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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

cell-based seafood

North Carolina’s Pearlita Foods Wants to Create Cell-Cultured Oysters

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.

Cell-Cultured Fish Startup Bluu Biosciences Raises €7 million

Bluu Biosciences, a startup making cell-based fish, has raised a €7 million (~$8.24M USD) round of funding. TechCrunch was first to report the news, writing that Manta Ray Ventures, Norrsken VC, Be8, CPT Capital and Lever VC all participated in the round.

The Berlin, Germany-based Bluu is working on creating cell-based versions of salmon, trout and carp. Though there are more companies tackling the creation of cell-based beef and chicken, there is an emerging wave (pardon the pun) of startups making cultured fish protein. Bluu is focused on salmon, trout and carp. Here in the U.S. BlueNalu is working on cell-based mahi-mahi and bluefin tuna. And in Asia, the Hong-Kong-based Avant Meats is developing fish maw and sea cucumber, while Singapore-based Shiok Meats is making cultured shellfish.

Funding for cell-based protein startups continues to be heavy. A recent report from the Good Food Institute found that cultured meat startups raised $360 million in 2020. Just this week, Eat Just, which makes cell-based chicken that is actually for sale in Singpaore, raised an additional $200 million.

While cell-based fish products aren’t for sale yet, they are getting closer to market. BlueNalu is building out its pilot production facility, which will make 200 – 500 pounds of commercial grade cultured fish. Shiok plans to have it shrimp commercially available by 2022. And Avant recently announced a 90 percent cost reduction in the production of its fish maw.

All of this funding and progress is helping narrow the availability window of cultured meat products with some experts predicting it will hit price parity with traditional animal protein in five years.

“Cell-Cultured” Is the Best Way to Describe Seafood Grown in a Lab, According to Key Industry Players

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published comments from key players in the cell-based seafood space around what to actual label the stuff when it is finally cleared for sale to consumers (h/t Food Navigator). Consensus is building around “cell-cultured” as the most effective descriptor.

The original call for comments was sent out towards the end of 2020, and yesterday was the cutoff date for responses. Among those who weighed in on the discussion were BlueNalu, Finless Foods, and Memphis Meats, all companies currently developing cell-cultured seafood or meat products. 

The comments underscore the importance of choosing the right name for a food type that still strikes many average consumers as something out of science fiction. When plant-based meat arrived in grocery stores, the labeling battle was usually less about convincing consumers and more about doing battle with Big Meat over use of certain words. Cultured meat’s big challenge, for now, is trying to concisely but effectively explain the concept of “protein grown from animal cells in bioreactors” to consumers. 

Whatever label is settled on will have to convey several things at once to consumers. It will have to make clear that the product is safe, that it is real meat (aka not vegan), but that it is different from traditional animal-based protein in terms of how it is produced (e.g., cell cultured versus wild caught). Based on the comments submitted to the FDA, labels for seafood should also factor in food transparency, adherence to food industry protocols (e.g., allergen alerts), and should not disparage traditional meat products. 

Of the companies and individuals that responded to the FDA’s call for comments, the majority back the term “cell-cultured” when it comes to labeling seafood products. Meanwhile, the majority of commenters suggested a move away from terms like “clean meat” and lab-grown meat.”

Finless Foods’ nine-pager of a comment concluded that:  

At the highest level, Finless Foods advocates for and strongly supports an accurate, non- misleading, and descriptive label that clearly outlines what the cell-cultured products are, including species and product form, and how they are made, in a way that is uniform within the cell-cultured seafood category and consistent across categories. Therefore, we recommend that FDA adopt and memorialize the use of the term “cell-cultured” through the mechanism of a CPG or a letter to industry to provide appropriate guidance.

Citing a forthcoming Halman and Halman study, the Center for Science in the Public Interest said:

Based on the results of the two Hallman and Hallman studies, CSPI finds that both “cell-cultured” and “cell-based” would inform consumers of material facts and not be misleading, as well as portray the product in a neutral fashion. FDA should closely consider these options, and other peer-reviewed studies, in addition to conducting its own studies before making a final decision on its final label phrase. 

Memphis Meats said it supports “disclosure of the term ‘cell-cultured,’ in conjunction with the name of the conventionally-produced seafood product, in the statement of identity or name of cell-cultured seafood products.” The Berkeley, California-based company also noted in its comments that “Terms that specify the type of seafood product (e.g., ‘fillet,’ ‘steak’) should be permitted in the name or statement of identity of a cell-cultured seafood, as long as the term appropriately describes the particular product. “

The Vegetarian Resource Group brought up the issue of consumer education in its comments, stating that, “Use of a term such as ‘engineered using cultured seafood cells’ would help consumers understand that the product is based on seafood and that seafood cells are used in production. An educational program would need to be developed to inform consumers about the meaning of ‘cultured’ in this context.”

You can read the full comments here, many of which delve into some of the more subtle issues that existing in the labeling debate. For example, one anonymous commenter suggested “cell-built” seafood to factor in the use of 3D printing technology.

Interestingly, less than one year ago, Rutgers released a study that found “cell-based” to be the best descriptor for seafood products grown in a lab. “Cell-cultured” was a close runner up in that particular study, which suggests consensus has been building for some time around the evolution of “cell-cultured” seafood. 

 

BlueNalu Secures $60M for Production of Cell-Based Seafood

San Diego-based BlueNalu, a startup building technology to make cell-based seafood, announced today that it has raised $60 million in convertible note financing from new and existing investors. Rage Capital led this round of financing, with other participants including Agronomics, Lewis & Clark AgriFood, McWin, KBW Ventures, and Siddhi Capital.

This most recent round of financing will enable BlueNalu to open its planned 40,000 square foot pilot production facility and begin producing its cultured seafood there. Additionally, the company will complete an FDA regulatory review for its initial cultured fish products. BlueNalu will be trialing these initial products in foodservice establishments across the US sometime this year.

BlueNalu creates a variety of different seafood species by extracting cells from fish and crustaceans and growing these cell samples in large bioreactors. The company said it will start by launching cell-based mahi-mahi later this year, and then cell-based bluefin tuna after.

Due to global concerns of overfishing and pollution in seafood stocks, cell-based seafood may play an important role in the next few years by offering an alternative to wild-caught and farmed seafood. Avant Meat is focused on satisfying the tastebuds of consumers in China and Hong Kong through cell-based fish maw and sea cucumber. Singapore-based Shiok Meats has so far produced cell-based lobster and shrimp, with plans to make the shrimp commercially available sometime in 2022.

BlueNalu’s new production facility will be used to produce commercial-grade cultured fish for restaurants and other food outlets, and the new facility will be capable of providing 200 – 500 pounds of cell-based seafood per week.

Hong Kong’s Avant Meats Raises $3.1M for Its Cell-Based Seafood

Cell-based protein startup Avant Meats announced this week it had closed a $3.1 million seed round of funding. The round included participation from China Venture Capital, AngelHub, ParticleX, Lever VC, CPT Capital, Loyal VC, Artesian, and 208 Seed Ventures. PTG Food and Regal Springs Chairman Markus Haefeli also participated. 

Avant said in a press release posted to the company’s LinkedIn page that it will use the new funding to “fuel R&D and commercialization of its cultivated fish products.” The Hong Kong-based startup uses fish cells to make cultivated seafood products, including fish maw and sea cucumber. Avant held its first taste test of its fish maw product in November of 2019.

Fish maw and sea cucumber are both considered delicacies in Chinese cuisine, and Avant’s decision to start with those is strategic in terms of attracting its target demographic: consumers in China and Hong Kong. There are environmental reasons, too. Fish maw is in such high demand the species hunted for it are on the brink of extinction.

In addition to the above delicacies, Avant has also debuted a prototype for Asia’s first cultivated fish fillet, which was recently featured in a cooking demonstration from Hong Kong culinary star Chef Eddy.

In this week’s press release, Avant said part of its new funding will go towards lowering production costs of its cell-based seafood products. The company hopes to bring products to market in 2021. 

That date, while right around the corner, actually seems feasible given the recent developments in the cell-based protein space. Most notably, earlier this week Eat Just became the world’s first company to get regulatory approval for selling cultured meat products. The company will start in Singapore.

Eat Just’s regulatory milestone paves the way for other startups, including Avant, to start the journey from successful prototype to mainstream commercialization. That’s not to say Avant will be selling its fish maw on grocery store shelves next year. But we Hong Kong residents and those in other parts of Asia may see it at more testings and demonstrations and on restaurant menus in the months to come.  

Shiok Meats Unveils Prototype for Cell-Based Lobster

At a recent exclusive tasting event, Singapore-based Shiok Meats unveiled a prototype for cell-based lobster, according to FoodNavigator-Asia, who attended the event. The prototype was unveiled at the event as part of two dishes, a lobster gazpacho and lobster terrine.

Shiok said the lobster is cultivated with the same technology the company uses it make its cell-based shrimp. Shiok takes a sample of lobster cells, which are then grown in a bioreactor and harvested several weeks later. Right now, it takes between four and six weeks for Shiok to produce its cell-based shrimp; the company says the lobster takes a couple weeks longer than that. It is also more expensive to produce, though the company is looking to bring the cost down to $50/kg at some point in the future.

Neither the shrimp nor the lobster are available for sale to consumers right now. The company plans to have its Shiok Shrimp product commercially available by 2022. A manufacturing plant in Singapore is slated to be operational at that time, too. Shiok raised a $12.6 million Series A round in September of this year, part of which will go towards building out the production facility. FoodNavigator reported that once that plant is up and running, Shiok will be able to get regulatory approval to sell its products, which it will initially do in restaurants and other B2B settings.

No cell-based meat or seafood is currently available for commercial sale, though plenty of companies are moving towards that future. The list includes BlueNalu, a company that also makes cell-based seafoods and is currently expanding its production facility, which the company plans to open in the next five years. And plenty of investment is currently happening in the cell-based meat sector, with Mosa Meat, Integriculture, Meat-Tech 3D, and others all raising funding in the last six months.

However, being able to sell these products to mainstream consumers and at scale will be a much longer process, one that could take up to 15 years, by some accounts. Costs must first come down, and companies must get regulatory approval before they can even sell their products to restaurants.

For its part, Shiok will keep innovating on various cell-based seafoods in the meantime. In addition to shrimp and lobster, the company plans to introduce a cell-based carp prototype in a few months. 

Singapore’s Shiok Meats Raises $12.6M in Series A Funding

Cell-based seafood maker Shiok Meats announced today it has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Aqua-Spark, an investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture. SEEDS Capital, Real Tech Fund, Irongrey, and several others also participated in the round, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. This brings Shiok Meats’ total funding so far to $20.2 million.

Shiok Meats said it will put the new funds towards building its commercial pilot plant, from which the company plans to launch its minced shrimp product in 2022. 

Shrimp is one of the most widely consumed seafood types in the world. For now, at least, Shiok Meats says it is the only company in the world creating a cell-based version that’s grown outside the animal. The company’s process involves isolating stem cells from the shrimp then growing them inside nutrient-rich bioreactors. 

It joins a growing list of cell-based protein producers that have raised funds over the last year, including Blue Nalu, Good Catch, and Wild Type.

For all of these companies, price remains a major hurdle to getting products to market: cell-based protein is simply an expensive process right now that makes it impossible to get products to price parity with traditional seafood offerings. On its own website, Shiok meats notes that a limited production scale is in part responsible for the high costs of its cell-based shrimp. Scaling up production will help the company bring down costs.

Shiok recently partnered with IntegriCulture to use the latter’s CultNet System to create shrimp cell cultures. Doing so brings down the overall cost of cell-based shrimp production, since it doesn’t require expensive animal serums normally used for the process. 

Shiok did a first public taste testing of cell-based shrimp dumplings last year, to positive reviews. The rest of us will have to wait a little longer. The company’s initial products will be frozen cell-based shrimp meat for dumplings and other shrimp-based dishes. In the coming years, the company also plans to launch shrimp flavoring pastes and powders, fully formed 3D shrimp, and cell-based lobster and crab products.

As Cell-Based Protein Becomes a Reality, What to Call it Gets Increasingly Important

Last week we briefly covered news about a Rutgers study that found “cell-based” the best descriptor for lab-grown seafood products. Further thought and reading on the matter leads me to believe the study’s findings have implications for labeling across all of the cell-based protein space, not just seafood.

Here’s a quick recap: A new study by Rutgers in the Journal of Food Science recommends “Companies seeking to commercialize seafood products made from the cells of fish or shellfish should use the term ‘cell-based’ on product labels.”

The study, commissioned by cell-based seafood company BlueNalu, claims to be the first of its kind evaluating how to label alternative seafood products in a way that both appeals to consumers and meets regulatory requirements around product naming. The study was done by William Hallman, a professor who chairs the Department of Human Ecology at Rutgers-New Brunswick’s School of Environmental and Biological Sciences. He noted this week that participants in the study were able to tell the label “cell-based” apart from ones like “wild caught” or “farm raised,” and that those participants still believed the cell-based products were as nutritious as the others. 

Other names tested in the study were “cell-cultured seafood” and “cultivated seafood,” as well as phrases like “cultivated from the cells of ____” and “grown directly from the cells of ____.”

It’s not hard to understand why “cell-based seafood” resonates the most with consumers. The above phrases lack the kind of concise description needed for food products, and terms like “cultivated seafood” are rather muddy in terms of describing what goes into making the product. 

This question of labeling is only going to get bigger as cell-based proteins move further from concept and into a culinary reality for average consumers. We’ve already seen this play out to some degree with plant-based proteins. About a year ago, large meat corporations were pushing hard to ban their plant-based counterparts from using words like “burgers” and “sausages” on packaging. As we wrote previously, “Big Meat trying to quash alterna-meats’ popularity by telling companies how they can or can’t label themselves feels protectionist and ineffective, not to mention desperate, at this point.” 

And that was before the pandemic. Since COVID-19 hit and shed an uncomfortably bright light on issues in traditional meat production, demand for alternative proteins has been through the roof. Just this week, investment network FAIRR released a report stating investment in alt-protein for the first half of 2020 is nearly double the amount for all of 2019. That includes cell-based protein.

Whether Big Seafood pushes back on labeling now that more cell-based seafood is coming to market remains to be seen. It will certainly have a lot of opponents if it does. BlueNalu just announced a new facility designed for commercial production of its alt-seafood products. Wild Type raised a $12.5 million Series A round last year for its cultured salmon, and Shiok Meats just partnered with Integriculture to scale up production of lab-grown shrimp. And those are only the seafood-focused players in the cell-cultured protein space.

Big Seafood aside, effective labeling of all these products — and all cell-based protein products, really — will be key to appealing to new consumers who may not have previously known about cell-based meat and dairy, and that it’s just as nutritious as the real deal. When it comes to finding a name for these alt-protein items, that could be the most difficult and most rewarding challenge companies face.