Barnacle Foods has introduced Habanero Hot Sauce, featuring grown kelp as its primary ingredient. The company says the kelp adds a savory flavor that complements tangy mango, fermented sweety drop peppers and fermented habanero peppers.
Alaska's frigid waters are known for producing the world's most prized seafood, kelp, a type of seaweed prolific along the Alaska coast. Kelp's culinary and ecological virtues capture the attention of chefs, climate scientists and nutritionists. The flavor includes spicy habanero for a spark of heat, balanced with a hint of sweetness and a savory boost from the kelp (the first ingredient).
Barnacle Foods states its mission is to “do good” for oceans, communities and the collective future. Its products are helping expand the emerging kelp farming industry in Alaska by providing a market for up-start kelp farmers and harvesters. The benefits of kelp reportedly include flavor-enhancing saltiness (think umami) and nutritional density of hard-to-come-by vitamins and minerals. It is one of the most earth-friendly ingredients, requires no inputs to cultivate and boasts benefits to ocean chemistry while growing.