Danish scientists are backing jellyfish, not potatoes, as the future main ingredient of crisps

Scientists in Denmark have successfully turned jellyfish meat into flavoured crisps.

Jellyfish has long been a staple in Asian countries such as Japan, but Western customers have been less than enthused. Over just several days, the Danish team were able to convert the slimy, salty texture of the jellyfish into crunchy crisps.

By using two-photon microscopes, the scientists were able to study the change in filaments from elastic to hard. Jellyfish populations are even expected to rise due to increasing sea temperatures from global warming, according to futurism.com.

Postdoctoral fellow at University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Mathis P. Clausen, said he became fascinated with jellyfish after biting in and discovering they had some crunch. "Tasting jellyfish myself, I wanted to understand the transformation from a soft gel to this crunchy thing you can eat," Clausen said.

The team's findings were presented in California over the past four days (17-21 February) at the 62nd Biophysical Society Annual Meeting.

"Using ethanol, we have created jellyfish chips that have a crispy texture and could be of potential gastronomic interest," Clausen said. "As this is pioneering work, I think using tools available to us to tackle the science of good eating can open peoples' eyes for a completely new scientific field."

Jellyfish crisps would be significantly healthier than using a potato, the research team believes. Jellyfish are a rich source of magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, iron and vitamin B12.

Making jellyfish a more mainstream food source would likely ease pressure on traditional fish as food sources. Global over-fishing has decimated other species and the switch to Jellyfish would give them time to repopulate.