In UAE, locally grown plant is helping create ‘healthy’ burgers

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In UAE, locally grown plant is helping create ‘healthy’ burgers

A UAE-based company is using Salicornia as salt replacement in burger patties

Published: July 13, 2022 08:13 Compiled by Nathaniel Lacsina, Senior Web Editor and with inputs from AFP

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660846-01-02-(Read-Only) — Dubai: A plant grown using salt water is thriving in the UAE's desert farms and helping create ‘healthy’ burgers, showing sustainable agriculture's potential in the toughest conditions. Image Credit: AFP

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660845-01-02 — Salicornia, a succulent, is already being used as a salt replacement in burger patties - a rare farming success in oil-rich UAE, which imports nearly all of its food. Image Credit: AFP

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succulent salicornia plants — "You have the salty flavour with less sodium, but you also have other benefits," said Tina Siegismund, head of marketing and innovation at UAE-based Global Food Industries, a frozen food manufacturer. Image Credit: AFP

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660840-01-02 — The asparagus-like plant reduces sodium content by 40 per cent in the company's healthy burgers, which also contain chicken, quinoa and kale. Image Credit: AFP

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660836-01-02 — Native to parts of North America, Europe, South Africa and South Asia, the plant is ideal for the UAE's climate, and contains anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, according to Siegismund. Image Credit: AFP

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660835-01-02 — Agriculture produces less than 1 per cent of GDP in the UAE, a country on the frontline of climate change with temperatures regularly topping 50 degrees Celsius and rising rapidly. Image Credit: AFP

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660829-01-02 — A worker prepares a salicornia plant-based mix to be made into burger patties. | Salicornia cultivation began last year in a number of farms across the UAE as part of an experiment using brine run-off from desalination plants by the Dubai-based International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA). Image Credit: AFP

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660828-01-02 — Augusto Becerra Lopez-Lavalle, chief scientist at ICBA, said research was now underway into generating more of the ‘high-value crop’, which sells for $20 a kilo (2.2 pounds) in France. Image Credit: AFP

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660833-01-02 — Salicornia plant-based burger patties are produced on a production line. | "We went from building this prototype, to piloting at scale with eight farmers, and now the question is how to scale up," Lopez-Lavalle told AFP. Image Credit: AFP

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660827-01-02 — In the future, salicornia could "become a really important food ingredient. If there is an economic value and the production system is developed for this, it can become a replacement for salt and any other micronutrients that are added today artificially to processed food." Image Credit: AFP

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660825-01-02 — Salicornia plant-based burger patties being cooked in a pan. | For now, salicornia remains a niche product, its health benefits unknown to most, admits Siegismund. "It's not a product that makes big, big profit, but we believe in it and we will continue," she said. Image Credit: AFP

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