Could it really be true, that you can eat bacon guilt free? With a seaweed called dulse, the answer is yes! As a bonus, these algae are packed with nutritional value and it’s a good source of protein. Sounds incredible, doesn’t it!

This unique variety of dulse has been engineered and harvested by professor Chuck Toombs and scientists at Oregon State University (OSU) to taste just like bacon when it’s cooked. This seaweed is a form of red marine algae that usually grows along the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. It looks like translucent red lettuce.

Toombs said: “Dulse is a super food, with twice the nutritional value of kale.”

Originally, this new strain was developed by Oregon state researcher Chris Langdon and his team while trying to find a good source of food for edible sea snails or abalones. Langdon realized he had his hands on something special when his colleague Chuck Toombs caught a glimpse of it. Toombs said he thought that the seaweed had potential for a new industry on the Oregon coast. He then began working with the university’s Food Innovation Center, which created a variety of foods with the seaweed as its main ingredient.

Dulse has actually been around for a long time already. It has been produced and consumed by people in northern Europe for centuries! It is well known as a natural source of fiber, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants.

Langdon told OSU:

“This stuff is pretty amazing. When you fry it, which I have done, it tastes like bacon not seaweed. And it’s a pretty strong bacon flavor.”

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Some dried red algae are already available in health food supermarkets but it is expensive. Langdon says he is growing about 20 to 30 pounds of this particular strain of bacon-flavoured seaweed per week but he plans to more than triple the production.

No analysis has been done yet to find out whether commercializing the seaweed would be practical, but the team thinks that the vegan and vegetarian markets may be interested. The students and researchers at the university’s Food Innovation Center are already creating delicious varieties of recipes with dulse such as Veggie burgers, salad dressing, and even beer.

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