Qualitas Health, Houston, TX, has entered a long-term, strategic partnership with commercial crop producer Green Stream Farms to triple its algae production. With this partnership, Qualitas achieves enough critical mass to become a sustainable omega-3 alternative, worldwide, at commercial scale, the company said.

“We are proud to produce a new category of sustainable omega-3s from algae—Almega PL—at a scale that will give us global impact,” said Dr. Rebecca White, vice president of operations at Qualitas Health. “This partnership confirms that we are poised to meet demand at a massive scale, and jumpstarts us as we prepare for exciting moves coming up later this year.”

All of Qualitas Health’s products feature 100% vegan, algae-based ingredients that are specifically designed to deliver highly bioavailable omega-3s in an easy to digest form. Its flagship ingredient Almega PL delivers the omega-3 EPA naturally bound to polar lipids to provide superior digestibility and absorption. EPA is best known for its cardiovascular benefits, though it also has a positive impact on mood, skin, and joint health.

“Omega-3 is an essential nutrient that represents an exciting market, currently dominated by fish and krill. Many people don’t realize, however, that fish and krill get their omega-3s from algae,” said Qualitas Health CEO Miguel Calatayud. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the expert farmers at Green Stream Farms to bring vegan, sustainably produced nutritional products to more people than ever before, and to become the truly green alternative in the omega-3 world.”

Tom Richard, CEO of Green Stream Farms, added: “We are proud to partner with Qualitas Health to produce algae on a commercial scale. Our partnership will lead the industry in taking a true farming approach to algae production. We plan to continue to find innovative ways for algae to become a more sustainable product.”

Qualitas Health’s new algae farm in Columbus, New Mexico, will expand the company’s total acreage to 150 acres in cultivation, roughly equivalent to 45,000 acres of peas in terms of protein yield, the company said. Until recently, the nutritional promise of algae remained unrealized, as it proved too expensive to farm in substantial quantities. Qualitas has created a global algae-based products platform to deliver vegan, highly bioavailable nutritional products with full traceability, starting with omega-3 supplements.

The Green Stream Farms partnership will enable Qualitas Health to expand its algae production to meet growing national and international demand for vegan omega-3 supplements.