Sensory evaluation of seaweed – A scoping review and systematic assessment of sensory studies

Review article, 2025

Introduction: Seaweed, i.e. macroalgae, are nutritious marine seafood encompassing benefits from a sustainability perspective. In order to utilize seaweed as food, their sensory traits must be explored. The aim of this scoping review was to map and characterize sensory studies of seaweed and food products containing seaweed with regards to their sensory findings and methodological quality.
Methods: Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed were searched, using the terms “sensory”, “descriptive analysis”, “QDA”, “descriptive evaluation”, “seaweed”, “algae” and “macroalgae”, which generated 1666 records. After removing duplicates, 1,004 unique records remained for screening of title/abstract. Application of eligibility criteria resulted in 91 final articles. Two authors extracted data from the articles. The quality of sensory methodologies were assessed separately.
Results: Seventeen articles were categorized as analytical and 74 articles as hedonic. The evaluated seaweed was mostly dried. Seventy articles used vehicles, e.g. baked goods and processed meat products with 1-5 % dry weight being the most common inclusion levels of seaweed. Nutritional improvement was generally the purpose of adding seaweed to food products. Post-harvest treatments (e.g. drying or cooking) affected the sensory quality of the samples. Quality scores for sensory methodologies varied.
Conclusion: Increasing seaweed content in food products was associated with lower liking in consumer tests. Other post-harvest treatments than drying, such as blanching before further processing for stabilization purposes, should be explored, in order to allow higher inclusion levels than 1-5 % and thus, attain nutritional benefits by increasing the consumption of seaweed. 20 % of the studies were considered fully reproducible.