Originally published February 26 2006
NoriTech to introduce land-grown seaweed to supplements market
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
NoriTech has developed a method for growing nori, or seaweed, on land, which will allow the company to introduce nori into the nutraceutical and supplements industry.
Founded in 2000, NoriTech developed a way to grow nori on land, using sea water, in a totally controlled environment.
Although sea-grown nori is a $2 billion a year industry but because its nutrient content cannot be standardised this is of little use for supplements or nutraceuticals.
Rather, CEO Alex Harel explained to NutraIngredients.com, small amounts of natural nutritional substances are put into the water to make, for instance, nori with a higher concentration of protein.
NoriTech has developed its own dietary supplement and nutraceutical products for private label, and also plans to supply the seaweed as a bioactive powder to other supplement and food makers.
It has also formed a partnership with Ocean Nutrition Canada, the company best known for its Meg-3 fish oil brand and which has considerable knowledge and expertise in supplements and functional foods.
The two companies first teamed up three years ago, under the auspices of the Canada-Israel Industrial Research and Development Foundation.
Commercialisation of the products is set to get underway later this year, and growing facilities are being established in the US and Canada.
"Supplements and nutraceuticals are quite a significant market," said Harel, "especially as nori is believed to be the best algae containing all the vitamins, minerals and proteins needed for human health."
Based on the popularity of other marine and algae bioactives such as astaxanthin, Harel is expecting demand for quite a big volume of nori.
It uses between 70 and 80 percent of the world's nori.
But Israel is establishing a formidable reputation for developing innovative marine and algae-based technologies.
Harel said that this is thanks to the activities of the Israeli Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute.
In fact, Nortitech sprung up out of research conducted at the institute by founder and chief technological officer Israel Levy.
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