Microalgae are considered promising functional food ingredients due to their balanced composition, containing multiple nutritional and health-beneficial components. However, their functionality in food products is not limited to health aspects, since microalgae can also play a structuring role in food, for instance as a texturizing ingredient. Photoautotrophic microalgae are actually rich in structural biopolymers such as proteins, storage polysaccharides, and cell wall related polysaccharides, and their presence might possibly alter the rheological properties of the enriched food product. A first approach to benefit from these structural biopolymers consists of isolating the cell wall related polysaccharides for use as food hydrocolloids. The potential of extracted cell wall polysaccharides as food hydrocolloids has only been shown for a few microalgae species, mainly due to an enormous diversity in molecular structure and composition. Nevertheless, with intrinsic viscosities comparable or higher than those of commercial thickening agents, extracellular polysaccharides of red microalgae and cyanobacteria could be a promising source of novel food hydrocolloids. A more sustainable approach would be to incorporate the whole microalgal biomass into food products, to combine health benefits with potential structuring benefits, i.e. providing desired rheological properties of the enriched food product. If microalgal biomass would act as a thickening agent, this would actually reduce the need for additional texturizing ingredients. Even though only limitedly studied so far, food processing operations have been proven successful in establishing desired microstructural and rheological properties. In fact, the use of cell disruption techniques allows the release of intracellular compounds, which become available to create strong particle aggregates resulting in an improved viscosity and network structure. Food processing operations might not only be favorable in terms of rheological properties, but also for enhancing the bioaccessibility of several bioactive compounds. However, this research area is only very scarcely explored, and there is a demand for more standardized research studies to draw conclusions on the effect of processing on the nutritional quality of food products enriched with microalgae. Even though considered as promising food ingredients, some major scientific challenges have been pointed out throughout this review paper for the successful design of microalgal based food products.

微藻由于其均衡的组成而被认为是很有前途的功能性食品成分，其中包含多种营养和有益健康的成分。但是，它们在食品中的功能不限于健康方面，因为微藻类还可以在食品中起结构作用，例如作为构造成分。光合自养微藻实际上富含结构性生物聚合物，例如蛋白质，贮藏多糖和与细胞壁有关的多糖，它们的存在可能会改变浓缩食品的流变特性。受益于这些结构生物聚合物的第一种方法是分离与细胞壁有关的多糖，用作食品水解胶体。提取的细胞壁多糖作为食物水胶体的潜力仅在少数微藻物种中得到了证明，这主要是由于分子结构和组成的巨大差异。然而，由于固有粘度与商业增稠剂相当或更高，因此红色微藻和蓝细菌的胞外多糖可能是新型食品水解胶体的有前途的来源。更具可持续性的方法是将整个微藻生物质纳入食品中，以将健康益处与潜在的结构益处结合起来，即提供所需的丰富食品流变特性。如果微藻生物质充当增稠剂，则实际上将减少对其他纹理化成分的需求。即使到目前为止只进行了有限的研究，事实证明，食品加工操作可成功建立所需的微观结构和流变性能。实际上，细胞分裂技术的使用允许释放细胞内化合物，该化合物可用于产生牢固的颗粒聚集体，从而改善粘度和网络结构。食品加工操作不仅在流变特性方面可能是有利的，而且对于增强几种生物活性化合物的生物可及性也可能是有利的。然而，仅很少探索该研究领域，并且需要更标准化的研究以得出关于加工对富含微藻类食品的营养品质的影响的结论。即使被认为是有前途的食品原料，