Believe it or not, the fish sticks available in the frozen food sections of most supermarkets actually do come from a dead animal. One day in the future though, that may no longer be true. Seafood made without the sea is gaining ground in the ever-growing “cultured meat” world.
Bluu Seafood, a German company, has unveiled its first two finished lab-grown seafood products: fish sticks and fish balls, according to a report from Tech Crunch. The reveal comes less than three years after the company was founded, and is another step forward for a (possibly) more sustainable seafood future.
To make their sticks and balls, Bluu says they collect tissue via a biopsy from a fish, then cultures duplicate cells in a bioreactor fed with a “nutrient rich medium.” The cells are then grown on a scaffolding surface, meant to mimic the structure of fish flesh, according to the company’s website. No fish need to be killed in this process, according to Tech Crunch. Bluu Seafood did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment.
At least one other company, Avant Meats, has also piloted a version of a cultured seafood product. Avant has been testing variants of lab-grown fish maw (meant to be a dupe of a prized delicacy in Chinese cuisine) since last year. And many others have also entered the race to make real, fake fish a reality. San Francisco-based Wildtype, for example, is gunning for sushi-grade salmon. But Bluu Seafood may be the first company of its kind to unveil a finalised “fish” product.
Cultivated, or lab-grown, burgers and chicken fingers have been long discussed as theoretical environmentally-friendly alternatives to industrial meat production. And though raising and catching fish doesn’t have the same greenhouse gas emission drawbacks as a meat like beef, there are still big environmental downsides to the fishing industry.
By swapping out fishing nets and lines for cell lineages, these companies say they’re hoping to help address problems like overfishing and marine pollution. About 90% of the world’s ocean fisheries are considered at their maximum sustainable fishing capacity or overfished, according to the United Nations. And as climate change progresses, marine life is becoming even more vulnerable. To stay sustainable and avoid further ecological collapse, we will have to harvest less seafood. Plus, there’s the issues of pollution exacerbated by industrial fishing and fish farms.
However, whether or not any lab-grown meat product can scale up to effectively make a dent in the world’s appetite for flesh remains sort of an open question. No cultivated meat company has yet reached profitability selling their product on the market. In fact, only one company is actually approved to sell cultured meat to the public (and only in one place). Good Meat got the regulatory green light in Singapore in 2020.
As Singapore is the only nation on Earth to currently allow the sale of cultured meat as a consumer food product, Bluu will seek approval for its new fish bits there first. If successful, the company will then try the same in the U.S., European Union, and United Kingdom, according to Tech Crunch.
After approval, there’s market testing and the company would need to scale up production. So, we’re still a ways away from being able to buy Bluu Seafood’s breaded false fish in stores. Last month Christian Dammann, the company’s COO, said not to expect their “seafood” on supermarket shelves until 2025.