Gambero Rosso cites the Algavenice brand and our company in its list of the best Italian production of spirulina seaweed, a true “super food,” defined by the FAO as “the ingredient of the future,” which “actually has three times the protein content of a steak with added vitamins and minerals.”
Its production, reads the article in the well-known GamberoRosso.it newspaper by Annalisa Zordan, has become “a real business almost entirely run by China and India, countries where there are no strict sanitary regulations, at least not as strict as ours. Which is dangerous for any kind of food, let alone this algae where its de nutrition can absorb anything from iron to all the heavy metals in the water and air. A downside of what many call a panacea cannot and should not be underestimated because in many cases spirulina, if cultivated, harvested and dried poorly, is likely to do more harm than good“.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of reliable quality production in Italy, including organic. And Algavenice is one of them, named in the Gambero Rosso article among the safest manufacturers: in fact, it appears in the list of “names that work well.” For our company, a real satisfaction, which we want to share with you readers.
Production in controlled environments
“As the first thing ,” the article further specifies. you have to make sure it is a strain of Arthrospira platensis (the Latin name for spirulina, which in many countries A.maxima is also allowed as a food, but not in Europe). Second, cultivation must take place in chemically and biologically controlled environments. The greatest risks occur with outdoor crops exposed to atmospheric contamination that can bring dust into the tanks from as far away as several kilometers… The drying process is also crucial: to maintain all the organoleptic properties of spirulina, drying must take place at low temperatures“.
You can read the entire Red Prawn article : Properties, Potential and Criticality of Spirulina.