The Enzaq^® Story

It was in early 1967 that Dr. Orville H. Miller started the Aquaculture Story that Dick Dorst later established in Marlborough.  Dr. Miller was professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Southern California and held a lifetime interest in the study of natural foods and their effect on maintaining healthy functioning of the body’s systems.  He was particularly interested in the complex carbohydrates found in certain animals such as reptiles, sharks, and mussels. Evaluating these natural foods and powders in the laboratory and in his personal research, he found that the key nutritive factors are the Mucopolysaccharides (today called glycosaminoglycans). Since they play such a key role in the structural integrity and function of body tissues and organs, help modulate the waterous spaces, and decline with age, Dr. Miller believed that these carbohydrates might some day be called “essential” in the same way that nutrition science views essential vitamins and amino acids.

Between 1968 and 1970, Aquaculture scientists headed by Dr. Victor L. Loosanoff, founder and for 30 yeas Director of the United States Shellfish Laboratory at Milford, Connecticut, tested specimens of mussels from around the world.  They determined that New Zealand’s Perna could be an ideal source of Mucopolysaccharides, as well as the special bioactive polyunsaturated fatty acids from mussels, the Omega-3 marine oils.

Further efforts by Dr. Loosanoff in the early 1970’s helped to develop and stimulate establishment of Greenshell^TM Mussel farms in the unpolluted and protected waters of the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. Based on this aquaculture development, the Greenshell^TM Mussel was introduced as a Health Food product beginning with the Aquaculture company in California, the first and original producer of Mussel Powder from  New Zealand’s Perna canaliculus.

In 1985 a new company was formed in New Zealand by Dick Dorst, En’Zaq Aquaculture, Ltd., to develop improved methods of processing mussels to achieve consistent high quality. New systems of shucking the meats from the shell and quickly processing them into high grade mussel powder were developed, called the En’Zaq^® Process.  This “one-step, short time” process eliminates the many steps of handling and exposure to heat and air of traditional freeze-drying that degrade the desirable nutritional elements.

In 1996 a new factory was built at Blenheim, Marlborough, NZ, incorporating the technology developed over the previous 10 years. En’Zaq^® Mussel Powder is produced under a Risk Management Programme (RMP) governed by strict government inspections of MAF, NZFSA, USFDA, and EU certification using modern HACCP methods of quality control.  These standards exceed Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) guidelines.

Since 2005, production lots have been routinely assayed for anti-inflammatory bioactivity by the Bioactivity Investigation Group at the Wellington School of Medicine to ensure the highest consistent bioactive quality in the industry.