Beyond the blue: Interest in spirulina shifts to new applications

Israeli startup Gavan desires to discover the plant kingdom to search out new, sustainable and wholesome elements, and a use for each a part of a nutritionally dense substance. The primary ingredient it labored with was the microalgae spirulina, and for a really distinct cause.

“We may see the separation and the extraction with our eyes as a result of the proteins are blue,” Gavan co-founder and CEO Itai Cohen stated.

The microalgae’s standout blue pigment not solely helped Gavan work out find out how to absolutely separate the proteins in spirulina, nevertheless it additionally drove the corporate’s very first product launch: a secure pure blue coloring for each cold and hot drinks. Gavan is in contact with a number of producers who’re testing the coloring for potential use in merchandise. Cohen stated he hopes the corporate can start commercial-scale manufacturing within the first quarter of 2023.

As customers have gotten extra fascinated by sustainability, superfoods and pure food and drinks, spirulina is getting extra widespread as an ingredient. A number of corporations which are new and previous are devoting vital analysis and R&D to the microalgae, hoping to spice up its profile as a sought-after ingredient.

Leonard Lerer, founder and chief scientific officer of Again of the Yards Algae Sciences, calls the corporate an industrial meals tech operation. Based in 2018, Again of the Yards is targeted on researching methods to make use of spirulina as an ingredient in meals and drinks. Lerer has beforehand stated the whole reason he started Back of the Yards Algae Sciences was to make spirulina-based pure blue meals coloring. However that is not its sole purpose, he famous. In spite of everything, there’s far more to spirulina than its colour — and people who work with the microalgae say that its dietary and sustainability elements are simply as fascinating.

And with synthetic colours so cheap and entrenched, Lerer stated there’s a distinct problem to make a pure blue colour from spirulina that beats them on value.

“The one means we will do that’s if we really flip the entire story round, and the pure colorants grow to be a byproduct of alt-protein manufacturing,” Lerer stated. “And you’ll’t do this till you could have an alt protein which you will get into meals.”

Again of the Yards, Gavan and different corporations are all working to show the story round and display spirulina is extra than simply the supply of a pure blue colour. The microalgae, they are saying, is the wellness-targeted ingredient that buyers are on the lookout for now.

What’s spirulina?

The blue-green microalgae referred to as spirulina is nearly ubiquitous all through the world. It grows in quite a lot of locations naturally, thriving on daylight and carbon dioxide, and is used as a meals supply across the globe.

Whereas most algae species have dietary advantages, spirulina has top-of-the-line well being profiles. It is filled with protein — Gavan’s Cohen stated that about 75% of the algae’s mass is made up of the nutrient. It additionally accommodates a number of nutritional vitamins and minerals, and has been linked to immunity boosts, allergy aid and coronary heart well being. Its profile makes it an in-demand ingredient amongst each producers and customers.

“It is a very well-known antioxidant, very well-known for being a really wholesome algae,” Cohen stated. “They’re at all times on the lookout for that, and while you put spirulina in your ingredient listing, it at all times comes as a constructive to the tip buyer.”

No matter its well being profile and the relative ease of manufacturing it, Lerer stated nobody is switching to a spirulina food regimen.

“Algae particularly tastes unhealthy, proper?” Lerer stated. “So it isn’t that somebody can say, ‘Hey, I’ll make a burger with algae,’ as a result of you’ll be able to’t. It simply tastes horrible. It is extraordinarily wholesome. It has all of the micronutrients you want. It is higher than meat.”

That is the place most of the spirulina-focused startups slot in. Jonas Güenther, co-founder of We Are The New Farmers, observed that the first type of spirulina in america — a dried powder, which hadn’t seen innovation for many years — had an off-putting bitter style and fishy odor. Nonetheless, he observed that individuals in different nations did not dry the algae out earlier than consuming it. In Indonesia and Africa, Güenther stated, spirulina is often consumed recent. And with additional examine, he realized that spray drying the ingredient, as is often carried out within the U.S., not solely breaks down a few of its vitamins, but in addition leaves it with an undesirable style and odor.

We Are The New Farmers grows recent spirulina in Brooklyn, New York, promoting it to customers as frozen cubes to make use of in their very own recipes. Güenther stated on this kind, it’s utterly totally different than the powdery complement many customers are used to.

“It appears like hummus, darkish inexperienced hummus,” Güenther stated. “It has a gentle taste. I like to match it to mineral water. It has a excessive mineral content material. You’ve some form of a salty, mineral-y taste, nevertheless it’s fairly impartial. And since it is a paste, it truly is extra of an ingredient that you should use within the kitchen.”

Ful of diet

Utilizing recent spirulina is not the one approach to decrease its bitterness. Corporations together with Netherlands-based Ful Meals have discovered methods to course of the algae to attenuate the style whereas preserving the vitamins.

Ful makes brilliant blue, wholesome sodas with spirulina as their hero ingredient. The corporate processes the spirulina in order that its naturally excessive dietary ranges can be found to the human physique, which isn’t at all times the case in its pure kind, co-founder Cristina Prat stated. The antioxidants in spirulina additionally usually are not at all times secure, so the corporate’s processes protect the vitamins to be obtainable at any temperature or pH degree. And the unappetizing salty and bitter style can also be processed away, forsaking one thing that’s far more nice.

After a trial launch within the Netherlands, the model is embarking on a bigger European rollout this month. It plans a U.S. debut later this 12 months.

Ful Meals was began by Prat, Julia Streuli and Sara Guaglio. They met at INSEAD enterprise college, the place they labored collectively on a challenge researching methods companies may attain web zero emissions. Streuli stated they had been fascinated by improvements within the meals sector and different proteins, and had been amazed at the entire advantages — each for human well being and sustainability — in microalgae.

They regarded into why individuals didn’t devour spirulina very a lot. The algae’s bitter style profile was the largest stumbling block to acceptance, Streuli stated, however the lack of stability for the blue colour and points with the algae’s solubility additionally had been massive causes it hadn’t been used extra typically. There additionally had been subsequent to no advertising and marketing for the ingredient, which Streuli stated was moderately essential. In spite of everything, many customers in the present day are on the lookout for a sustainable, pure and nutritious ingredient like spirulina.  

“The extra we discovered, the extra we turned satisfied that there was an unbelievable triple backside line alternative — that means alternative to learn individuals’s well being, the well being of the planet, and do an enormous market alternative,” Streuli stated.

The three founders labored on a marketing strategy as a part of their MBA research and entered INSEAD’s enterprise competitors, which they gained. Streuli stated the win gave them the funds they wanted to give up their post-graduate company jobs and focus on Ful full time. They established the enterprise within the Netherlands in order that they might be near the famend meals science program at Wageningen College, and they’re collaborating with college within the Meals High quality and Design group on extracting supplies for his or her spirulina sodas. 

About 20% of every can of Ful’s White Peach, Lime & Mint and Lemon & Ginger sodas are made with the corporate’s trademark extracted spirulina ingredient, which is between 2% and 5% spirulina biomass, Prat stated.

Prat stated Ful targeted on spirulina as a result of the microalgae had been effectively researched and was broadly authorized by nationwide meals security regulatory authorities to be used as an ingredient. It’s additionally simple to develop. Spirulina can really soak up twice its weight in carbon dioxide, Streuli stated, so Ful designed its rising course of to make use of a number of the carbon dioxide that comes from the economic waste stream. However Prat stated their spirulina is grown in a totally closed system, which ensures high-quality elements and excessive yields.

Ful targets younger, city-dwelling, energetic, acutely aware customers who’re fascinated by well being and sustainability however not essentially keen to alter their life, stated Streuli.

To date, Streuli stated customers have been most within the brilliant blue colour, which makes the soda very Instagrammable. However once they style it, she stated, the overriding response is that it’s a really refreshing beverage. The well being and sustainability elements are essential, however usually are not customers’ prime priorities.

“It was additionally a part of our thesis early on that if we’ll have a big effect, we now have to sort out an enormous market, and we now have to attraction to a variety of customers in that market, which implies not compromising on style,” Streuli stated.

Guaglio stated that they’re concentrating on a full launch of the soda now, however Ful has larger plans to increase past the beverage. A number of merchandise are within the pipeline now, she stated, and the corporate can also be hoping to trademark its spirulina ingredient so it may be obtainable to others who wish to use it.

“Scaling future-proof diet is our North Star,” Streuli added.

Colour and extra

Within the case of Gavan, spirulina’s vibrant pure blue made it simpler for the startup to search out proof of idea. However after eradicating the colour, Cohen stated Gavan may also create an umami-rich flavoring enhancement ingredient out of spirulina. The biomass that’s left could make a brown colorant to take the place of caramel colours.

Gavan has additionally provide you with a approach to course of the algae ingredient to take away the bitter style, Cohen stated.

The corporate’s colour represents a breakthrough in spirulina-derived blues. In its pure state, the microalgae’s blue has been troublesome to take care of in varied purposes of meals and beverage, with variations in temperature and pH proving problematic for the colour. Gavan’s know-how is ready to extract the proteins that make up the blue colorant whereas preserving their dimensions, Cohen stated. The corporate then makes use of a proprietary therapy that makes the proteins resist each excessive temperatures and low pH, making it a great colorant for any beverage software.

“The primary response to somebody who receives the colour is, ‘Wow. It is distinctive. It doesn’t exist in the present day,’ ” Cohen stated. “And it opens their minds to the applying, opens their hearts about changing a variety of the artificial blues which are getting used in the present day out there.”

Due to its present small scale, Gavan is first concentrating on commercializing the blue and caramel colours from spirulina. Cohen stated potential purchasers are extra excited in regards to the colours than the flavour ingredient.

Nonetheless, Gavan’s colorants aren’t simply colours. Cohen stated that each one three of the corporate’s spirulina merchandise — the blue colour, the umami taste and the caramel colour — have excessive ranges of nutritious proteins. The umami taste has a excessive quantity of antioxidants as effectively, he stated.  

Again of the Yards can also be extra targeted on diet, although the company’s LinkedIn page is stuffed with pictures of blue confections, baked items and drinks. Lerer stated making nutritious, fascinating and cheap elements from spirulina will assist the corporate really make a distinction.

One space of focus for Again of the Yards is getting extra spirulina into plant-based meat. It has patented a spirulina-derived heme ingredient, which Lerer stated is derived from the algae so as to add depth and umami to plant-based meat. He stated it’s not in regards to the “bloody” style, which is a trademark of different plant-derived heme elements. Again of the Yards’ algae heme is non-GMO and never made by fermentation, Lerer stated.

Again of the Yards has additionally labored to take away the bitterness from spirulina, and it’s paying dividends. Lerer stated the corporate is slowly ratcheting up the proportion of spirulina that it could actually put in a plant-based burger — which might decrease ingredient prices and enhance dietary values. Lerer stated he believes the corporate will be capable to launch a formulation for a plant-based burger that’s 25% spirulina by this fall, and the corporate is “fairly shut” with extra that comes from revolutionary know-how. 

However do customers wish to eat a spirulina burger, even when it would not style unhealthy? Or anything made with the microalgae? We Are The New Farmers’ Güenther stated that he’s optimistic.

“I at all times prefer to say 100 years in the past nobody wished to eat shrimp, and in the present day shrimp is the most well-liked seafood,” he stated. “What we eat is altering consistently, and microalgae is one thing that’s not like a totally new, utterly outlandish factor that persons are not aware of. …There is a lengthy cultural historical past of such a meals and it is simply now one thing that we rediscover.”