Triton Algae Innovations scientists see Hardtii, AKA Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, as the newest superfood ingredient
Triton Algae Innovations, a San Diego-based future food startup company, has announced the launch of a new CPG (consumer packaged goods) product: an Asian-style dumpling with a cabbage, onion & alternative pork filling. This new dumpling, which will be marketed under the brand name “Too Good To Be” (TGTB) was rolled out at the annual Natural Products Expo West trade show, which is taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center, March 8-12, 2023.
“Made from all plant-based ingredients, including our company’s Hardtii algae, Triton’s ‘Too Good To Be’ vegan pork dumpling offers a delicious and nutritious alternative to traditional pork dumplings,” said Miller Tran, co-founder and VP of Too Good To Be Foods. “The non-GMO Hardtii algae is the secret ingredient that makes our vegan pork taste like the real thing! These innovative and unique algae ingredients are infused into both the wrapper and the alternative pork filling of the dumpling, where they help to provide the subtle nuances of flavor, texture and mouthfeel that is associated with an actual pork product.”
“The non-GMO Hardtii algae is the secret ingredient that makes our vegan pork taste like the real thing!”
Triton scientists see Hardtii, AKA Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, as the newest superfood ingredient and the alga has achieved a “No Questions” letter from the United States Food and Drug Administration as being Generally Regarded as Safe (GRAS). Chlamydomonas (Hardtii) is a well-studied genus of microalgae in freshwater and soil worldwide, and Triton Algae has made them novel foods for the first time in human history. And like peppers or tomatoes, they have developed different varieties through breeding and selections, using non-GMO technologies.
“We are thrilled to unveil our latest offering, the “Too Good To Be” Hardtii algae vegan pork dumpling, at Expo West,” said Dr. Tran. “These dumplings will offer a new way of enjoying pork- style dumplings to everyone — vegans, vegetarians, meat eaters, flexitarians, omnivores, and truly all consumers who like delicious & healthy new foods.”
“While the alternative meat industry has been experiencing some challenges of late, we don’t believe this means investors and consumers are no longer excited about this sector,” said Xun Wang, President & CEO of TGTB. “We see it as a result of consumers wanting to see and experience new and innovative ingredients and related products — such as TGTB’s pork — rather than the more duplicative and non-differentiated meat analogue products that have come to dominate that market.”
“We think consumer desire for alternative meat and seafood products remains strong; it is just incumbent on companies to fill that market with tasty, healthy and sustainable CPG products that consumers seek and crave, he said.”
In the News…
A New Type of Coexistence Between Algae and Fungi is Discovered
Researchers from the Institute of Botany, Czech Academy of Sciences, have described the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae that science has largely overlooked until now. The coexistence of algae and corticioid basidiomycetes, which are common in temperate forests, has been given a new name: “alcobiosis.” Their work has been published in Scientific Reports.
Jan Vondrák of the Department of Taxonomy, Institute of Botany, and the first author of the study says, “Years ago, during field trips, we were repeatedly puzzled to find a layer of green algae where some of the fungal coatings on wood or bark (so-called corticioid fungi) are disturbed. We discovered that this is a close symbiosis of fungi and algae, not a lichen, though, because the fungus does not depend on its alga for nourishment.”
The new term introduced by the researchers for this type of coexistence, “alcobiosis,” is formed by letters from the three key words: algae, corticioid fungi and symbiosis.
Over the course of several years, the team of researchers gathered a large number of samples and performed DNA sequencing of the algal and fungal partners. They discovered that the symbiosis is very common and occurs in a great many corticioid fungi across the class of agaricomycetes. Individual fungal species are usually faithful to a specific algal species from a range of algae described in various alcobioses.
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