human consumption agar is found in baking and confectionary products and is
widely used to clarify wine, juice and vinegars due to its excellent protein binding
properties. In larger industries, agar is used
to make adhesives and capsules for tablets.
Calcified red seaweed
Due to their hard, calcified nature, encrusting coralline red seaweeds have a number
of economic uses. In modern medical sci-
ence coralline algae are used in the preparation of dental bone implants.
Coralline rubble (maerl, rhodoliths) is used
in calcium mineral supplements, as soil pH
conditioners, in the filtration of acidic
drinking water, and as food additives for
livestock.
Coralline algae are commonly used as ‘live
rock’ in the marine aquarium industry, and
in many tropical communities coralline rock
is even used as building stones.
A huge variety of seaweeds are readily available in Asian supermarkets. These algae
form an important part of the diets of many Asian communities that have been eating seaweeds for over 1000 years.