FAQs

General

Thank you for asking! We are a new whole health company focused on bringing sustainably sourced seaweed into your daily life. Our first product is the Daily Bite, a nutrition bite that delivers the benefits of seaweed in delicious, once-a-day form. Our name is inspired by seaweed itself, which doesn’t have roots and instead absorbs nutrients through all its surfaces (one reason why it’s the world’s most nutrient dense and diverse food!).

That’s a great question. As we’re building Rootless, we keep coming back to the idea of goodness. Our goal is to create products made from real, whole foods that improve health on many levels: individual mental and physical health; environmental health; and community health.

The Daily Bite is a nutrition bite made with sustainably sourced seaweed and whole ingredients like almonds, dates, and seeds. It’s designed to give you a measured dose of seaweed to reap its maximum benefits (heart and gut health, metabolism and energy boost, to name a few) in a single tasty bite that you can enjoy daily. It’s vegan, gluten-free, and has no added refined sugar.

Not like seaweed, if you were wondering. While we personally love the taste of seaweed, we know it’s not everyone’s cup of chai. That’s why we paired it with dates, almonds, and seeds to create a chewy, toothsome, subtly sweet bite. We have five flavors: Cacao Crunch, Toasted Hazelnut, Double Strawberry, Coconut Chai, and Orange Pistachio. We’re already working on future flavors (including some savory ones) so if you have ideas or requests, we’d love to hear them: hello@getrootless.com.

Ooh, good question. Our founder, Sachi, prefers the Coconut Chai because it reminds her of chai time with her parents in Bangalore, but the Cacao Crunch might be our team favorite.

We offer a monthly subscription of Daily Bites to ensure you never run out! When you sign up you get 10% off every order.

Your first order will come with a free, refillable tin and 30 Daily Bites (1-month supply). Each subsequent order will come with refill boxes that you can plop straight into the tin!

We will always remind you three days before we ship your order, so you have a chance to change flavors, update shipment date, or skip altogether. You can cancel at any time, in your Rootless Account or email us at hello@getrootless.com.

We are only available in the United States.

Honestly, it’s better than a vitamin, because studies have shown that whole food nutrition is better for you than relying on supplements. Since our bodies are able to use the nutrients provided by nature in their whole food form, we designed our Daily Bites to be a whole-food based boost of energy, gut and heart health, and immunity. They’re jam-packed with micronutrients, including vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants only found in seaweed that fight oxidative stress in your body— which makes the Daily Bite an easy, enjoyable way to get in your daily dose of supercharged seaweed benefits.

Yes! When you sign up for Rootless emails (they’re fun, we promise!), we’ll send you a code for 10% off your first Starter Kit. Not valid on subscriptions.

Seaweed and Sourcing

An independent, third party lab has run these extensive nutrition panels on our bites. We have also run heavy metal and toxicity tests on our product - the bites are under safe harbor limits as regulated by Prop 65. There isn’t yet an established standardized methodology for detecting and counting microplastics in food.

Our supplier, Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, has studied the potential for seaweed to uptake microplastics, and has found that because macroalgae don’t consume random particles of food or filter seawater like filter feeders do, if microplastics are present, they would be on the surface of the seaweed and not within, which would be washed away during cleaning and processing.

In short: Seaweed has crazy amounts of benefits, especially if you eat it regularly. Studies (yes, studies!) have shown that communities that eat a little bit of seaweed every day, especially in Japan and Okinawa, live longer and healthier lives. Research has shown that these cultures have less heart-, diabetes-, and obesity-related deaths compared to the US. Seaweed’s powerhouse of nutrients and bioactives have also been shown to have antioxidizing properties; recent studies are exploring seaweed’s role in reducing inflammation and in fighting cancer. All of this new research is why we’re so excited about seaweed, and why we came up with the Daily Bite.

Seaweed is brimming with the nutrients we look for in other whole foods like fruits and vegetables. It just packs a lot more in a small package: it’s high in plant protein, anti-inflammatory Omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, and boasts up to 10 times the mineral content of land vegetables. (Love you spinach, but seaweed has twice the mineral content!). Some species (like Laver, the one we’re using in your bites) are rich in a bioactive called porphyran that isn’t readily available in Western diets. And there’s nothing new or trendy about seaweed, it’s literally the oldest food out there. Seaweed has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 2,000 years; it was so valuable in ancient Japan that it was used as currency; and pubs in Ireland and Scotland used to serve it as a bar snack in the early 1900s (let’s bring this back). It’s been around awhile for a reason.

We source our seaweed from Maine Coast Sea Vegetables, a 100% employee-owned business that started in 1971 to sustainably harvest seaweed that is good for us and the planet. In 1992, they became the first US-based seaweed company to receive an Organic Certification. We love them for many reasons, including the fact that they test their seaweed products for quality and dry them at a low temperature to keep everything as minimally processed as possible. As Rootless grows, we are committed to building our seaweed supply chain both domestically and internationally, and are excited to bring you nutritious, sustainably sourced seaweed from all over the world — stay tuned!

There’s no industry-wide definition for sustainably sourced seaweed. So at Rootless, we believe that sustainable seaweed is seaweed that is: grown without depleting the environment around it; harvested by humans who are equipped, trained, and fairly paid; and wild harvested or farmed in ways that don’t throw off the natural balance. We carefully vet our seaweed suppliers to make sure this is the case.

The global seaweed economy is taking off. It has huge potential for good, but there’s a risk that we’ll make the same mistakes we made on land: we don’t want to overexploit the ocean and its blue resources. Sustainably sourced seaweed grows in an environment where it balances the sea life around it. We also don’t want to eat seaweed that comes from polluted waters, where it could be sucking in toxins that aren’t good for our health. We want you to know where your seaweed is coming from and trust that it’s sourced from clean waters, while providing reliable jobs to local communities. This is why we and our partners consistently test our seaweed supply for nutrients and contamination.

Remember your brother-in-law's birthday. Do your taxes. Rotate your tires. Go back in time and not get that tattoo. Pick up toilet paper on the way home from work. Teach you how to code. Train your cat. That's about it.

Trick question! Kelp is a type of seaweed. There are over 15,000 species of seaweeds, grouped in three main categories: brown, green, and red seaweeds. Brown seaweeds are commonly called kelp. And if you were wondering, spirulina is seaweed’s tiny cousin. While all seaweeds are macroalgae, spirulina is a type of microalgae.

How to Use

As with all prescriptions, thyroid medications have specific interactions and dosing recommendations. We suggest that you check with your physician or medical provider to find out what is right for you.

Nope! You can have your Daily Bites whenever you like: first thing in the morning with your coffee/tea/lemon water, as a mid-morning pick-me-up, or as a sweet something after dinner. We do find that eating them at the same time of day makes it easy to create a habit and gives us a moment to do one, meaningful thing for ourselves.

Because our Daily Bites are full of healthy fats, fiber, and essential micronutrients, they’re immediately satisfying and give you a boost of energy without the crash that you can get from sugar or caffeine. Over time—and when eaten with a balanced diet—the bites will support a healthy metabolism, and gut and heart health.

We hear you and don’t think you should be missing out on the benefits of seaweed just because you’re not into the taste or texture of it. Our Daily Bites are designed to taste great, full stop. Because they’re made with powdered seaweed, they have a dense, slightly chewy texture, and by combining seaweed with other flavorful ingredients, we’ve made a balanced, sweet-nutty flavor all its own.

Daily Bites do not need to be refrigerated. Unopened, they will stay fresh for four months. Once opened, enjoy within 45 days for best flavor and texture.

Nutrition and Taste

The Daily Bite is made of all gluten-free ingredients. Our manufacturer is not certified gluten-free, however, so if you have celiac disease these might not be a fit for you.

Seaweed allergies are extremely rare; however, it’s possible to be allergic to any food and there are documented cases of seaweed allergies. If you experience any adverse reactions after eating Daily Bites, please consult your doctor or allergist.

All our products contain almonds and sesame, and are manufactured in a facility that also processes other tree nuts and peanuts. Our Coconut Chai contains coconut and our Orange Pistachio contains pistachios. We are working on allergen-friendly ideas!

We don’t have any nut-free options at the moment, but a few product ideas are in the works.

Our dates, almonds, and seeds are all USDA organic certified. Our seaweed is USDA organic certified as well.

Iodine is a mineral that, as our nutritionist Dr. Meera Srinivasan describes, “makes our bodies tick.” It’s a critical component of the thyroid hormone, which supports healthy metabolism, growth, and mental wellbeing. People with low levels of iodine are prone to depression and lack of iodine can lead to stunted growth. On the other hand, cultures with iodine-rich diets, like Japan, have longer life expectancies and some of the lowest rates of cancer in the world. One of the contributing factors? You guessed it: seaweed! But with one caveat: Eat seaweed in moderation, because excess iodine could potentially overstimulate your thyroid. We’ve designed each Daily Bite to provide a daily dose of iodine for adults.

Because the Daily Bites are made with whole foods, there’s nothing inherently harmful or worrisome about their ingredients. However, we designed the Daily Bite to meet an adult's nutrition needs. We have a children’s product in our pipeline, though!

Yes! You may want to check the amount of iodine in your prenatal vitamins to make sure you're not exceeding your daily recommendation.

Each bite is 40-45 calories and designed to be as nutrient dense as possible. We think they’re great anytime of day but particularly nice with a mid-morning tea or coffee, or as an afternoon pick-me-up.

Sustainability

We are committed to making Rootless products and packaging as sustainable as possible. That’s why we designed the Countertop Tin to be refillable, reusable, and when the time comes, recyclable. The components of our packaging system are all recyclable (including the bags your bites come in). We still have a long way to go and will continue to learn and grow with the sustainable packaging movement. If you have sustainable packaging ideas, please write to us: hello@getrootless.com.

Seaweed sucks large amounts of carbon out of the air as it grows—and some species grow two feet per day. It’s estimated that 173 million metric tons of carbon are absorbed by seaweed every year—which is about the annual emissions of the entire state of New York. While these are early estimates, we know that the more seaweed we grow and harvest sustainably, the more carbon we can take out of the air. What’s even wilder? There’s a growing body of evidence that suggests that a bit of red seaweed sprinkled into cattle feed reduces methane from cow burps by over 80%.

Returns

Since our products are perishable, we aren’t able to accept returns. That said, our highest priority is your happiness. We want you to have an amazing experience with our products, our company, our team—all of it.  So if you have a problem, question, or concern, reach out to hello@getrootless.com with detailed information and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

About Rootless

Dunno, just seemed frondly.

We are a small, mighty team of 4 full-time employees, our amazing advisors Mollie Chen and Kate Geagan, and a constellation of amazing partners across many states and countries. Our beautiful brand was created by Red Antler.

We are based in San Francisco, CA. Our founder, Sachi, grew up in India and has been nomadic, ahem, rootless, herself for more than a decade, living in Claremont, New York, Washington DC, New Delhi, and New Haven for a bit. She is now happy to call SF home.

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