At Vitafoods Europe 2018, FoodBev’s Alex Clere spoke with Efrat Kat – vice-president of marketing for Algatech – about the company’s natural astaxanthin products.
The company grows the microalgae for the astaxanthin in the Arava desert in southern Israel, using glass tubes that act like greenhouses and allow Algatech to exert high degrees of control over the microalgae’s cultivation. As Kat explains, this allows the company to ensure its products are high-quality every time.
Kat explains: “It’s a very nice area, very clean air, no industrial zones near to us, and it’s one of the benefits of the desert that we have abundant sunlight throughout the year. Microalgae is a plant, so it requires a lot of sunlight in order to grow.
“We are using a very nice technology that was developed by one of the universities in Israel; it’s a closed system. It’s actually pipes made of glass in which we go inside the microalgae and we control all the parameters of the production, of course all the equipment we are using is food grade, we have all the accreditations – we are a GMP facility; our products are kosher, halal, non-GMO verified; we also have organic production.”
For a company like Algatech, efficacy is understandably of the utmost importance. Algatech is conducting clinical studies to show the benefits of its products, but Kat pointed out that there are more than 500 publications already demonstrating the health benefits of natural astaxanthin.
Presented and edited by: Alex Clere
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024