ELLSWORTH AMERICAN • June 16, 2021
If you ask the federal Food and Drug Administration, seaweed is neither a vegetable nor seafood, which leaves it in a bit of a regulatory void. Carrie Byron, an associate professor at the University of New England’s School of Marine and Environmental Programs, said, “Each of those classifications have different safety measures and rules and regulations around them and seaweed is just not well captured in their current system.” Byron and her colleague Kristin Burkholder, an associate professor at UNE’s School of Biological Sciences, have embarked on a study looking at the food safety aspects of seaweed to address that gap in regulations.