Daily bread revamp: Novel tech for seaweed-infused bakery products receives patent approval

09 Aug 2023 --- Sea & Flour has received patent approval for its processing methods and systems for cold washing, processing and granulating seaweed for baking applications. The bio-baking technology makes high-protein, low-sodium bread with seaweed as a primary ingredient with the company claiming it is one of the first to incorporate seaweed into commercialized bread.

The latest innovation can help seaweed be successfully incorporated into “high volume baking” while delivering the “exceptional flavor” and the nutritional benefits that come “from the sea.”

“We believe seaweed belongs in every loaf of bread,” Arlin Wasserman, CEO and co-founder of Sea & Flour, tells Food Ingredients First. He states that seaweed’s health, sustainability and culinary benefits are “substantial.”

“Our technology innovation is the biggest thing since sliced bread,” he underscores.

“Being awarded this patent is recognition of the uniqueness of our approach and the methods we developed and perfected over several years.”

Penelope Wasserman, co-founder and president of Sea & Flour, talks about the inspiration behind the idea, “We’ve learned from extensive market research that a significant share of American consumers now want to find ways to eat seaweed more often, so we set out to identify a way to make that easy to do by incorporating it into foods that people already eat daily.” Sea & Flour claims its products to be “carb-positive and carbon-negative.” 

Enabling a planet-positive change
The food industry is making significant efforts to contribute to sustainability by making its products eco-friendly.

Developing seaweed farming is pegged as a sustainable alternative to land-based agriculture, according to a new study.

“Companies need to reduce their carbon footprint,” asserts Arlin. “Increasing seaweed cultivation can help and may be more dependable than planting trees now that we’ve entered a period of higher global temperatures and more forest fires,” he states.

“Eating more seaweed can be a planet-positive change for companies and consumers.”

Sea & Flour claims its products to be “carb-positive and carbon-negative.” They help “address climate change” and expand regenerative coastal agriculture and the “blue economy” while improving the nutritional value of bread.

Nutrition and consistency amid hurdles
The company flags some of the challenges associated with formulating bakery products with seaweed, maintaining nutrition and preventing “greening” being among them.

The “conventional approaches” to processing seaweed “degraded its nutritional benefits” and created culinary outcomes that made incorporating seaweed in many mainstream food products challenging. 

“Our biggest challenge was that the seaweed we found on the market didn’t retain all the nutritional benefits, nor did it work in conventional food manufacturing or complement the flavors ofThe developed bread “tastes just like regular, everyday bread.” existing bakery products,” shares Arlin. 

“It also caused a lot of manufacturing headaches or literally “gumming up the works” or turning bread green or imparting off-odors.”

The “change in flavors and textures” and understanding the impact of processing after the harvest were some of the other hurdles the company faced.

The company had to “reinvent” the entire process of handling seaweed to ensure “consistency” from growers and suppliers. It also trained them on the process to ensure that they repeatedly deliver ingredients with the “same specifications.”

“This is no easy task when you consider that seaweed grows ‘in the wild’ with our oceans rapidly warming,” he highlights.

Furthermore, the rapidly changing growing techniques and the fact that seaweed is only harvested a couple of times a year were other hurdles. “Our ability to perfect our methods had to occur during specific windows of time,” he explains.

The patented process now creates a set of ingredients that “contributes to the flavor” of other foods emphasizing different culinary attributes than traditional processing, “retains many more nutrients” and can perform well in high-volume bakery and food manufacturing.

Food as medicinePeople want to “take greater control of their health” and use food as medicine.
With more and more consumers ditching artificial ingredients, Arlin stresses that people want to “take greater control of their health” and use food as medicine, with the COVID-19 pandemic intensifying this desire. 

“The food industry needs to reduce sodium content in food and our ingredients help do just that.” 

He states that the developed bread “tastes just like regular, everyday bread” but has about 2 grams of salt per loaf instead of 15 grams while still not tasting like a “low sodium” product that compromises on flavor.

“Our technology lets more companies use seaweed to improve health and nutritional benefits.” 

“Increasing seaweed can empower us to address two of the most common chronic diseases: hypertension and osteoporosis,” he underlines.

Food Ingredients First recently covered a report by the WHO that urges countries to adopt mandatory salt reduction strategies, pointing to the seriousness of salt’s health implications.

Testing waters in the bakery arena
“The bakery industry is facing a few significant challenges,” notes Arlin.Addressing sustainability and climate change, like every other industry, is also challenging.

People need a “reason to eat bread again” and not just think of it as “empty calories.”

Addressing sustainability and climate change, like every other industry, is also challenging.

“Incorporating seaweed into bread and baked goods achieves all of these,” he underscores.

Looking forward to the industry’s adoption of the innovation, he tells us, “We see the industry both using our ingredients and our technology to replace a large share of salt and nutrient supplementation in existing products that preserves the familiar flavors and textures of great bread, rolls, pizza crusts and more.”

“We also see it creating a set of decidedly delicious seaweed-forward products for adventurous eaters.”.

US consumers can buy the new range of baked goods from select grocery stores during the second half of this year.

By Insha Naureen

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