While much of the world’s sea life is under duress due to climate change and acidification, oysters have it particularly bad because of where they live. Because oysters live in coastal reefs, bays, and estuaries, acidification and other problems related to global warming are extremely difficult to solve for due to a highly varied and complicated environment.
While scientists and oyster farmers are rightly worried about the long-term survival of oyster populations and are looking for ways to help them adapt to a fast-changing environment, others are trying to think of new ways to reduce how many ocean-born oysters are consumed by humans. While traditionally that has meant a focus on hatcheries, a new startup has another idea: cellular agriculture.
Pearlita Foods is hoping to create the world’s first cell-cultivated line of oysters. The company, which has received its initial funding from Big Idea Ventures and Sustainable Food Ventures, launched this month. Its two co-founders, Nikita Michelsen (CEO) and marine biologist Joey Peters, are setting up shop in startup-friendly (and coastline adjacent) North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.
“Not only is North Carolina the second-largest estuarine system in the country, it is also the fastest-growing biotech and future of food hub,” said Michelsen. “We will be close to the ecosystems where Oysters thrive and amongst other entrepreneurs – both which we believe will accelerate our growth.”
Over the past year, several startups have taken aim at creating new and more sustainable options for seafood, whether that be plant-based, cell-cultured, or through fermentation. One category of fish we haven’t seen is cell-cultured mollusks, but given the size of the oyster industry, it makes sense that we’d see a startup focused on creating oysters using cellular agriculture.
Another reason to celebrate the idea of cell-cultured oysters is they won’t have all the contaminants and bacteria concerns that plague natural-habitat harvested oysters. Unfortunately, oysters born in the wild are often contaminated with metals like lead, mercury, and zinc and can also be hotbeds for bacteria. Cell-ag derived oysters would be free of contaminants.
While at this point, Pearlita isn’t giving any guidance on their timelines, my guess is it will be a year or two before we see prototypes. You can follow their progress on their website.
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