Spirulina Powder and Tablets

Spirulina is not a plant and not a seaweed. It is Arthrospira platensis, a filamentous cyanobacterium, formerly named Spirulina platensis, grown in open raceway ponds or closed photobioreactors, then harvested, washed, filtered and spray-dried. What Thovek ships is the whole dried non-viable biomass, not an extract, and that distinction carries through to both the specification and the customs classification. The assay set follows the USP Dietary Supplements Compendium monograph for Arthrospira platensis: protein not less than 52 per cent, C-phycocyanin not less than 5 per cent, and microcystins not more than 0.5 mg/kg by ELISA, with commercial food-grade material typically running above the protein and pigment floors. For a compositional reference point, USDA FoodData Central gives dried spirulina at 57.47 g protein and 28.5 mg iron per 100 g. C-phycocyanin, the blue phycobiliprotein that gives the biomass its colour, is heat- and light-labile, so drying conditions, packaging and storage are what protect both the pigment assay and the visual quality buyers judge the lot on. Two things belong on the buyer's file before any label is drafted. First, spirulina's cobamide content is predominantly pseudovitamin B12: analysis of spirulina tablets found roughly 83 per cent pseudovitamin B12 against 17 per cent true vitamin B12, so the material must not be declared or sold as a vitamin B12 source, whatever a microbiological assay reports. Second, the category label the sheet row used - superfood - is a general, non-specific reference to health benefits under Article 10(3) of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, permitted in the EU only alongside an authorised specific health claim, which is why this record is titled by the ingredient rather than the marketing phrase. The material itself is vegan and vegetarian, of algal origin, with no bovine, porcine, marine fish or dairy input at any stage.