Nutrients deal poised to speed up arrival of 'spirulina salmon’
Microalgae grower will use carbon dioxide from fertiliser maker to improve production of key ingredient for fish alternative
Development of a smoked salmon analogue made from microalgae will be accelerated by a collaboration between two Israeli companies.
SimpliiGood, which grows and uses spirulina to make a variety of food products, will use carbon dioxide produced by international fertiliser manufacturer Haifa Group as part of the collaboration.
Spirulina consumes CO₂ as it grows, and the companies plan side-by-side production plants in the Negev Desert to pass carbon dioxide from the Haifa Group plant to the SimpliiGood spirulina production facility. This process, which will transform CO₂ pound-for-pound into spirulina, will both reduce waste and enable sustainable carbon fixation, said Simpliigood, which is owned by by AlgaeCore Technologies Ltd.
'Competitive advantage'
Haifa Group, which has been looking for the right opportunity to enter the microalgae market, will also optimise its spirulina nutrient mixes for commercial spirulina cultivation, leveraging distinct SimpliiGood know-how and experience.
“Standardisation and predictability will make our spirulina more uniform, while maintaining high protein and antioxidant composition,” said Lior Shalev, co-founder and chief executive of SimpliiGood, in a press release.
“SimpliiGood will earn a strong competitive market advantage from these benefits within six months, and Haifa Group will expand its product portfolio to include these new products.”
Salmon analogue
Baruch Dach, SimpliiGood’s founder and chief technology officer, said the improved production process will enable the spirulina producer to expand into game-changing mainstream plant-based foods.
“For example, we will be able to speed our introduction of the first protein-rich smoked salmon steak analogue made predominantly from spirulina. This innovation has been gaining momentum and recently attracted the attention of the global food industry,” added Dach.
As well as using Haifa’s CO₂, SimpliiGood will evaluate the fertiliser company’s waste stream to determine the additional components that can be introduced into microalgae production. The assessment will include heat, nutrients, and compounds such as nitrogen, which is a key building block of protein.
Meat substitutes
SimpliiGood already produces a range of branded products marketed in Israel to food producers and directly to consumers. Its current portfolio encompasses a range of meat substitutes, including hamburgers and chicken nuggets, as well as popsicles, ice cream, crackers, and beverages where spirulina serves either as the base ingredient or as nutritional enrichment.
According to Acumen Research and Consulting, the global spirulina market size accounted for US $480 million in 2021 and is projected to achieve a market size of $1.166 billion by 2030, rising at a compound annual growth rate of 10.4% from 2022 to 2030.
