In recent years, green vegetables have become a major trend in food industry as many people are pursuing healthy diet. Salads and vegetarian food are getting more popular. Besides, there are a variety of dried vegetables, and even broccoli ingredient can be added to potato chips.
In addition, adopting a vegetarian diet has become a popular trend to protect the environment. Green vegetables, which used to be disliked by many people, have become the forefront of food and beverage industry. In addition to green vegetables, previously inconspicuous algae are getting more attention and seeing a growing consumption. In fact, algae have long been popular in many Asian countries, such as Sushi in Japan and Nori in South Korea. In China, laver soup and sliced kelp with sauce are homely dishes. In the west, however, algae used to be less popular than in Asia. But in recent years, thanks to changes in lifestyle, many consumers in Europe and America have tried to maintain their health by eating healthy foods and dietary supplements, and algae has also become popular in western countries because of its various nutrients. According to Market Watch, a subsidiary of Dow Jones, the global market size of algae food was $590 million in 2018, and is expected to reach $970 million by the end of 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.4 percent. This is mainly due to the increasing demand for natural foods and the growing development of algae-based products by food companies, such as health-care food based on spirulina, to meet the nutritional needs of consumers.
Because of the growing popularity of algae, restaurants in Europe, America, and other countries are now adding various kinds of algae to their recipes. Last year, Michelin-starred Swedish Chef Fredrik Berselius created a new recipe using lichens scraped from rocks and cooked with reindeer meat, making it a signature dish in his restaurant and sparking off a local algae craze. In addition, Dulse, Ireland's native red sea lettuce, is also in vogue recently in Europe. It is being favored by health-conscious young people because of its high mineral content. The dulse tastes a slightly salty and smoky, so their applications in food processing are more varied. This Is Seaweed, an Irish algae brand, also benefited from it, with sales doubling last year compared to the previous year. Moreover, many restaurants make it into a dish, such as sprinkling it on potato and carrot cakes or making it into pickled dulse, which is also popular among consumers.
Algae, with their health features, is also becoming a new favorite of packaged food brands. Seapoint Farms, a US brand, adds almonds and sesame seeds to its new seaweed crisps, which tastes crisper and contains more necessary minerals and vitamins needed by human body; while TerraVita, a Canadian brand, uses Irish carrageenan moss to make tea bags that are touted as a cough suppressant and loved by consumers.
It is believed that, in the future,no green is off the table.
