Edible jellyfish in EU: new opportunities for local fishery

Fishery, market and consumption of edible jellyfish are spread in Southeast-Asia and currently established in Americas where are still limited by the lack of market demand. Globalization of food markets and the recent upgrade of the European regulation on novel foods (EC 2015/2283) opened new possibilities to the introduction of edible jellyfish in the European's diet. Considering jellyfish as new food resource instead waste, is in line with principles of sustainable food systems. Although the tradition of eating jellyfish is still absent in Europe, our recent studies showed that several Mediterranean jellyfish species have biologic and nutritional features with a large potential as innovative novel food and bioactive compound source. New opportunities for expanding jellyfish uses in EU Countries depend from the development of new processing technologies and internal market demand, which is in turn influenced by the scientific studies on jellyfish raw material, and from its public acceptance and appeal as innovative food. In within GOJELLY EU H2020 project n. 774499 we are exploring different approaches dealing with the microbiological and food safety issues, sensory analysis as well as food design and functional food features of some Mediterranean jellyfish treated by Western-style food-processing as alternative to the traditional Asiatic treatment. Jellyfish collagen and other proteinaceous and non-proteinaceous bioactive compounds are investigated for their putative heath promoting features. Key words: edible jellyfish; novel foods; food sustainability.