New Zealand Green Lipped Mussel Extract (GLME) is the anti-inflammatory agent in Healtheries Seatone. The Green-lipped mussels are farmed in several parts of New Zealand, but mussels for Seatone GLME are obtained almost exclusively from the Coromandel Coast. This isolated peninsula, east of Auckland, produces some of the highest-grade green-lipped mussels in New Zealand.

Both, the water and shellfish quality are regularly monitored in government laboratories. In addition to this, the laboratories carry out further microbiological and physical testing to ensure that the final product meets the highest international standards.

Seatone's^® uniqueness starts in the ocean from the moment the mussels are selected for harvesting.

Seatone^® (Biolane Extract) uses only premium, fresh, live mussels, and harvests them while they’re in peak condition, with the specific intention of creating a therapeutic joint product. The company retains complete control of the process, to ensure choosing the best times for harvesting each year. Other companies may not have this control, so need to use food-industry grade mussels. For food applications, the therapeutic quality of a mussel is far less important than its taste and texture.
This means food-industry mussels can be harvested year round, instead of only when they have reached peak condition.

Early research on green-lipped mussels showed that simply drying and encapsulating mussels did not produce a consistent product. Additionally, non-active components of the mussels diluted the activity. Healtheries uses two processes to overcome this problem:

• Cold extraction
• Freeze-drying

The unique extraction process starts the moment that the
company harvests the live mussels from selected ocean farms. Within 24 hours, Seatone mechanically extracts the valuable soft mussel tissue from the rest of the mussel flesh and shell without using heat
or chemicals. This specialised process was deliberately developed to preserve the active compounds that make Seatone® therapeutic. Such compounds include:

• proteins
• minerals
• enzymes
• mucopolysaccharides, and
• omega 3 fatty acids.

These compounds are well known to help provide advanced relief from joint pain and inflammation; and support joint repair and lubrication.
By contrast, food-grade mussels are usually steamed open. The heat of the steaming process changes the nature of the raw mussel from a soft, fresh mass, into a solid piece
of cooked mussel meat. Such a change is ideal to extend the life of mussels that are destined for restaurant tables or grocery store freezers. Unfortunately, however, it can damage the fragile compounds that give Seatone® its beneficial properties

This process ensures there is a huge difference between Seatone GLME and other products marketed as GLME which are actually little more than ground up frozen or even frozen and cooked mussel powder. This kind of processing minimises and can even destroy the potency of the product. This can be proven by a special laboratory test specifically developed by Vitaco for proving that each production batch of GLME has an acceptable level of activity. There is one other mussel product currently being marketed as an extract, which is only the lipids (oils and fats) portion of the mussel which have been extracted through the use of a solvent. While this will have some of the activity found in genuine Seatone GLME, it is only one of the active fractions in Seatone and therefore much less effective than the whole extract.

Note: Most of the clinical research has been carried out on Seatone GLME which is produced only in New Zealand by Vitaco Health (NZ) Ltd in a process which ensures the potency and consistency of the product.

Vitaco has invested over 30 years of research into the production and effectiveness of Seatone GLME. As the green-lipped mussels reach peak condition at 18 months of age, they are harvested and shipped live in refrigerated trucks to Vitaco factory. The mussels are transferred to cool storage and processed through a unique cold extraction process, which is completely natural, avoiding the use of solvents. This results in a highly active freeze dried extract of green-lipped mussels - Seatone. This extract is milled to produce a fine powder and encapsulated in hard gelatin Seatone capsules.