Foodie students answer a cry for kelp

Kelp doesn’t exactly spring to mind when you’re in the mood for a snack, but that hasn’t stopped some Bellville students from exploring its potential as a food source.

Food technology students at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) had a chance to development some “treats” using the brown seaweed, which is reputed to be packed full of nutrients.

Thethird-yearstudents showed off their creations – everything from kelp-flavoured hummus to marmalade and frozen dessert — at the Bellville campus, on Thursday February 2.

Hailing the project a success, Larry Dolley, manager of CPUT’s Agrifood Technology Station, said now that the “prototypes” had been rolled out “we can go back to the drawing board and see how the product can be improved and evolved”.

The university partnered with kelp distributor CMD Industries on the project. The company’s owner Brynmor Jansen was impressed with the students’ efforts.

“We started looking at kelp as a food product and how it could be included in other products,” he said.

Allistaire October from CMD Industries believes there is a growing market for kelp products.

“We need to look at how society is changing and how people opt for on-the-go and convenient meals, using kelp in health drinks serves as a good source of nutrients,” he said.

Student Achmad Booley said his team was pleased with the “krusks” – wholewheat rusks with goji berries, chocolate chips and kelp — they made.

“A lot of work went into developing this treat but we are happy with our product. It feels really good to see the final product,” he said.

SakinaSibangula’steam took two months to make a vegan-friendly frozen dessert called Icespresso.

“It wasn’t easy as we had to keep on adding and taking things away until we got the product just the way we had envisioned,” she said.