A question often asked. How do I know this product is safe? I.e. can we be sure that the processes are ok and that there will be no foreign baddies in it? This seaweed is grown in the tropics / Philippines / somewhere foreign. I don’t trust the food source.
Seaweed is food. We are legally and morally required to ensure that food is good to eat. In Australia about 4 million people a year get food poisoning, and in the USA the Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year 48 million people get sick from a food-borne illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. Researchers have identified more than 250 food-borne diseases. Most of them are infections, caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites.
The last thing we want is to sell a food product that can make you ill. We therefore have taken all steps available from planting to selling to remove risks. Every batch number can be tracked back to a GPS coordinate in the farming area.
- The seaweed is organically grown in the cleanest water we can grow seaweed. The Pacific Ocean stretches 13,000 km to the nearest landfall on the USA West Coast
- Seaweed is organic certified by the OCCP (Philippine organic certifying authority)
- We are completing full HACCP Accreditation by an international authority (JAS / ANZ)
- We are implementing ISO22000:2018 quality systems with policies and procedures more strict than most food producers.
- We use a full paddock to plate system (AgKonect) to enable full traceability.
Water Quality and Product Tests are undertaken on every batch
- Heavy metals – Lead, Cadmium, Mercury
- Coliform
- Listeria
- Salmonella
- Moisture
- Iodine levels
- Staphylococcus
Testing of nutrient levels is done at regular intervals and research is underway to understand variation during different seasons.