date.
Among other things, we address the transportation problem in our overall research area 2: Food safety. We will, among other things, study sustainability technologies for algae and residual raw materials from algae and new sustainability technologies for seafood that meet current consumer demands for clean labels.
How do you involve businesses in your large network? How do they contribute to your center?
The companies have been involved in formulating the questions that the doctoral students are now tackling. Several companies are active in the doctoral students' mentor teams.
How do you plan to interact with other existing FOI projects and programs?
Blue Food builds on several existing or completed research projects and programmes, including Swemarc, Seafarm and Stabilizing seafood side-streams. There are personal links to a research actor in the seafood sector.
We also see good opportunities for collaboration with our sister centers Pan Sweden, Sustainimal, Agrodrive, Force, Knowledge Center for Food Security, Plate and Plenty.