(Use of English: pt 2 open cloze) write your answers in the boxes
In China, Japan and Korea, seaweed has for centuries formed part of the daily diet, in Japanese meals, 1. than 20 species are used but, according to new research, 2. the West accepting sushi, its consumption of seaweed is "minimal". Prof. Ole Mouritsen (University of Southern Denmark) suggests that it is time to welcome seaweed 3. an important food. read on
UK waters hold about 630 species, but only around 35 have been used in cooking, so there is plenty of potential, agrees trained chef Fergus Drennan. "We have a coastline that's almost as big as the coastline of Japan, 4. is the greatest seaweed-eating culture in the world… we've got as many varieties but we just don't use it."
The Cleggan Seaweed Company in Galway sold seaweed in the high-end store Harvey Nichols until the company could no longer 5. up with demand. But Cleggan Seaweed's Shane Forsythe says in Ireland seaweed is associated 6. poverty, making it a hard product to sell.
"The problem is actually getting people to accept and buy the stuff," he says. One way is to combine it in "normal" foods, says Dr Craig Rose, executive director of the Seaweed Health Foundation. "It's very much about putting it into existing foods that people are 7. to."
Supplying enough edible seaweed is 8. issue. Most seaweed eaten in the UK is imported from Asia, says Dr Adam Hughes, a lecturer in aquaculture. "It's weather dependent, it's seasonal, and businesses have problems meeting their demand from wild supply at the moment." One option is to farm seaweed. As well as 9. collected by hand, seaweed can be grown on ropes or gathered by mechanical harvesters.
On the Galway coast, Forsythe's firm picks seaweed off the rocks at 10. tide. The dark seaweeds are dried out, and left in the sun until it turns a creamy-white colour. "At the moment sea spaghetti is nice and young and it's tender," he says.
It's grown 11. speciality products including food and cosmetics, as well as "low value" products such as animal feed. However, Hughes believes the edible seaweed business in the UK will never reach the same heights as in Asia, where in countries such as Indonesia, it has been farmed close to shore for years.
How much seaweed ends 12. on our plates, it seems, will be a matter of taste.
bbc
picky eaters
