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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

spirulina

Meet Bloom, a Machine That Aims to Make Growing Spirulina at Home as Easy as Brewing Coffee

Spirulina is a blue-green algae considered a “superfood” due to its nutrient density, and it contains iron, B vitamins, and Vitamin E. A start-up called Canopi launched an Indiegogo campaign for its countertop machine named Bloom, which enables people to cultivate spirulina in their own kitchens.

Canopi aims to make growing spirulina with its system is just as easy as brewing coffee. Once the user adds water, a nutrient tablet, and living spirulina culture to the Bloom’s two growing pods, the machine optimizes light, heat, and airflow to create a perfect environment for spirulina to bloom.

With Bloom’s mobile app, users can track the growth of the spirulina, and be notifed once it is ready to harvest. After day five, users can simply press a button on the machine to turn the liquid spirulina into a paste. This paste can then be used in smoothies, soups, dressings, sauces, water, or even frozen into cubes for later.

The double pods provide a total of 10 grams of spriulina every five days (the recommended serving size is 5 grams), which equates to 14 servings per month. The Early Bird pre-order price for Bloom is £174 GBP (~$237 USD), and it comes with three months worth of nutrients.

In 2018, we covered a company called Spirugrow that had launched a campaign on Kickstarter for its at-home spirulina growing machine. This machine was bulky and costs €471 ($549 USD). Spirugrow, as The Spoon predicted, failed. Rob Russell, one of the creators of Bloom, said that the company learned from Spirugrow’s mistakes, and used this to inform its own machine design. Bloom is cheaper, smaller, and appears to be more streamlined compared to Spirugrow.

Of course that’s if and when they deliver the product. While Canopi has finished the Bloom design, they still need to go through testing and ramp up manufacturing. As readers of The Spoon know, manufacturing is usually the most challenging phase for young hardware startups.

Finally, although Bloom seems like an overall better design and concept compared to Spirugrow, it still begs the question: is there enough demand for homegrown spirulina? According to its Indiegogo campaign, there might be. Bloom has raised $116,987 USD of its $20,462 target, exceeding its goal by 571 percent. There are four days left in the campaign, and preorders for Bloom are still available.

Israeli Grad Students Develop Algae-Enriched Falafel to Compete with Meat

Not to be too apocalyptic here, but the world is poised for a global protein shortage. There will be 9.8 billion people on the planet by 2050, and finding a way to feed them all — despite finite land and water resources — will be quite the challenge.

But a group of students in Israel thinks that there’s a natural solution to the impending protein crisis: algae.

Grad students at the Biotechnology and Food Engineering Faculty at Israel’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a new type of falafel enriched with algae. Called Algalafel (get it?), the fried chickpea balls contain spirulina, a blue-green algae with high protein content.

The students won first prize at the EIT Food Project (European Knowledge and Innovation Community) at Technion. Eventually, the students want to market their new falafel, probably in ready-to-eat frozen form.

According to Time of Isreal, the students decided to make an algae-enriched falafel for environmental reasons. The FAO reports that meat consumption, spurred by increased global demand for protein, is slated to increase steadily over the next few decades, putting increased pressure on the environment and causing more carbon emissions.

But the traditional ingredients in falafel — chickpeas, onions, and flour — are already meat-free. And chickpeas are already a source of protein. In fact, InnovoPro, also based in Israel, recently raised $4.25 million for chickpea-based protein powder. So why go to the trouble of adding algae to the mix?

Firstly, it’s super high in protein. While chickpeas are about 20 percent protein, according to the students behind Algalafel, spirulina is a whopping 60 percent in its dry state. It’s also a complete protein, meaning it contains all eight essential amino acids that your body can’t produce on its own.

Additionally, while chickpeas may be more environmentally friendly than, say, beef or soy, they still require land and water to grow. Spirulina doesn’t require land, it can be harvested year-round, and it grows extremely quickly. It does need water in which to grow, but not much. In fact, it’s so easy to grow that it’s been suggested by NASA as a dietary staple for astronauts.

Up until now algae like spirulina has been relegated to trendy health foods like green juice, but with the rise in demand for plant-based protein it’s poised to enter the mainstream. Recently we’ve seen algae pop up in more and more food applications, from New Wave Foods‘ plant-based shrimp to bread made of seaweed. San Diego-based company Triton makes algae for a wide range of protein-rich food applications, including milk and meat alternatives.

Israel is becoming quite the hotbed of innovation in the meat alternative space. It’s the home of several cell-based meat companies, one of which — Aleph Farms — actually partnered with Technion to help develop its cultured steak.

Down the road, I expect we’ll see algae popping up in more and more food applications, specifically in the meat alternative space. And if we want to have a prayer of feeding the world over the next few decades, we’ll have to get started soon.

Spirugrow Wants You to Grow Fresh Spirulina in Your Home

My only experience with spirulina is that a former roommate used to sprinkle it on top of her cat’s food. That kind of put me off it, but maybe I’m missing something? Maybe there are enough spirulina die-hards out there to warrant the Spirugrow Kickstarter project, a new countertop appliance that cultivates fresh spirulina in your kitchen.

Spirulina is an algae-based super food high in protein and anti-oxidants. You add it to drinks or food, and can even use as a face mask. You can buy spirulina in a dried form at the market, but the creators of the Spirugrow say that the dried version loses its potency, tastes bad and isn’t traceable. So they created Spirugrow, a machine that uses a combination of CO2, nutrients, water and salt to create fresh spirulina, which, from the promo video, looks like a thick, dark green almost gelatenous liquid.

I love that Kickstarter allows people to follow their bliss, create a very specific product, and connect with a community of like-minded people looking for that same bliss. Kickstarter’s given us the PicoBrew, and launched Suvie and the Yomee. All of which are very exciting. And while I’m all for people eating superfoods, I’m having a harder time getting jazzed about Spirugrow, mainly because I think they are going after the wrong market.

First, there’s the price. Very early birds can pick up a Spirugrow for €471 ($549 USD). That is not cheap for a device that makes something you eat 5 grams of per day (the machine make 20 grams at a time), and that doesn’t even take into consideration the cost for replacement nutrient cartridges. Spirugrow is also big, coming in at 17 inches wide and tall, and 14 inches deep. And while I’m sure that the ability to grow fresh algae on your counter is a feat of modern engineering, the process is complicated.

There are a lot of steps — add CO2 cartridge, connect hoses, add water, add nutrient cartridge, add “inoculum,” add salt, add filter — then wait for 24 hours. Not to mention the disassembling and cleaning and disinfecting that needs to happen on a regular basis.

Like I said, I’m sure Spirugrow is the result of a ton of research and development and hard work, and it is a good looking machine. I just don’t know how many consumers would want to spend $500+ for a single-use device that only makes a dietary supplement and has to stay on the kitchen counter for literally days in order for the user to get the most out of it. You might be saving some money making your own rather than buying it at the store, but you’d have to really love spirulina to get the most value out of it.

It seems like at that price point, they should go after natural foods markets, juice bars, smoothie shops and healthy cafés. Establishments that will have the money, space and customers who would actually appreciate the freshness of the spirulina. Kind of like how Carbine Coffee will enable supermarkets and cafés to roast their own coffee.

As of this publication, Spirugrow has raised $33,860 of its $69,681 goal with 19 days to go. We’re always rooting for new kitchen tech to succeed here at The Spoon, and while I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything like the Spirugrow before, I just don’t know if this homemade superfood can find a super large home audience.