Raw Spirulina
Whether you have studied the benefits of raw and organic foods or not, it should be obvious that they are the most natural, nutritious and healthiest for you, physically and energetically. So when my spirulina supplier told me that he had found a raw spirulina supplier, I was very excited. I bellowed - Yee Haa! Below is a description of how raw and typical spirulina is harvested. I include most of the original document sent to me by my supplier and added a few bits of my own, they are in 'marks'.

At this point in time, you will not find raw spirulina in any stores.
And as far as I know, my supplier is the only company selling raw spirulina in Australia,
and one of very few companies selling raw spirulina in the world.

This is how Raw Spirulina is produced:

Harvested spirulina (blue-green algae) is reduced to a thick paste, then pressed through a machine making long round or wide noodles. (spirulina spaghetti). These noodles are then placed on trays in a large fan forced drier for a maximum of 7 hours at a maximum temperature of 600C reducing the moisture content to 5-7% . Then the "chips" are crushed/milled to customer’s specifications. (This temperature may seem high but it doesn't adversely affect the spirulina. Spirulina harvested from desert locations reaching surface temperatures of 620C came out of dormination upon contact with water). 'Additionally, with raw spirulina you do not need any binders to make it into tablets.

This is how typical spirulina is processed anywhere else:

Harvested spirulina is reduced to a thick paste, then it goes to a rotary atomizer to mill it into the smallest particles possible. This very fine paste is then heated to 600C and sprayed into a drying chamber. The air inlet temperature can be up to 1600C, the air outlet temperature about 850C. The drying takes about 30 seconds. (The air temperature must be so high and the spirulina powder must be so fine, because the powder must dry up while falling from the top of the drying chamber to the floor.) The powder is then bulk packed, or it goes for tableting, or granulated for capsuling - the powder is too fine to be filled into capsules. The granulation involves mixing it with a binder and going through a machine similar to an instant coffee granulator. Only then these granules can be filled into capsules. So, if you buy encapsulated spray died spirulina, don’t believe that you are getting pure spirulina.

What makes whole "raw" spirulina nutritionally superior to spray dried spirulina? 'Heat is the biggest factor in the equation. Extreme heat alters the cellular structure of proteins. Spirulina is 62%-65% protein. It also kills the enzymes'. The higher the temperature the greater loss of nutrients. Every cell of spirulina entering the rotary atomizer is crushed and the filament exposed to extremely hot air. Everybody knows that if the skin of an apple is not cut and the apple is stored in atmospheric temperatures, it will keep all its nutritional values for months and months. If you chop it up, you have to dry it for future use, but the nutritional value is reduced proportionally to the temperature used for drying.

Though I haven’t tried it, I have a feeling if you would mix raw spirulina with water and gave it the right growing conditions, it would start growing again - it is "live" food - just like all raw fruits and vegetables - and everybody knows that raw foods are the healthiest. Raw spirulina is also much easier to mix with water, juices, or other foods and because the cell walls are not damaged, the odour and taste are not as pungent as spirulina that was finely milled in the atomizer. (In all honesty, I have noticed superiority of the raw spirulina, over the spirulina I have been distributing since 1995, but not VERY significant, with the exception of less pungent taste and odour and incomparably easier mixing of the powder.

The benefits for the consumer of tableting and encapsulating raw spirulina without any additives are self evident - certainty of getting a 100% pure product. Because the "chips" can be milled to particles of the right size for encapsulating, there is no need to re-granulate it as it is with the finely milled spirulina, thus you have encapsulated pure spirulina powder.

I don’t know who discovered it, but when the "chips" are milled to certain grain size, and compressed in a special tableting machine, under very high pressure the protein and carbohydrates will act as a glue and bind the powder together. This is not possible with spray-dried spirulina - the heat during spray-drying changes the physical properties of spirulina (you can’t do with a boiled egg, what you can do with a raw egg). I am not aware of the existence of such a tableting machine in Australia, but in the very near future I will be buying one.

I expect many spirulina aficionados will want to know the source of my raw spirulina and whether it is certified organic. I will not reveal the source of my raw spirulina. It is a relatively small site and just about all of the spirulina goes to Europe. The U.S. definition of an organically grown product is different to the European Economic Community definition. Hawaiian Spirulina sold in Australia, USA and a few other countries as certified organic, cannot be sold in the EEC as such - because it doesn’t meet the EEC’s criteria for classifying it as organic. So, for my supplier there is no worthwhile reason to have his production site certified as organic.

In the past many of my customers pleaded with me not to change the source of my spirulina, as they were very happy with it. I will continue to stock Spirulina Plus powder and 500 mg tablets, as well as Raw Spirulina powder, tablets and capsules.

Vlado - Health Harvest Spirulina

Testimonials from satisfied customers:

I had my Kinesiologist test my body for the spirulina...the positive charge on it was huge, ie. my body thinks it's marvellous and I had to double my dosage!” - Kim Gould

Thanks ZaKaiRan for the energy boosting Spirilina! I have tried many products on the market and yours blew away the competition! The energy I received throughout the day was tremendous! I love this product! Amy Meyers - Coeur d'Alene, Idaho