What is Sea Moss? The REAL TRUTH!

Irish Sea Moss which is scientifically known as Chondrus Crispus is a type of red algae that is native to the Atlantic coastlines of Europe and North America. It is commonly found in rocky areas along the shores of Ireland and other parts of the North Atlantic. Irish Sea Moss has been harvested for centuries for its culinary and medicinal properties.

This should not be confused with the most common types of “sea moss” on the market scientifically known as gracilaria and Eucheuma cottonii. These are often farmed on ropes at large scale, causing damage to local ecosytems. These are both also considerably less nutritious and carry the concern of being contaminated with heavy metals which can cause long term damage.

In fact, if you do some of your own research into Sea Moss you will see all the articles online referring to sea moss as being Chondrus Crispus, but most companies are piggybacking off the term of sea moss being popular which has been associated with several species of algae. In fact many are even describing Chondrus crispus on their website and then using other seaweeds in their products, this is simply wrong. Why would they do this though? Well firstly, there is significantly more of these other seaweeds (gracilaria, eucheumi ect) in the market due to the mass farming of them. They can be grown on ropes in the ocean or grown in artificial pools, allowing vast quantities of low quality sea moss to be produced each year. Secondly, due to the large volumes these alternatives are considerably cheaper. Often only costing 10-25% of what real Organic Irish Sea Moss costs, and this is after they have flown it half-way across the globe from Vietnam or St Lucia.

They make bold claims which they can’t back up. Such as “contains 92 minerals of the 102 the body is made of” this has zero scientific backing and seems to be the results of an echo chamber of people continually saying it and so people just assume it’s true. I must admit we fell for this too in the early days until I started to do some digging myself, sadly there is no evidence to back this up and this just erodes the trust of the customer in the market.

The market has exploded over the last 12 months with new companies looking to make a quick buck after seeing the trend gaining popularity. Almost none of the companies in the market are using real Chondrus Cripsus, either out of a lack of understanding of pure dishonesty. I hope it is the former!

Due to cheap rope farms, Sea Moss is sold internationally for cheap prices with little nutritional value and companies all repeating the same unbacked claim (“92 out of 102 minerals”), much of this is sold by companies who in their information claim to be using Irish Sea Moss. This is simply false whether by intent or just misunderstanding.

Further to this, I have not seen any companies talking about where they specifically get their sea moss from. They often just state a country of origin but don’t talk about the conditions or environment. Is it grown on ropes, are the waters polluted, is there an issue with heavy metal toxicity. Sadly, I think many companies don’t answer these questions as they don’t have the answer. They don’t want to find out either as this could mean seeing this would mean an internal conflict of selling something they know isn’t living up to the claims they are making. 

We are here to make an end to this! We are here to be honest and open with our customers and the whole market of wellness enthusiasts, we want to open the floor to debate and we will happily own our mistakes and do everything we can to serve our community and not just make a quick buck.

So let’s talk about what we do at THE MOSS WAY!

All of our Irish Sea Moss is the real deal… Chondrus Crispus.

This is all sourced from the same region, near a small village on the West Coast of Ireland where it naturally grows (not on ropes) on the rocks.

Our amazing teams of farmers have been picking seaweed by hand for the last 4 generations.

The location is pristine, and the local village has a population of less than 200, so there is almost zero pollution in the environment.

All the seaweed is harvested sustainably by hand and in season, ensuring that there is always enough left for the marine friends to thrive.

Our harvest area waters are quality tested to ensure that they are fresh and clean, as this massively impacts the quality of the final products.

As Irish Sea Moss has a symbiotic relationship with its surrounds that allows it to absorb all the amazing nutrients from the ocean water and the rocks it latches on too. This is why it’s so important that it is naturally grown.

We then take our hand-picked Irish sea moss and leave it out to dry in the summer sun.

Once its dried it then goes off for state-of-the-art testing to look at its microbiological profile. We check for all kinds of nasty bacteria and fungi, we also check to ensure there is no unsafe levels of heavy metals and finally we check the mineral composition to ensure we are happy that we are delivering what we promise; an abundance of natural nutrition to help you thrive.