Mollusc it shell has a multicolored iridescent lining that's being used since ancient times to decorate jewelry and other priced objects.

More recently, abalone has been tapped as a source of collagen, a protein that supports the structure of bones, connective tissues and skin.

It's becoming a popular ingredient in beauty products and medicine.

Collagen is produced on abalone farms like this one.

They're nocturnal and hide from daylight under cement tiles that simulate their natural habitat of rocks.

And Carol, they're single.

Shell has pause that regulate various bodily functions, such as breathing and reproduction.

The main ingredient in their specially formulated food is seaweed.

They feed once a day in the evening.

After six months in the nursery pond, they graduate to the cultivation pond.

There are two methods employed to grow them in this one.

Before filling the pond with seawater, farmers lay cement tiles at the bottom, along with underwater pipes that supply the oxygen that abalone is need to survive.

The other method houses Thea Bolognese in stacks of polyethylene crates referred to as condominiums, with 50 to 100 a bolognese in each condo.

The yield per square meter is significantly greater using this method.

Every second day, the condominiums are removed from the cultivation pond to rinse out the greats, check the Bolognese and feed them.

The water is regularly drained, cleaned and recirculated.

What's the cleaning system?

Filters out feces and neutralizes ammonia.

After six months to a year in the cultivation pond, Thea Bolognese, a mature and ready for harvesting operative, stripped them from the shell and remove parts to be used for other products, Then prepare to extract the collagen.

First they mash the meat in an industrial sized blunder.

The trick is to use an extraction method that doesn't destroy the collagen or diminish its effectiveness.

Abalone collagen must have full potency when consumed in order to stimulate the human body to produce more of its own collagen sense.

Prolonged heating turns collagen into gelatin.

They use a process called cold extraction, stirring the meat in a refrigerated tank for up to seven days until it separates on rises to the top.

Next, the harvesters skim off the collagen on for this particular product, blended with mixed fruit juices.

They then heat the drink in pasteurization tanks for three minutes to kill off any harmful bacteria.

drink contains 20% collagen and 80% juice.

When it's time to package the product, the conveyer belt moves glass bottles to the cleaning station, which washes them out with pressurized boiling water.

After washing bottles moved to the next machine, which fills them with the drink.

Each product made here has to obtain international safety and quality certifications.

The next machine seals the bottle with an aluminium camp controlled by a sensor.

An ink jet printer applies the lot number on the cap, along with the products expiry date.

This batch will last for a year, bottles a visually inspected as they make their way to the labeling machine, Frank Tree conducts a Siri's of quality control tests on random samples.

In this test, the technician uses a PH meter to ensure the products acidity is within a specific target range.

In another test, she places a few drops on a device called a refract ometer.

It measures to what extent like passing through the liquid, is bent, which gives a reading of the sweetness.