Present and future prospects of seaweeds in developing functional foods.

There has been a combined effort among scientists to explore and utilize varying food sources to develop functional foods to cater the ever-increasing demand from the consumers, who seek health-promoting roles of dietary compounds. Considering the diversity of biochemicals in seaweeds that are capable of exerting bioactivities, a growing trend is developing across globe to employ seaweeds in functional food development. Proteins, peptides, amino acids, polysaccharides, phenolics, lipids, vitamins, and minerals in seaweeds and their functional properties provide insights into the success of potential functional food products that can be developed utilizing seaweeds. However, several factors need to be taken into consideration in designing seaweed-based functional foods to obtain the market success. This chapter elaborates on the prospects of seaweeds in developing seaweed-based functional food products.