Companies Looks to Seaweed as Salt Replacement

An Irish company based in Cork is studying ways to make seaweed an alternative to salt of monosodium glutamate for food products.

CyberColloids is researching seaweed in the hope it can find more uses for the super food.

Asian populations use seaweed in 20% of their diet and now it seems three condiment producers could also be interested in using it for the Western market.

The company has had to find ways to incorporate seaweed into a Western diet, according to Cybercolloids’ head researcher Dr Sarah Hotchkiss, and has been working with the National Development Plan Sea Change Strategy to find ways of cultivating and producing the weed.

“We wanted to develop processing techniques for seaweed that were more in line with those found in the kitchen than those found in large-scale industrial processes,” Hotchkiss said.

The company has also been working to identify the science behind flavour development and the enhancement of seaweed.

“To do this, we had to enlist the services of an international flavour house to develop a unique “flavour language” for edible seaweeds and to train us in the use of this new flavour language,” Hotchkiss said.