When dietician Sarah Leung was running her own private practice, she realised the potential role seaweed could play in addressing Australia’s silent epidemic of thyroid disease. Kim Berry talks to Leung about her food company Alg Seaweed and the growing Australian industry. This article first appeared in July 2021 issue of Food and Drink Business.
Throughout her 10 years in private practice as a dietician, Alg Seaweed founder Sarah Leung saw many patients seeking to lose weight. While they came in with some medical history, many had underlying undiagnosed health issues related to thyroid function.
“Around 68 per cent of women in Australia have a thyroid issue and more than one million Australians have a thyroid condition without knowing it,” Leung says.
Iodine is vital for thyroid function but Leung says people are not aware of its importance for our health.
“We all know about the importance of vitamin C, folate, and calcium, but iodine flies under the radar.
“In pregnancy, a woman’s iodine requirement increases by 70 per cent for her health and the baby’s brain development.”
We know that iodine deficiency is a major cause of preventable brain damage, lower IQ, and thyroid conditions, and yet 68 per cent of women in Australia don’t get enough iodine in their pregnancy, Leung says.
“While iodine supplements are recommended to women during pregnancy, we hope our products assist with increasing iodine intake in more Australians.”
As a dietician, Leung loved empowering people through cooking and education. She decided to find a way to get more iodine into people’s diets by turning to something she had been eating every day of her life since she was a child growing up in Singapore – seaweed.
Seaweed has the highest level of iodine of any food and is also rich in iron, vitamin C, B12, vitamin K, antioxidants and fibre.
A noxious but healthy weed
Leung launched Alg Seaweed from a commercial kitchen in 2017, where she hand-mixed each of the products.
Since then, it has expanded to seven products sold through its website, selected health food stores in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia and hospitality venues.
It started with its 100% Australian Range: Tasmanian Wakame Seaweed Flakes, and Bush Tucker Seaweed Sprinkle with Davidson plum, lemon myrtle and wattleseed.
The Wakame Flakes is its premium product. The dark green nail size flakes expand in water, offering a salty and umami flavour, or is crunchy when eaten dried.
The Bush Tucker Sprinkle combines the Tasmanian wakame with Davidson plum, lemon myrtle and wattleseed. The plum provides a vibrant pink colour, the wattle seeds a brown colour and nutty flavour, while the tangy light yellow flakes comes from lemon myrtle.
Leung explains wakame was introduced into the cold waters off the Tasmanian coastline so is classified as a noxious weed.
“For a long time, commercial fishers would pull it out and send it to landfill before it began being used for fertiliser and food,” Leung says.
The challenge for Leung was ensuring a consistent supply. “Harvesting is only possible for six weeks of the year, in the middle of winter and by hand. So, it is expensive, and on its own didn’t meet our goal of encouraging people to eat seaweed for nutrition every day,” she explains.
There are thousands of seaweed species in the world, says Leung, and while Australia has an excellent range, little is still known about many of them.
Leung looked overseas to organic and sustainable commercial seaweed farms, which gave her the ability to scale and launch new products. The result is the Rainbow Seaweed Range – a blend of five organically farmed seaweeds as well as the original 100% Australian, premium hand-harvested wakame products.
In 2019, Alg Seaweed won the Mondelez Global Table Future of Snacking Pitch competition, run by Mondelez International’s innovation and venture hub, SnackFutures.
“We wanted to capitalise on that, and the next step was always going to be snacks. We took a small Rainbow series range to market but then COVID-19 arrived.
“We’ve since launched the snacks and condiments, and we’re launching a chocolate next month,” she says.
The Seedy Bites snack bars are seed based, date and nut free with reduced sugar. They come in two flavours: Choc Coconut, Cranberry Burst.
The Rainbow Seaweed Flakes is a blend of five seaweeds and designed to be an all-rounder condiment. The Seasoning is inspired by the traditional Japanese rice seasoning furikake and the five seaweeds are mixed with organic Tasmanian chickpea miso and toasted black and white sesame.
Its Seaweed Salt has 63 per cent less sodium than table salt, making it a great alternative.
Leung says, “It is a mixture of our Rainbow Seaweed and sodium reduced salt, with a fine green powder, white salt crystals and colourful seaweed specs. Our products are nutritious, easy-to-use and flavourful. Seaweed is already foreign for many people. If you’re providing it to them in a form where they have to dehydrate it, chop it, cook it, prepare it, they’re not going to adopt it into everyday use.
“You’ve got to put it into a format which is not daunting – so the flakes, sprinkles and seasonings are an easy swap for consumers. Instead of salt, use this.”
Leung says the industry is growing in Australia as is consumer knowledge about seaweed and their willingness to try new things. Last year the Australian Seaweed Industry Blueprint was released, which has set the goal of growing the industry from $3 million to $10 million by 2025. (A new alliance was recently announced to deliver on the blueprint.)
Leung welcomes the push as another part of addressing the silent epidemic of thyroid disease in Australia, as Alg Seaweed does its bit to become a daily part of Australians’ diet.
