ScotBio's Supablu
ScotBio was founded in 2007 with a clear focus on unlocking the potential of spirulina, one of the world's oldest and most nutrient-rich microalgae, as a scalable, sustainable ingredient for modern food systems.
We spoke to ScotBio to find out more about the business and its natural blue colourant, Supablu. Find out more in the Q&A below.
How did ScotBio start and what makes the biotechnology unique?
From the outset, the company has specialised in producing high-value compounds from spirulina, including phycocyanin, the naturally occurring pigment that gives our natural colourant, Supablu, its vibrant blue colour. While spirulina has long been recognised as a “future food”, the challenge has always been producing it consistently, at scale, and in a way that meets food industry standards.
ScotBio’s breakthrough is its proprietary, closed-loop photobioreactor technology. Unlike traditional open pond systems, this allows spirulina to be grown in fully controlled indoor environments, ensuring purity, consistency, and traceability while removing the variability and contamination risks associated with conventional methods. This technological foundation is what makes Supablu possible, overcoming the historic limitations of stability and scalability.
What is the development process for Supablu, and what makes it different from other food colourants?
Supablu was developed to solve one of the most persistent challenges in food formulation, creating a natural blue that performs like a synthetic.
Blue is one of the rarest colours in nature, and historically, natural blue colourants have struggled with stability, particularly under heat and across different pH levels. Through a combination of advanced process and formulation technologies, ScotBio has been able to overcome these limitations.
Derived from spirulina, Supablu delivers a level of consistency and functionality that sets it apart. It is both bake-stable and pH-stable meaning it can be used in applications where natural blues have traditionally failed, from baked goods to beverages. We are also close to announcing a UV stable product, Supablu2 which will mean various drink products could be dyed naturally.
Crucially, Supablu does all this while remaining clean-label, allergen-free, non-GMO, and compliant with major regulatory standards. In short, it offers manufacturers the visual performance of a synthetic dye, without the petrochemical origin.
With so many Scottish celebrations coming in 2026, what applications do you foresee for Supablu?
With Scotland set to enjoy a period of heightened global visibility in 2026, from Scotland’s presence at the World Cup and the hosting of the Commonwealth Games, Supablu offers producers a timely and highly versatile way to bring a distinctive “blue” identity to their products.
We’re already seeing strong interest across bakery, beverages, dairy, and confectionery - from blue chocolate to blue beer, ice creams, and limited-edition confectionery lines. The key advantage is that Supablu performs reliably across these categories, allowing brands to innovate with confidence.
Beyond aesthetics, Supablu enables brands to align with evolving consumer expectations. Products can carry a strong visual impact while still meeting clean-label standards, which is increasingly important for both retailers and consumers.
We’re proud to be supporting Team Scotland at the Commonwealth Games by supplying SupaBlu to create a locally produced natural blue ice cream. That will provide a nutritional boost to a great tasting ice cream. Alongside this, we’ll also be providing raw spirulina for senior dietetics / nutritionists to incorporate into athlete diets.
For Scottish producers, there is a real opportunity to combine national storytelling with ingredient integrity – creating products that celebrate Scotland on the world stage without compromising on quality or transparency. We hope to be able to lend a balanced bonus addition to product manufacturers with our blue, to allow a natural element to flourish as Scotland enjoys time in the limelight.
What are some of the sustainability elements of Supablu?
Sustainability is at the core of both Supablu and the wider ScotBio platform.
Our spirulina is grown in a modular closed photobioreactor array rather than large open ponds. This significantly reduces land use, water contamination risks, and seasonal variability. Our systems are also designed to integrate with industrial partners, using wasted heat and captured CO₂ to power production.
Our reactor site is a pilot, proving we can produce 50 tonnes per annum. It belongs in a co-location site with a major food producer with by-product streams we can tap into, or in a renewable / power generation business needing a very credible carbon mitigation outcome.
Ours is a circular model where emissions become inputs, lowering both carbon footprint and operating costs. It also enables localised production, reducing food miles and building more resilient supply chains. Currently spirulina is predominantly produced in open-ponds in China and India, far from both European and North American markets. Our technology allows it to be grown at a completely guaranteed year-round conformance, where the product is needed. It means brands would be able to source from their own modular system, reducing their own waste streams potentially, and without shipping / supply chain constraints.
In contrast to synthetic dyes, many of which are derived from petrochemicals, Supablu offers a natural alternative that aligns with the direction of travel for the food industry – lower impact, more transparent, and inherently scalable.
What have been some of the proudest moments of ScotBio’s journey so far?
One of the standout milestones has been successfully developing a natural blue colourant that meets the performance expectations of global food manufacturers, something that has challenged the industry for decades! To go toe to toe with multi-billion-dollar firms and have it confirmed that our product outperforms theirs, by their own technical team, and third party testing labs, is proof Scotland can perform at the tip of the industry spear.
We have also achieved regulatory approval across key markets, including the UK, EU, and US, at the first hurdle every time, a significant step in showing we are not merely an R&D business, but a viable commercial business in our own right. Supablu will soon appear in products on shelf, heralding a clear change in strategy from biotechnology scale up, to ingredients producer, ready for listing with global colour houses.
Equally important has been the ability to demonstrate our technology at scale from our base in Scotland. Producing a world-class ingredient locally, using advanced biotechnology, is something the team is incredibly proud of, particularly as it showcases Scotland’s growing strength in sustainable food innovation.
Where do you see ScotBio and Supablu in the future?
Looking ahead, ScotBio’s ambition is to help lead the global shift away from petrochemical-based blue colourants by scaling the natural alternative, SupaBlu, internationally. At the same time, the company is building a broader platform of spirulina-derived ingredients, including proteins that can be deployed directly to manufacturers as concerns increase about the long-term availability of protein. Once we remove the phycocyanin to formulate SupaBlu we are left with a highly functional protein ingredient with a complete amino acid profile.
As demand grows for alternative proteins and functional ingredients, spirulina has a critical role to play in supporting healthier, more sustainable diets. We have already proven our protein works as an egg replacement in binding and baking, even so far as working successfully in mayonnaises, sauces, even sausages. But to devote time to that, we need our colours in market – which we hope to have achieved by year end.
In five to 10 years, we see ScotBio playing a key role in reshaping global ingredient supply chains. We have Supablu HS1. With UV comes the unicorn – blue is so rare in food, because of how rare it is in nature. Phycocyanin, the blue we can express natural from our spirulina, is now heat, bake and soon UV stable. These markets, with recent US legislation changes banning several remaining artificial dyes, allows us to be put firmly in the global industry spotlight.
We also expect to see our modular photobioreactor systems deployed internationally, enabling partners to produce both colourants and protein-rich ingredients locally using their own by-product streams. This has the potential to fundamentally change how food ingredients are sourced and manufactured. Not that we believe we have created something singular and unique – but that we have proven it can be commercially scaled, and answers real problems major manufacturers face (carbon emissions, protein shortages). We have met with some of the world’s largest firms who have been stunned at the quality and technical proficiency of our PBR system, and indeed the staff we have in-house.
Ultimately, our ambition is to move from a single breakthrough product to a portfolio of sustainable ingredients – from natural colours to functional proteins – helping the industry transition towards cleaner, smarter, and more resilient food systems.
Find out more about ScotBio and SupaBlu here.
Image Credits: ScotBio