Amidst the growing awareness about our planet’s climate crisis, there is now a burgeoning need for more sustainable food resources.

In recent years, seaweed has been quite a catch for health-conscious consumers, in turn, making kelp, brown macroalgae, one of the more in-demand types of seaweed offerings. As such, startup business AKUA has set to enhance the sustainability of the snack industry with its product line of kelp-based jerky and pasta.

It’s no wonder AKUA embraced kelp as the main ally in its mission of making our snack foods healthier and more sustainable: the seaweed is regenerative (it can grow about two feet a day), is able to remove incredible amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, on top of it all, it’s extremely nutritious.

Because of the health value of kelp, AKUA sought to leverage this as it developed its kelp jerky which, according to the company, is the first meat alternative snack made from ocean-farmed sea, and the only high-protein, soy-free vegan jerky on the market.

But the tempting kelp snack is not the only product developed by AKUA. The company has recently been seeking new and innovative ways of presenting kelp into meals, so it came up with kelp pasta as another nutritious product, while also currently working on developing another sweeter snack focused on gut health.

As minimizing its carbon footprint is another crucial mission for AKUA, last year alone, the company’s Kelp Jerky product utilized 40,000 pounds of regenerative ocean-farmed kelp, pulling nearly 1 ton of carbon from the sea, thus making it carbon-negative.

Also, in order to promote local ocean farming communities, AKUA is sourcing 100 percent of its kelp from US-based ocean farmers, supporting the creation of hundreds of new jobs near coastal areas.

While kelp may not be able to single-handedly revolutionize the snack industry, products like AKUA’s could gradually shift our tastes towards healthier, more sustainable, and just as delicious food products.