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Updated: Jun 21, 2025

Quantification of Heavy Metals and Other Inorganic Contaminants on the Productivity of Microalgae
Published on: July 10, 2015
Microalgae protein digestibility: How to crack open the black box?
Simon Van De Walle1, Keshia Broucke1, Marie-Christin Baune2
1Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Melle, Belgium.
Abstract:
Microalgae are booming as a sustainable protein source for human nutrition and animal feed. Nevertheless, certain strains were reported to have robust cell walls limiting protein digestibility. There are several disruption approaches to break down the cell integrity and increase digestive enzyme accessibility. This review's intent is to discuss the digestibility of microalgae proteins in intact cells and after their disruption. In intact single cells, the extent of protein digestibility is chiefly related to cell wall structural properties (differing among strains) as well as digestion method and when added to food or feed protein digestibility changes depending on the matrix's composition. The degree of effectiveness of the disruption method varies among studies, and it is complicated to compare them due to variabilities in digestibility models, strains, disruption method/conditions and their consequent impact on the microalgae cell structure. More exhaustive studies are still required to fill knowledge gaps on the structure of microalgal cell walls and to find efficient and cost-effective disruption technologies to increase proteins availability without hindering their quality.
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