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<\/a>\n\t<\/p>\n\n\t\tCompanies are developing algae-based foods, including algae-based pizza crust, brownie mix and even coffee creamer.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n
\n\tAs concerns over the health and environmental impacts of eating meat have grown, more Americans are consuming fake meat\u2013also called plant-based meat alternatives. The vegetarian market is a $2.8 billion-a-year industry, including sales of wheat, rice soy, nuts, spices, beans, vegetables and dairy products. \n\tBut are Americans really ready to start eating algae? That\u2019s what a group of entrepreneurs are banking on, developing algae-based oils to replace olive oil and algae-based pizza crust, brownie mix and even coffee creamer. They\u2019re also developing algae-based lipid powders and flours that food producers can use instead of eggs.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe claim is that a type of algae \u2014 a cousin of that green slime on your local pond \u2014 is a superfood, loaded with protein and nutrients and when made into an oil, has less saturated fats than olive or canola oil.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA San Francisco-based renewable fuel company, Solazyme is marketing its algae products, which have been okayed by the FDA, under two names. AlgaVia products include algae-based lipid powders and flours that food producers can use instead of eggs and oils. They\u2019re free of known allergens and gluten free, according to Solazyme. \u201cThe lipid powder can halve the fat of an ice cream, and you wouldn\u2019t know it, or can remove eggs from a challah bread,\u201d says Brooks. \u201cThe size of the market for either silently or proactively positioning, is huge. We\u2019re hoping to transform nutrition without sacrificing taste, feel or flavor.\u201c\n<\/p>\n \n\tSimilarly, France\u2019s Roquette, an even bigger player in the eatable algae market, is developing a line of algae-based foods. \u201cAlgal flours seem like they have a lot of promise for the vegan market, and maybe the non-allergenic market,\u201d says Michael Ritzenthaler, vice president and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray.\n<\/p>\n \n\tA handful of early adopters are incorporating Solazyme\u2019s ingredients into their products such as Enjoy Life Brownie Mix, Pizza Crust mix and other baking mixes, Rising Hearts Vegan Brioche, Califia Farms coffee creamers, a dairy-free Mac and Cheese, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate. \u201cWe have projects with all leading food and beverage manufacturers. Whether that be evaluation of ingredients, or development of consumer testing of products that will be on the market soon,\u201d says Brooks.\n<\/p>\n \n\tTotal revenue of Solazyme was $60.4 million in 2014; the company did not disclose the specific sales of their algae-based food products. \u201cTheir commercial sales of food products are pretty much nonexistent at this moment,\u201d says Ritzenthaler, the analyst.\n<\/p>\n \n\tThe other product, launched September 30th, is a cooking oil called Thrive. According to Solazyme, it\u2019s healthier than canola and olive oil, with high monounsaturated fat and less saturated fats. Algae oil has previously been used in meal replacement drinks made by Soylent.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAlgae is pretty amazing. It\u2019s unbelievably sustainable, actually it\u2019s more like renewable, since they make algal oil using microbes. It doesn\u2019t tax our land,\u201d says food development expert Barb Stuckey, Chief Innovation Officer at Mattson, a Silicon Valley-based food development firm that has formulated algae-based milks and baked goods. \u201cAnd the algal ingredients don\u2019t have any of the flavor \u2018baggage\u2019 you\u2019d expect.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \n\tAn \u201calgae boom\u201d isn\u2019t as far-fetched as you might think. Spiralina, a type of algae, has been a regular at juice bars and in supplements for years, and over 90% of infant formulas use algae oil as the source of their healthy fats. The type of algae Solazyme uses is called Chlorella<\/span>, and because it\u2019s grown in sealed microbrewery-style tanks, it doesn\u2019t turn green (recall from 4th<\/span> grade science: plants make green chlorophyll when exposed to sunlight).\n<\/p>\n \n\tBut chlorella is packed with nutrients. \u201cThere\u2019s nowhere else you can find healthy triglyceride oils, plus protein and micro nutrients,\u201d says Mark Brooks, SVP of Solazyme, more known for its plant based fuels. According to the Solazyme\u2019s website for its food product, called AlgaVia, algae contains 63% protein, 19% carbohydrates and 11% lipids, along with a number of nutrients.\n<\/p>\n \n\tSoy was the first plant based product to transform how vegetarians eat, but it got some bad press with concerns about soy\u2019s potential estrogen-mimicking qualities and the fact that almost all soy is genetically modified (GMO), which doesn\u2019t sit well with some people. By the way, concerns about soy\u2019s estrogenic effects have been refuted. \u201cAlgae is positioned to take advantage of soy at this moment in time,\u201d says Stuckey.\n<\/p>\n \n\tFood manufacturers are looking for protein alternatives that don\u2019t change the texture or flavor of their products, and that are sustainable. Because algae has a tough cell wall, it doesn\u2019t interact with other ingredients, so unlike other proteins that can make a food soft or thicker or gritty, it has little textural effect, Brooks says.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThere are all these foods our kids eat, like goldfish, and I\u2019d like for them to be as nutritious as possible,\u201d says Brooks. \u201cThey could have fiber and protein in them.\u201d The problem, says Ritzenthaler, is the cost. \u201cIt\u2019s much cheaper to make ice cream from milk than algae at this point,\u201d he says.\n<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think the big issue that the algae companies are going to face is marketing. How do you convince consumers that algae is going to taste good? To most consumers, it\u2019s pond scum. It\u2019s green; it\u2019s scary,\u201d says Stuckey. But Brooks says Solazyme\u2019s focus groups have offered a different view. \u201cPeople are generally neutral or positive, inclined to give it a try,\u201d says Brooks.\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Companies are developing algae-based foods, including algae-based pizza crust, brownie mix and even coffee creamer. As concerns over the health and environmental impacts of eating meat have grown, mor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-summary-report"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leadingtec.cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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