KEY INTERVIEW: Sustainable Algae “The Future of Omega 3”

28 Sep 2015 --- David Hart, Vice President of Marketing at Qualitas Health, has spoken to Nutrition Insight about the company and how it is overcoming the issue of marine resources to produce a high quality, highly bioavailable omega 3 oil from algae.

It is a relatively young company at 3 years old and commercial production started in June 2014 at 1/3 capacity. David says, “The company is bringing the most interesting innovation to the omega 3 category since krill oil. It has been very well accepted by the customers – the idea of a renewable, highly sustainable long chain source of omega 3 resonates with both customers and consumers. We have great access to the top dietary supplement companies within the US and some around the world. “

On whether they plan to expand the sales of their products to Europe, he says, “Our product is the first time that a human nutrition product has been made from this particular strain of algae. We are working to adapt our successful US regulatory submission to a novel foods dossier and we hope that within the next two years or so we’ll be able to have approval for Europe.”

“The general focus for the business is using micro algae for human nutrition. We are vertically integrated from growing the algae to extracting the bulk oil. Our first product is Almega PL – a vegetarian and sustainable analogue to krill oil. We have the same amount of omega 3 as krill and also polar lipids – both phosphor and glycolipids. Almega PL is the only product on the market that has glycolipids. These have a similar molecular structure to phospholipids – they are both hydrophilic and hydrophobic, which improves bioavailability and cell uptake.” Qualitas managed to increase levels of EPA in their algae to between 7-10% without causing any mutations since the start of the company three or four years ago and Almega PL has a similar bioavailability to that of krill oil.

“Other products we have in development are algal protein. Alternative proteins from non animal sources are what’s really hot in the protein and sports nutrition market, although it is still dominated by whey and soy protein. Sourcing other proteins is very interesting right now.”

“We also have 2 other oil products in process – an EPA concentrate with no polar lipids, more similar to a fish oil concentrate and an omega 7 oil in development. There is some really good research around cardiovascular and inflammatory health regarding omega 7.”

“So our first product and main focus is Almega PL and the things in the pipeline are the protein EPA concentrates and omega 7 and then DHA based upon phototropic algae technology. We grow our algae outdoors where it uses sunlight and we are looking at DHA which uses this technology as it is more agricultural and less industrial.”

“We use a non GMO strain of algae and our strain only uses EPA. In broad terms, higher EPA supplements are targeted more towards adults. Specifically with EPA there are 2 or 3 health conditions where EPA is very effective and it seems that DHA might be obstructive in these conditions. The first is triglyceride reduction, so our product supports a healthy blood lipid profile. Products that contain only EPA were more effective in studies than products that contain a mixture of EPA and DHA. Studies that found omega 3 to be effective in treating depression only used EPA with a very low percentage of DHA. “

“We are different from other algal omega 3 companies because they mostly contain DHA – which is very important for children, prenatal health and infant development whereas EPA is much more for adults. Our customers have 3 basic positionings; sustainability, vegetarian or vegan sourcing and a third scientific position – those who want to develop health specific products.”

David is confident for the future of the company, saying;“The future of the omega 3 category is in algae and it will overtake both krill and fish at some point in the future; probably within the next decade plus.”

They are building a facility in western Texas that has a capacity of 100-150 metric tonnes of Almega PL per year which is scheduled to be completely operational by the end of 2015. Almega PL is similarly priced to krill oil and over the life of the company it has raised over 30 million dollars of investment. “The market is being developed as we speak and it’s a young, aggressive company with a category changing technology and we are gearing up for very, very rapid expediential explosive growth which we think is going to happen over the next 12-18 months. It’s a lot of fun working for a company that’s game-changing.”

By Coriander Stone