Comparison of nutritive chemistry of a range of temperate seaweeds

Eleven species of macroalgae (including four species from commercially important genera) were analysed for moisture, ash, fat, protein, neutral detergent fibre, crude fibre, calorific value, and calcium content. At the extremes of the nutritional values, Corallina officinalis had low calorific value (2.7 ± 0.3 MJ kg−1), high ash content (77.8 ± 0.2% dw), low protein (6.9 ± 0.1% dw) and high calcium content (182 ppm); whereas the exploited Porphyra sp. had high calorific value (18.3 ± 1.8 MJ kg−1), low ash content (9.3 ± 0.2% dw), high protein (44.0 ± 1.2% dw) and low calcium content (19.9 ppm). The other species considered had intermediate values, but tended to be more similar to Porphyra than to Corallina. When possible our data were also compared with those of other workers; they were found to be broadly similar.