Nutritional science for mind health products
DSM Nutritional Products
The group started selling astaxanthin produced from algae in 2003 initially on the Japanese market, which it says is still the largest and most developed for astaxanthin.
But it predicts "rapid growth" in the European market from its position of around €14.5m to €18.1m ($20 to 25m) in the next few years.
The company revealed to NutraIngredients.com that it intended to find distributors to be able to reach into the Austrian, Swiss and Polish and Portugese markets.
Marketing manager Efrat Kat said: "Following this, we plan to target the central and eastern European markets."
At the moment Algatechnologies' astaxanthin has been approved for use in Japan for dietary supplements, cosmetics, and for food and beverages additives. In the US and Europe, astaxanthin is approved for use in dietary supplements and cosmetics only.
The first step for further expansion has begun with an application to extend its use submitted to the UK Food Standards Agency.
In the past year expansion the group has stepped up the pace and increased productivity at is plant in the Arava desert by 120 per cent. This followed a partnership with UK based S Black which meant the algae derivative could be sold in the UK and Ireland.
Astaxanthin is found in H. pluvialis. This microalgae is part of the diet of fish or crustaceans (such as salmon and shrimps) and is responsible for the pink coloration in their flesh, through the ingestion of astaxanthin.
The carotenoid has been linked to eye health and is said to have a free radical fighting capacity worth 500 times that of vitamin E.
Last night the firm said there were still some hurdles to overcome in expanding its operations, and the priority is to now increase awareness of astaxanthin.
Kat said: "Algatechnologies plans to take a leading part in this, first by creating a preference for astaxanthin on the manufacturer level and as a second step will act to promote astaxanthin based products on the consumer level via various marketing activities."
Algatechnologies will also explore the potential use of natural astaxanthin as an active ingredient for the animal health segment.
In the meantime Algatechnologies is looking at the feasibility of producing omega-3 from microalgae.
And a collaboration with US company Greenfuel Technologies is developing microalgae biomass as a potential future source of biofuel.
Kat explained: "The objective is to develop and commercialize a microalgae cultivation system that uses the CO
2emitted by power plants for the production of biofuel. This process harnesses photosynthesis to grow algae, capture CO2 and produces high energy biomass."
The firm added that it is pursuing additional collaborations with other companies towards the development of additional biofuel products.
Algatechnologies is the most recent entrant to the astaxanthin market and has an exclusive license to a patented process that it claims gives it significant cost advantages over its biggest rival in supplements.
It uses 170km of transparent tubing to enclose the Haematococcus pluvialis algae cultures, and intense natural sunlight puts the algae - initially a greenish colour when healthy - under stress so that they produce the bright red pigment astaxanthin in defence.
This red biomass is then delicately dried and shipped to the US in flakes where supercritical carbon dioxide extraction draws out the pure astaxanthin.