Digital library

Erick Ask still remembers the first time he heard about the food ingredient that would become the focus of his professional life. He was in ninth grade.

"Mr. Elslip, my biology teacher, said to us one day, 'How many of you have eaten seaweed?' " Ask recalls. "And nobody raised their hand. And he says, 'Well, how many of you have eaten ice cream?' And we all raised our hands. And he says, 'Well, then you have eaten seaweed!' "

Mr. Elslip was talking about a substance derived from seaweed called carrageenan. His claim was't completely accurate; it isn't in all ice cream. But it's certainly in some brands. It's also used in a range of other food products, from infant formula to meats and certain beverages. 

Now, it's starting to disappear, at least from a few of those foods. A committee that proposes rules for the organic food industry just voted to ban it from organic products. The shift is driven by pressure from activist groups that believe, based on a handful of studies, that carrageenan is linked to health problems.

CARRAGEENAN IS A COMMON FOOD ADDITIVE extracted from red seaweed. For the past four decades, scientists have warned that the use of carrageenan in food is not safe. Animal studies and in-vitro studies with human cells have repeatedly shown that food-grade carrageenan* causes gastrointestinal inflammation and higher rates of intestinal lesions, ulcerations, and even malignant tumors. In fact, roughly 3,855 research papers show that carrageenan induces inflammation, most of which test the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs. In the past decade, researchers have successfully identified several ways in which food-grade carrageenan causes harm. The chemical structure of carrageenan—unique chemical bondsnot found in other seaweeds or gums—affects the body in several ways. Most notably, it triggers an immune reaction, which leads to inflammation in the gastrointestinal system. Prolonged inflammation is a precursor to more serious diseases, including cancer.

Seven case studies are presented on commercial seaweed resources; five on wild crops, respectively Ascophyllum nodosum, Chondrus crispus, Gelidium, Laminaria longicruris and Macrocystis, are provided along with case studies of the farmed crops of Eucheuma and Laminaria japonica. Individually the cases range from descriptions of the wild crops and their management to the managed production of farmed crops including, in several examples, some information on economics and/or processing. These initial seven cases range from those emphaizing but one species from but one part of one country, to studies of a genus as it occurs commercially throughout the world.