Greek Companies Invest in Anti-aging Snail Caviar

The global snail beauty products market accounted for $555.9 million in 2021. Credit: AMNA

Two Greek companies have been producing an extract from white snail eggs, snail caviar, which has a strong anti-aging, regenerative, and antioxidant effect.

Mediterranean Escargots and Le Blanc Skin Care, based in Larissa, central Greece have for 20 years been investing in research and development in order to produce the so-called snail caviar.

“The result of this effort is the creation of a unique variety of White snail ‘Cryptomphalus aspersa’, from which white caviar of superior quality with a high concentration of bioactive substances is produced”, the founder of Mediterranean Escargots, Thanasis Gogas, told the  Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

Snail eggs have been used for millennia in traditional medicine and cosmetology in many regions of Southeast Asia. They were also a delicacy in the ancient world, known as “Pearls of Aphrodite” for their supposed aphrodisiac properties.

In their natural state, the eggs are colorless. After processing, the caviar may be cream-colored, pinkish-white, or white, with the eggs generally 3–4 mm in diameter.

The Greek companies, in collaboration with domestic university research institutions, prepare research programs aimed at the production of highly bioactive white caviar, the development of extraction methodology, the investigation of its activity for the creation of cosmetic products as well as products for other therapeutic uses.

The effort involves research laboratories from several university institutions such as the Department of Medicine of the University of Thessaly, the Agricultural University of Athens, the Department of Biology of the University of Crete and the Department of Chemistry of the University of Athens.

Snail caviar has a strong anti-aging effect

Research on the bioactivity of caviar extract is being done for the first time and in-vitro results have shown that it has a strong anti-aging effect, regenerates the skin, protects against oxidative stress and protects DNA from damage.

“The production of snail caviar requires high expertise, at the level of animal production, as a result of which there are no companies capable of producing eggs on a large scale with quality characteristics that can be exploited for the mass production of cosmetic products and nutritional supplements,” Gogas said.

“Our exclusive white caviar extract is protected by multiple patents and the first cosmetic products are expected to be launched soon”.

In recent years, cosmetic products containing snail mucus have flooded the market and show particularly high sales due to their healing and regenerative action.

The global snail beauty products market accounted for $555.9 million in 2021 and is estimated to be $1,232 billion by 2030.

In December 2007, a 50-gram jar of De Jaeger brand snail caviar, produced at a snail farm in Soissons, France, retailed for €80. In September 2014, a 50-gram jar of Viennese Snails brand snail caviar, produced at a farm near Vienna, Austria, retailed for more than €150. A 50-gram jar equates to approximately two tablespoons of product.