QUALITY CONTROL

QUALITY CONTROL IS OUR #1 PRIORITY

MARPHYL® Marine Phytoplankton is approved for customer use only after it goes through multiple internal and independent tests and meets Health Canada Standards. We take pride in our state of the art facility and the quality control procedures that allow us to produce a 100% natural and safe marine phytoplankton.

What is MARPHYL® Marine Phytoplankton?

MARPHYL®is a 100% all-natural, wild, multi-species marine phytoplankton. It is a whole food ingredient with a full complement of essential nutrients. Marine phytoplankton has been called the most nutritionally dense food on the planet and supplies nutrients that are lacking in most of our diets and the diets of our pets.

Where is it sourced?

Marine phytoplankton is found in all oceans around the world but thrives in the waters of the Strait of Georgia on the east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. The pristine waters of the Strait offer a unique marine environment, like no other in the world. The water from snowmelt in the mountains of Western Canada provides a high content of minerals and nutrients contributing to an abundant and diverse production of marine phytoplankton. This area is among the most biologically productive marine ecosystems in the world for phytoplankton, fish, aquatic plants and mammals. We source MARPHYL®Marine Phytoplankton from this body of water.

QUALITY CONTROL

Quality control. Step 1.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (FOC) have implemented a weekly Marine Biotoxins monitoring program. It ensures that the area where MARPHYL®Marine Phytoplankton is sourced does not contain high levels of any of the harmful toxins such as PSP, ASP, DSP as well as any sewage contamination, oil contamination, or any radiation. Our quality control personnel checks this information before starting every batch of phytoplankton. Only after we are sure that the area is cleared of any marine biotoxins or pollutants, we begin the process of harvesting.

Quality control. Step 2.

But before each batch of phytoplankton is harvested, we send a sample of the tank seawater containing high density of the phytoplankton to a research biologist and taxonomic specialist (our scientific advisor). Using light microscopy, our scientific advisor and specialist checks for any toxic species of phytoplankton that might have proliferated during the growing process and records the relative abundance of all major phytoplankton species. When the microscope inspection is complete, our specialist produces a Species Composition Report (SCR) and advises if the culture is suitable for commercial purposes. If not, the tank water is discarded, and a new culture is started.

Quality control. Step 3.

After the Species Composition Report is complete and the culture is cleared for the next stage of production, the harvesting begins. The harvesting system collects and concentrates the phytoplankton into a thick filtrate that resembles an organic slurry. A sample of the slurry is tested at our facility for Amnesiac Shellfish Poisoning (ASP, specifically domoic acid), Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP, specifically saxitoxins) and Diharretic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) using Jellett’s government-approved rapid-testing kits. Any test that indicates a positive reading results in the discarding of the entire lot of the harvested phytoplankton.

Quality control. Step 4.

After the organic slurry is dried and turned into a fine powder, a random sample of it is sent to an independent laboratory for safety testing, nutritional testing as well as ASP, PSP, and DSP testing.
Only after we receive back the results from the independent laboratory and we get a confirmation that each lot of the phytoplankton meets Health Canada Standards, we approve the batch for consumer consumption.