What color is Nori?

Probably, Nori you eat often is Yaki-Nori (roasted Nori), and the color may be greenish black color. Generally high quality Nori has deep color and glossiness. You may notice that the color of commercial-use Nori used for Ramen topping or seasoned Nori is relatively pale.
Leaves of Nori grown from the sea-farming contain pigments such as green-color of chlorophyll, red-color of phycoerythrin, blue-color of phycocyanin, and orange-yellow carotenoids. As a result, it absorbs light over a very wide wavelength range, so it looks like a black color.
The red-color of phycoerythrin tends to be heat denatured during the heating process to make roasted Nori, and gradually the green as the complementary color stands out.

With regard to the pigments contained in Nori, many efficacies such as deodorant, bactericidal, detoxification effects and anti-oxidation etc. have been proved or studied continuously. In a nutshell, deep color and glossy Nori is not only delicious but also contains plenty of nourishments.
By the way, in the beta-carotene content ranking among 2191 items in the official food composition table, Nori is the 1st place!
Recently, new algae such as Midorimushi or Spirulina, which are said to be good for the body, are becoming conspicuous in the market. However, by searching the nutritional value of Nori we can easily understand it’s competitive with those.

Now you know that Nori is a great healthy food to us. It has deliciousness to eat, beautifulness to see, and long-history in diet habit.