A 2026 update on this post. When we first wrote this in 2022, we wrote it against a deadline. The world had a formal target to halve anaemia in women of reproductive age by 2025. That deadline has now passed. The target was missed — badly. So rather than quietly archive this post, we've updated it. The case for doing something about iron is not weaker in 2026. It's stronger.
Iron Deficiency – A Global Challenge with Fascinating Solutions
Iron deficiency isn't just a nutritional hiccup — it's one of the biggest nutritional challenges in the world, affecting billions of people. Because iron isn't merely a nutrient; it's a fundamental life force that drives our vitality, transporting the essential oxygen we need all around our bodies.
Consider this paradox: Earth's crust is roughly 5.6% iron by weight, and the red dust that blankets much of Australia is rich in iron oxide. Yet despite being surrounded by iron, around one in eight Australians still don't consume enough iron-rich foods. How can our environment be so replete with this vital mineral while our bodies remain short of it? The answer lies in absorption — in the chemistry of the form iron arrives in, and in what we choose to eat alongside it.
Iron: The Oxygen Mover Extraordinaire
Iron is nature's powerhouse for oxygen transport. At the heart of the process is haemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from our lungs to every cell in the body. When iron levels dip, the whole system falters — fatigue, reduced concentration, and in children, developmental delays. In early life especially, iron underpins brain development, immune function and energy: the foundation for everything that comes after.
The 2025 Target — And What Actually Happened
In 2012, the World Health Assembly adopted six global nutrition targets. The second of them was a 50% reduction in anaemia among women of reproductive age by 2025, measured against the 2012 baseline of 27.6%. In other words: get global prevalence down to roughly 14% within thirteen years.
It didn't happen. According to the World Health Organization's 2025 anaemia estimates, prevalence in women aged 15–49 was 30.7% in 2023 — higher than the 2012 baseline it was supposed to be halved from. WHO's own assessment is unambiguous: the world is not on track. Only 18 countries — about 10% of all countries — showed measurable progress toward the goal. Prevalence among non-pregnant women appears to have been rising since 2012.
The rest of the 2023 picture:
- 35.5% of pregnant women aged 15–49 were anaemic
- 30.5% of non-pregnant women aged 15–49
- 39.8% of children aged 6–59 months (2019 estimate)
- The WHO African and South-East Asia regions together carry more than 60% of the global burden
In May 2025, at the 78th World Health Assembly, member states responded by extending the target to 2030 — same 50% reduction, same 2012 baseline, five more years on the clock.
We want to be honest about how we read that. Extending a deadline is not progress. Thirteen years of global attention, formal targets and reporting frameworks produced no net improvement for half a billion women. That is a genuine global tragedy, and it deserves to be named as one rather than smoothed over.
An Honest Caveat: Anaemia Isn't Only About Iron
We hold ourselves to saying only what the evidence supports, so this matters.
Anaemia has many causes. Roughly half of cases are attributed to iron deficiency; the remainder involve infection, inflammation, chronic disease, gynaecological and obstetric conditions, and inherited red blood cell disorders. Malaria, hookworm, heavy menstrual bleeding and poor access to antenatal care are all part of why the target was missed.
So no food fixes this. Not seaweed, not spinach, not a supplement. What food can do is address the substantial share that is dietary — and do it in a way that is affordable, everyday, and doesn't compete with agricultural land or fresh water. That's the part we can work on, and it's the part we're working on.
Seaweed: The Forgotten Superfood
Often overlooked in modern diets, seaweed is emerging as a nutritional dynamo, and certain species are rich in iron in a bioavailable form. Green seaweeds in particular carry more iron than most other seaweeds.
In an intriguing study from India, a modest inclusion of iron-rich green seaweed in fortified chocolate was associated with reduced anaemia in teenage girls within six weeks — a good demonstration of what happens when nutrition is delivered in a format people actually want to eat. That thinking is why we partnered with our local chocolatiers to create Mermaid Medley.
Beyond iron, seaweed offers a rare plant source of vitamin B12, and copper, which supports iron metabolism. Just 10 grams of our PhycoTein blend can deliver up to 40% of your daily copper needs.
Vitamin C: The Unsung Hero of Iron Absorption
It's well established that pairing iron-rich foods with vitamin C improves iron absorption. Vitamin C converts ferric iron (Fe³⁺), which is less readily absorbed, into ferrous iron (Fe²⁺) — the form our bodies take up more efficiently. This matters most for non-haem iron, the type predominantly found in plant sources.
That's where our SeaFruit Straps come in. Nutrient-dense seaweed blended with fruit-derived vitamin C, in Tropical Fruits or Cherry — a snack designed so the chemistry works in your favour without you having to think about it.
Fun Facts to Spark Your Curiosity
- Seaweed's iron punch: Certain seaweeds can contain many times more iron than spinach.
- Eco-friendly crop: Seaweed farming requires no freshwater, no arable land and no fertiliser — one of the lowest-input food systems available to us.
- Copper counts too: Copper plays a supporting role in how the body handles iron, and it's rarely discussed in iron conversations.
All Hands on Deck
We wrote this post in 2022 with a deadline in mind. That deadline came and went, and roughly one in three women of reproductive age worldwide is still anaemic.
We're not going to pretend a seaweed company solves that. But we are going to keep saying that the tools we have aren't being deployed hard enough, and that food systems — including ones grown in the sea, without land, without freshwater, without fertiliser — belong in the toolkit. The new deadline is 2030. That's four years away. It will be missed too unless considerably more happens than happened between 2012 and 2025.
All hands on deck. Ours are already wet.