(CBS SF) — Marine biologists and business school students at Oregon State University (OSU) believe they may have created the next big super-food trend: seawood that’s healthier than kale and tastes like bacon when cooked.
This new strain of dulse seaweed, typically found along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines, was originally designed by OSU marine biologists as a nutritionally dense food source for abalone.
Then a faculty member at OSU’s College of Business decided to turn it into a marketing experience for his students and a potential new industry for Oregon at the same time.
Working along the university’s Food Innovation Center in Portland, the team came up with new food ideas with dulse as the main ingredient. The most promising were a dulse-based rice cracker and salad dressing.
Now several Portland-area chefs are now testing the seaweed, which grows fast and contains twice the nutritional value of kale.
There’s currently no commercial operations that grow dulse for human consumption in the United States, according to Hatfield Marine Science Center researcher Chris Langdon, but that could change if the Oregon Department of Agriculture designates it as as a “specialty crop” — the first time a seaweed would have ever made the list.
“The dulse grows using a water recirculation system,” Langdon said. “Theoretically, you could create an industry in eastern Oregon almost as easily as you could along the coast with a bit of supplementation. You just need a modest amount of seawater and some sunshine.”
So it may not be long before you start to see dulse lining the shelves of Whole Foods and other health food stores.