Malle, Belgium - Schiedam, The Netherlands, 06.10.2023 - Two innovative food companies, Flemish food producer Jordà Food Group and seaweed cultivator The Seaweed Company from the Netherlands, proudly announce their new partnership. The strategic collaboration aims to combine the expertise of a seaweed cultivator and a food producer to develop, produce, and market healthy, sustainable, and delicious food products based on locally grown seaweed. Through this partnership, both companies strive to better serve the foodservice industry with ready-to-use, sustainable, and healthy food ingredients.

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Focusing on Locally Consumed European Seaweed

Annually, nearly 25 million tons of seaweed is grown and harvested worldwide, with 98% of it in Asia. Most of it is consumed in Asia as a food source due to its unique flavour and rich essential nutrients. While seaweed consumption is a daily habit in Asia, the seaweed sector in Europe is still in its infancy.

As an innovative and sustainable food ingredient, seaweed offers many benefits and opportunities commercially, nutritionally, and ecologically due to its richness in healthy and essential nutrients such as proteins, minerals, vitamins, and omega-3 fatty acids. This has been increasingly recognized by the Western food industry. Seaweed is one of the most sustainable food ingredient available to further enhance our food consumption's sustainability. Seaweed is one of the fastest-growing crops, absorbing significant amounts of CO2 from the sea, which can contribute to addressing current climate issues.

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Seaweed Snacks, Seasoning Mixes, and Toppings: More Flavour, Health, and Sustainability

Jordà Food Group is a pioneer in producing sweet and savoury crispy toppings within the foodservice industry under the Jordà brand. Among Jordà's extensive range of flavours, there are already products with dried seaweed, albeit sourced from Asia (such as Nori). However, to promote seaweed as a food ingredient in Europe, Jordà recently decided to exclusively use locally grown seaweeds in their product lineup. Alongside this decision, they have also introduced three seaweed products to the market, including Crispy Wasabi Furikake toppings, Japanese-style panko, and Phytoplankton emulsion, which have garnered significant interest from chefs and are already available in wholesale outlets.

Expanding upon its roots in Asian cuisine, Jordà has developed a variant with crunchy elements, using locally grown seaweeds and even products based on microalgae from the Oosterschelde estuary.

This positive step and the opportunities seaweed offers for healthy seasoning mixes and snacks have led Jordà to work exclusively with locally grown seaweed from The Seaweed Company and release them under their retail brand Topp'd. The Seaweed Company manages the entire seaweed supply chain, from cultivation to processing, providing direct access to seaweed for customers.

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Jordà Food Group and The Seaweed Company Together: A Delicious Impactful Combination‍

As an Impact-focused organisation, The Seaweed Company is pleased to collaborate with Jordà Food Group to bring seaweed into the spotlight among European chefs. The Seaweed Company has invested in various seaweed farms in recent years. This collaboration aims to provide every chef in Europe with access to locally grown seaweed.

The Seaweed Company's mission is to make the food chain healthier. With its Seameat® products, it primarily focuses on collaborations in the foodservice industry to make our meat consumption more sustainable. Seaweed blend SeaMeat® makes hybrid meat products truly delicious. Burgers with 75% meat and 25% seaweed, introduced by various meat companies, are now available in restaurants and supermarkets in Belgium and the Netherlands.

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Maarten Jordaens, Chief Crumble Officer at Jordá Food Group: “Our chefs have long known that seaweed is a very unique, versatile, and sustainable ingredient. Thanks to the mild umami flavour of seaweed sourced from The Seaweed Company, products like meat or toppings become even more delicious and full of flavour. For the launch of our collaboration, we've worked on a crispy variant of the well-known Japanese 'Furikake' seasoning mix finished with local seaweeds, which can be used as a topping for items like reduced-meat burgers or Asian dishes. A top product to Savor, if we say so ourselves”

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Sanne Jansen, Business Developer Food at The Seaweed Company: “Jordà's products are beautiful and unique. Additionally, they have a fantastic network among restaurant chefs. This makes us very pleased with this collaboration, which gives both Jordà's products and our Seameat® extra attention.”

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About Jordà Food Group

Jordà Food Group is a Flemish food company located in Malle, Antwerp, specializing in the development and production of unique sweet and savoury crispy toppings for the foodservice, industry, and retail. Jordà Food Group stands out by offering an extensive premium product range consisting of various toppings. Jordà Food Group sells under the brands Jordà, Topp'd, and The Crunch.

The Seaweed Company was founded in 2018 and is a European seaweed platform active in the entire seaweed value chain. The Seaweed Company specializes in developing impactful seaweed products and concepts for agriculture and food. Our mission is to engage in value chain collaborations that facilitate large-scale transitions to regenerative agriculture and sustainable food. The Seaweed Company has its seaweed production locations in Ireland, Morocco, India, and the Netherlands.

For more information:  

Contact Jordà Food Group:

Maarten Jordaens – CEO

maarten@icare4-food.com

www.jorda.be

Contact The Seaweed Company:  

Sanne Jansen +316 17151723

Sanne.jansen@theseaweedcompany.com

www.theseaweedcompany.com

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