Finless Foods, which is primarily known for its work creating cell-based seafood, announced today that it is expanding its product portfolio to include a new plant-based tuna offering.
According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the new plant-based tuna uses nine whole, plant-based ingredients that are cooked and seasoned to recreate the taste and texture of tuna. The new product is meant to act as a fish substitute in dishes like poke and spicy tuna rolls. The company said it plans to have its plant-based tuna in restaurants and food service channels by 2022.
Though it wasn’t specified in the announcement, the ability to get a product to market next year is most likely the driving factor in Finless Foods’ decision to expand into plant-based products. The cultured meat space is still very new and as of right now, there is only one company (Eat Just) selling cultured meat in one country (Singapore). In a story out today on iNews, Michael Selden, Finless Foods co-founder and CEO said that regulations in the UK and the EU were too restrictive, and that “there doesn’t seem to be a path to market at all” for cultured meat and seafood there.
Adding a plant-based tuna allows Finless to actually start selling something and generate revenue and is also being introduced at a time when sales of plant-based foods are on the rise. According to the Good Food Institute, the plant-based meat category grew by more than $430 million in sales from 2019 and 2020 in the U.S., and is now worth $1.4 billion.
Finless Foods isn’t pivoting away entirely from cultured fish, however. The company said it “will continue to build out the technology and undergo regulatory approval for their cell-cultured tuna” with plans to bring a full portfolio of plant- and cell-based products to market in the coming years.
Finless Foods’ move comes on the heels of another plant-based fish announcement this week. Hong Kong’s Omnifoods, maker of the plant-based Omnipork, announced its own line of vegan fish products this week, including an OmniTuna. These products will start rolling out in Hong Kong starting this month. Here in the U.S. we’re starting to see the plant-based fish space heat up with products like Good Catch already in stores and New Wave Foods launching its plant-based shrimp with food service companies this past spring.
Today is World Ocean Day, which aims to generate awareness around ocean conservation issues, including overfishing. Through its plant- and cell-based fish, Finless Foods, and other companies like it, can hopefully ween people off conventional fish stocks, which are being rapidly depleted and on to a more sustainable alternative.
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