Scientists have patented a seaweed that tastes just like bacon

(Image credit: Twitter)

published 16 July 2015

Now you can eat your bacon and have it too, with a new healthy take on the fatty favorite. Even better, it's a 'bacon' that vegetarians can enjoy because it's not pork — it's seaweed.

After 15 years of development, researchers at Oregon State University have patented a particular form of the seaweed, dulse, to create a delicacy that, The Associated Press reports, "is packed with protein, has twice the nutritional value of kale, and tastes like bacon." Developers are even going so far as to call it the next big superfood.

The seaweed even looks a bit like it tastes; dulse is not green, but a somewhat translucent shade of red and is reminiscent of lettuce in appearance. While seaweed-bacon has yet to take off commercially, thus far, product developers have cooked up a dulse-based rice cracker, a salad dressing, and, of course, fried 'bacon' strips.