A group of scientists in Mississippi have develop app to track seaweed.
This is the problematic sort of seaweed (can you believe there is such a thing!) that grows to excess and clogs up coastlines, but Doctor Seaweed wants to encourage you to track your seaweed from your food all the way back to the source.
Make sure you can track your seaweed to its source.
Seaweed seems to have an issue in reporting and perception sometimes of problematic smelly stuff on the beach.
When I read this story on an app to track seaweed, it reinforced the on-going dichotomy seaweed experiences of, on the one hand something slimy that smells and you slip on when at the coast, to seaweed being a natural, healthy and sustainable food and ingredient.
Sustainable seaweed for health, and seaweed for nutrition are of course the perceptions we are trying to educate people towards, but excessive seaweed volumes caused from natural events, pollution and poorly managed fisheries for example, do still cause problems when washed up on beaches, and then start to degrade.
I hope that, cool as this app seems to be, seaweed continues to rise in the minds of people as a forgotten, highly nutritious and sustainably future food. Seaweed, unlike any other food, can offer so much in terms of seaweed for salt replacement, seaweed for nutrition and EU Health Claims, seaweed for weight management, and the prebiotic benefits of seaweed, which are becoming more important as we increasingly realise the absolute importance of gut bacteria and making sure you get the right ones for you by feeding yourself the right food for the bacteria to prosper. (I feel another Doctor Seaweed blog starting here!)
The app, useful as it will be for coastal engineers, tourist destinations and more, does remind how important tracking is though.
The accreditation system offered by Seaweed & Co, gives a fully traceable/trackable system so you know exactly where your seaweed came from, and even the name of the person that harvested it!!
This is done as Seaweed & Co. do things right, and also as seaweed for food, health and nutrition is scrutinised far more than other foods and ingredients that are considered more conventional. Tracebility is so important so you know the waters it came from, the type of processing, all aspects of safety and nutritional analysis (heavy metals, microbials etc), relevant certification and regulation and much more. Only professional and credible companies and suppliers will be able to supply this information, properly backed-up.
In conclusion, have a go at this app if you like, but please remember to track the seaweed you eat back to the source and make sure its accredited high quality seaweed such as that provided by Seaweed & Co.
Get in touch for any more information, or just to talk seaweed.