Vegetarian is a general term used to describe people who do not eat meat, chicken, fish or other animal foods in your diet. Diet is herbal and contains most of the fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes.

Of all the micronutrients, vitamin B12 is what should worry more vegetarians. Although B12 deficiency can be caused by a variety of factors, the most common is to be caused by lack of food of animal origin. Vegans who do not supplement their diet with vitamin B12 can develop a type of anemia (megaloblastic) resulting in irreversible damage to the nervous system.

Although some articles question the bioavailability of vitamin B12 in algae for human consumption, recently Kumudha et al., (2015) have concluded that Chlorella vulgaris can be used as a nutritional supplement in vitamin B12 deficiency due to its content of methylcobalamin (B12 in its biologically active form), in an amount of 27 to 30 g / 100 g dry weight. Chlorella supplements were also tested in tablet form. On the other hand, Watanabe et al., (2002) found that vitamin B12 in the form of tablets was bioavailable.

So certain edible species of algae such as Chlorella, B12 are bioavailable to humans.