"A real opportunity for the fishing industry"
Innovative products from seaweed
What is left for someone who cannot tolerate wheat, sugar and many other food ingredients? "Changing one's diet is not that easy," Deniz Ficicioglu knows from her own experience. For the young Berliner, this was the impetus to get more intensively involved with food. Together with Jacob von Manteuffel, she founded the food brands BettaFish and OCEANFRUIT, whose vegan products follow a different principle than conventional foods: "We don't use the typical ingredients from monocultures, but want to ensure more biodiversity in the food system." The focus is on alternatives to classic fish preparations. The basic ingredient of the products is seaweed. This gives the successful foundation of the two an additional meaning: "We show that plant-based alternatives are not necessarily a competition to conventional fish products, but an opportunity for the fish industry," says Deniz Ficicioglu. The two will be answering questions about this at fish international.
"Algae are suitable for everyday use with a long-term perspective"
Deniz Ficicioglu speaks with expertise and enthusiasm about food of the (near) future. It is therefore surprising that she initially had only indirect contact with the topic. After studying social and business communication with a focus on consumer behaviour, her own allergies ("I hardly knew what I could eat anymore") directed her interest to food intolerances. Ficicioglu wrote a blog about it, published two cookbooks - and met Jacob von Manteuffel in the product development department of her then employer. He had previously studied Ficicioglu's topic from a different angle as a master's student in resource management. Around the globe, Jacob von Manteuffel visited scientists, initiatives and companies involved in the cultivation and use of seaweed for food production. The perspectives of the two matched: "We quickly agreed that food made from algae is not a short-term trend, but suitable for everyday use with a long-term perspective," recalls Ficicioglu - the course was initially set for OCEANFRUIT and BettaFish.
15 tonnes of vegan TU-NAH sandwiches sold in 4000 discount shops to kick off the campaign
The road to the two brands has been winding but successful. The BettaFish product TU-NAH (a vegan alternative to tuna on sandwiches, pizzas and creams, available in retail and in various food service containers) and the likewise vegan OCEANFRUIT "sea salads" (seaweed salads in various, well-known flavours) were received with great interest by the market. Prizes and awards hailed; and a leading discounter ordered 15 tonnes of TU-NAH sandwiches - which were sold out in 4000 branches in just a few days.
"Seaweed is an excellent basis for high-quality food".
But the two founders do not only have the economic success of their own products in mind: "Seaweed is an excellent basis for high-quality food," is their conviction. This is already commonplace in many Asian countries. In Europe, on the other hand, algae are industrially used only for cosmetics and pharmaceutical products and in the food sector as a tasteless gelling and thickening agent. "The potential is much greater," Ficicioglu is convinced and points to the variety of flavours in the algae world: "Some taste like truffles, others like lemon or even pepper - there are thousands of edible species."
An additional source of income for fishermen and breeders
Growing seaweed for food has great ecological value. "It is a naturally occurring resource that can be harvested without much interference with nature," says Jacob von Manteuffel. And the economic benefit is at least as high. "Algae farming and harvesting can be a new or additional source of income for fishermen and fish farmers," Deniz Ficicioglu emphasises. In view of dwindling fish resources in the world's oceans and a growing demand for protein, the entrepreneur sees algae farming and use as an important future topic for fisheries: "It requires the same skills that the fishing industry already has today."
At fish international both topics come together: There, the focus will be both on alternatives to fish products made from plant components and on the future of the fishing industry, its production processes and its products. "These will definitely be exciting discussions, I am looking forward to the fair," says Deniz Ficicioglu.
