For an island nation like Iceland, a large part of the country’s GNP is built on fisheries. For years, the country was first and foremost a nation of farmers and fishermen, and Icelandic fishermen have always been a respected class of workers, risking their lives in extreme conditions for centuries. Their catch has mostly been traditional: amongst the species they fish are cod, haddock, pollock, herring, and let’s not forget the controversial whale hunting, but in recent years, other marine resources have gotten more attention as both producers and consumers are realising their usefulness.
Things change, and what once was considered unusable can suddenly be in demand. An example of this is langoustine. For a long while, the public opinion towards eating the shellfish was on par with eating insects but now it’s considered a delicacy and a part of dignified dining. Currently, the focus is shifting from conventional catch towards using marine products that have up until now mostly been given the cold shoulder by both companies and consumers. What’s even more interesting is the fact that many of the companies that are leading this development are also focusing on creating sustainable products. But what is the appeal of products like seaweed, kelp, and fish skin, and how are they used?
Snacking on seaweed
To most people, seaweed is the green and yellow slimy stuff you see when you take a trip to the beach, but its use in kitchens is on the rise. Íslensk hollusta is a company that was founded by Eyjólfur Friðgeirsson, a marine biologist, who started using herb-marinated seaweed to create a healthy snack. According to Ragnheiður Axel Eyjólfsdóttir, his co-worker and daughter, Eyjólfur used to work as a fisheries consultant and during that time, he travelled around Asia, where he observed how marine products were used. “Us Icelanders have a long history of utilising dulse and herbs, but for a while, it was considered tacky to use seaweed and we disconnected from that part of our history. When my father started to desiccate and process dulse, many thought it was odd,” Ragnheiður says, but after a while, Eyjólfur was contacted by chefs who soon became his customers.
Today, some of the world’s most high-class restaurants are amongst the customers of Íslensk hollusta. Restaurants like the London-based Texture, noma in Denmark and the Swedish Oaxen use their products and the company is planning on marketing their products in the US. They always keep in mind, however, that Icelandic dulse is a limited resource and that production is only possible on a small scale. What makes the company unique is the fact that everything is handpicked, meaning that there are no machines or boats used when collecting the seaweed. “We think it’s important to limit intrusion and that the disruption of the biosystem is minimal when collecting seaweed,” Ragnheiður says.
Asked if there is a market for seaweed-based products, Ragnheiður says there is, and that the company is seeing increased interest among the younger generation. People are more focused on the purity of food and more people are buying dulse than before. “Perhaps more [seaweed] will be cultivated than before,” Ragnheiður says. “A few companies are already tending to cultivation and it will be interesting to observe that development. So far, we [at Íslensk hollusta] have only used wild produce and don’t sell cultivated products.”
Better skin with seaweed
One of the companies that get their supply from Thorverk, a company that harvests seaweed from Breiðafjörður fjord, is cosmetics company Zeto. Founded in 2016, Eydís Mary Jónsdóttir says that the inspiration behind their products came when her mother, Fjóla Sigurðardóttir, started creating skincare products in her kitchen for her grandson who was very sensitive to parabens. Fjóla’s brother, Steindór Runiberg Haraldsson, developed a method to extract seaweed in a way that is both sustainable and leaves no waste. Fjóla started using her brother’s extract in her experimental skincare products, and with time, the demand started to increase because the product showed positive results for those with eczema and itchy skin. Together with her mother and uncle, Eydís founded Zeto, a start-up company that’s on the up and up.
Thorverk has both sustainable and organic certification which is important for Zeto’s production. “It’s important for us to build up a company with sustainability in mind. Everything that is unsustainable comes to an end and that is something that we want to avoid, both as a company and as people,” Eydís says. She adds that these days, it’s more important than ever that companies do everything they can to supply both products and services in as sustainable a manner as possible. According to Eydís, there are no chemicals used during the production process that have negative impacts on the environment. By-products also get used so the seaweed is fully utilised.
Zeto refrains from using ingredients that are harvested in an unsustainable way and Eydís believes that with time, the demand for seaweed-based products will increase. “There is no terrestrial plant that has as many minerals, trace elements, vitamins, and bioactive materials as seaweed,” Eydís says. “The production of seaweed doesn’t require land space, irrigation, fertilisers or pesticides, which is very important when aiming towards sustainability. I predict that in the future we will see increased use of algae in skincare products, diet supplements, and even at the dinner table because it’s truly a superfood,” Eydís adds. In her opinion, sustainability is something that will become more important to consumers as time goes by. “It’s interesting to see how consumers are forcing a change in trade practices. We as consumers have a lot of power by choosing where we put our money. When we buy sustainable products, we choose the future, and our children and more and more people are realising that.”
Sustainable salt
A few years ago, a group of friends decided that they wanted to establish a small company. Being foodies and fans of gourmet provisions, they wondered why no one was producing salt in Iceland. One thing led to another and they decided to try their hand at salt production. They soon found out that in the 1700s, during the Danish-Icelandic Trade Monopoly, salt was manufactured on the Reykjanes peninsula. The group headed west, filled a small skillet with seawater, heated the pan with geothermal water, and in a few days, they had 200g (7oz) of salt. Thus, began the saga of the company Saltverk.
Sea salt is a natural product, and most of the time, nothing has been added or removed during the production process, while table salt can be created in a lab and often contains unnatural chemicals or materials. Saltverk takes pride in creating a sustainable product. “One of our passions and the basis of our production are environmental matters,” says Gísli Grímsson, a salt maker for Saltverk. “Choosing products that are environmentally friendly matters. In that context, we are keen on treating both nature and the ocean well,” and he adds that to produce a high-quality product, the material needs to come from a good and clean source.
The company works hard to measure up to its standard. “We pump up seawater from 30m (98ft) below sea level in Ísafjörður fjord. The sea around Iceland is 3.5% salt and a lot of evaporation has to take place for salt to form,” Gísli says and he explains that geothermal energy is used in the process. The seawater is pumped into a large tank that is heated with geothermal water. After a while, the brine is moved to large two-layered pans, where the inner layer is filled with geothermal water. When the salt starts to form, it is handpicked and placed on drainers in a dry room where drainage from the salt pans is used to heat the air and dry the salt.
Gísli says that the future is bright for the company. “Our biggest markets outside of Iceland are Denmark and the US,” he says. “We sense a lot of interest in both North America and Europe. There is a lot of momentum for Icelandic products and production worldwide.” Because of how well Saltverk’s products have been received, they could expand the company and produce more than they currently do but haven’t decided on anything yet. “For now, we just continue towards our goal of trying to produce the world’s best sea salt.”
Fish skin – a substitute for human skin
As most know, fish skin is a by-product of fishing. It is sometimes thrown away, at other times used as animal fodder, and designers have even used it to create wallets, neckties, and other fashion-related products. The founders of Kerecis had a better idea: to use codfish skin to create skin grafts for wound treatment. The company was established a decade ago in Ísafjörður, where their product is still manufactured. Like many smaller towns in Iceland, Ísafjörður is a fishing village and life there is based around fisheries and the processing that follows. It is therefore a perfect location for the company to access the main ingredient for their product: codfish skin. After the fish skin has been removed, the staff of Kerecis inspects it, looking for parasites, holes, and other faults in the skin. The best skins are chosen and moved into production, where they are descaled and drained of liquid. Then, the company produces grafts that regenerate damaged tissue. They can be used to treat burns and diabetes wounds, in various surgeries (lung and colorectal surgeries, for example), and even in neurosurgery.
What makes the fish skin so special is the fact that it is rich in omega-3 fatty acids to which human skin responds quite well. When grafted onto wounds, human cells coalesce with the substitute, and in the end, the fish skin is converted into living tissue. Independent research has shown that cod skin closes wounds faster than other available materials such as pigskin. The Kerecis technology was invented by the company’s founder and CEO, G. Fertram Sigurjónsson. “The goal with our first product, Kerecis™ Omega3 Wound, was to avert amputations,” says Fertram. The product has been well received and in 2017, the company was the fastest-growing company in Iceland and the runner-up in 2018. “The United States are our biggest market. There are over 100,000 amputations performed annually in the US and about 500,000 globally because of persistent wounds that won’t heal,” Fertram says. The company’s aiming towards becoming a leading company worldwide in biologic technologies. “That is going well. We have grown to be the 10th largest player on the US market.”
