Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

plant-based seafood

Cultured Seafood Company Finless Foods Expands into Plant-Based Tuna

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.

Ocean Hugger Will Re-enter the Plant-Based Seafood Space Via a Partnership With Nove Foods

Plant-based seafood maker Ocean Hugger is relaunching via a partnership with Thailand-based Nove Foods, according to a statement on the Ocean Hugger website.

The venture comes after after the pandemic forced Ocean Hugger, which previously sold products primarily to foodservice businesses, to cease operations.

Part of Ocean Hugger’s plight in 2020 was the fact that the company’s plant-based tuna and eel products were primarily used for sushi. But in the U.S., most consumers get sushi either at restaurants or at prepared foods counters. The pandemic devastated both those avenues, leaving Ocean Hugger with little choice but to close up shop for a while. 

However, the company came back in September 2020 with an announcement that it planned to re-enter the plant-based protein market, though no further details were given at the time.

Now, the plan is to launch “an expanded portfolio” of plant-based seafood products via a joint venture with Nove Foods, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of sustainable food manufacturer NRF. New York-based Ocean Hugger’s mission to produce a more ethical, environmentally friendly seafood is in line with NRF’s overall business, which has extended in recent years to include plant-based foods and functional foods.

The plant-based seafood market is still fairly wide open in terms of opportunity for companies. While New Wave Foods makes a plant-based shrimp analog and Good Catch has a “tuna” product on the market, there are not yet plant-based seafood companies that have the status that, say, Beyond or Impossible do with with beef analogs.

Ocean Hugger’s re-entry into the market gives the company another shot at becoming such a company. The company plans to release its expanded portfolio into retail and foodservice businesses later in 2021. Whether that will be in the U.S., Asia, or Europe is still to be determined. 

New Wave Foods Raises $18M for Plant-Based Seafood

New Wave Foods announced today it has closed an $18 million Series A round for its plant-based seafood alternatives. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates and Evolution VC Partners with participation from “other new and existing investors,” according to a press release sent to The Spoon.

The new round will enable New Wave Foods to scale up production and expand sales and marketing, as well as build out its team and plan for future products. Initially, the company will sell its products directly to restaurants and foodservice businesses, where it says roughly 80 percent of all shrimp in the U.S. is consumed.

Currently, New Wave Foods makes a shrimp alternative from seaweed and plant proteins, the idea being to provide a more planet-friendly version of the U.S.’s most popular seafood item. Deforestation and the permanent destruction of mangroves, increased greenhouse gases, and human rights abuses are just a few of the unsavory byproducts of traditional shrimp production. With its shrimp alternative, New Wave Foods wants to provide product that is “virtually indistinguishable from ocean shrimp in terms of taste and texture” but doesn’t come with the environmental and human consequences tied to parts of the traditional fishing industry.

Tyson Foods made an undisclosed investment in New Wave Foods in 2019, taking a minority stake of less than 20 percent.

Speaking in today’s press release, New Wave said that its shrimp product will be versatile enough to fit in a range of different dishes, though the company hasn’t yet publicly named any official restaurant or foodservice partners.  

Following the launch of its shrimp product, New Wave Foods plans to develop plant-based lobster, scallops, and crab. 

Hooked Foods Secures $600K for Plant-Based Tuna

Swedish-based Hooked Foods announced today a new round of funding totaling SEK 5 million (approximately $600k USD). Investors include Katapult Ocean, ProVeg in collaboration with VC firm Veg Capital, Wave Ventures, PlusCap, Kale United, and Food Angels Germany.

Hooked was one of the startups that participated in the fourth cohort of the ProVeg incubator this year, and received an initial €150,000 ($182,283 USD) investment. The newly acquired capital will be used for launching the company’s latest product, a plant-based product called Toona. The alternative tuna is made from a combination of soybeans, sunflower oil, and algae, and boasts a high protein content with Omega 3 fatty acids. Toona will be launched in restaurants throughout Sweden in the Spring of 2021.

Plant-based burger alternatives often get the spotlight, as plant-based seafood only accounts for 1% of the plant-based protein sales. However, the Good Food Institute calls the plant-based seafood space a “white space”, meaning there is an opportunity to fill a gap in consumer demands and interest. Plant-based seafood offers a solution to global concerns of microplastics found in seafood and overfishing, so there is ample room for this sector to expand.

US-based Good Catch Foods is one of the biggest players in the plant-based space, and the company recently expanded to the European market. Good Catch Foods also produces plant-based tuna (made from a blend of legumes), with other products such as fishless burgers and vegan crab cakes. Besides Good Catch Foods, Hooked Foods does not face much competition in the European market.

In addition to Toona, Hooked produces plant-based shredded salmon. After its initial launch in Sweden, the company plans to expand internationally sometime in late 2021.

Ocean Hugger Has Big Plans to Re-Enter the Plant-Based Seafood Market

Plant-based seafood startup Ocean Hugger said this week it is in the midst of planning a relaunch, according to an interview with Food Navigator. 

In June, the New York-based company had to cease operations, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason. Up to that point, Ocean Hugger ran a promising business selling its “tuna” and “eel” products to foodservice businesses. As we’re all too aware these days, the foodservice industry has been one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, and Ocean Hugger found itself facing no sales and had to stop operations.

Now, however, it appears the company is planning its comeback. An update from August 31 on the Ocean Hugger website states that, “Over the coming months, we will be exploring paths to relaunch bigger and better than ever.”

How the company plans to do that is under wraps for now. Food Navigator notes that new developments should “enable the business to relaunch next year.” Co-founder David Benzaquen suggested to the publication that Ocean Hugger is exploring ways to re-enter the market and also hinted at new products. He gave no further details.

It’s reasonable to imagine that, with the right business model, Ocean Hugger will be successful in its attempt to relaunch. Investment in alternative proteins has already reached over $1.1 billion in 2020, and both plant- and cell-based seafood startups have made many a headline recently. General Mills invested $32 million Good Catch at the beginning of 2020. BlueNalu, which grows cell-based seafood in bioreactors, nabbed a $20 million investment in February. More recently, S2G ventures said it would be investing $100 million in seafood and ocean health startups including alt-protein.

Ocean Hugger has so far raised $500,000 from a funding round in 2019. Benzaquen said in his interview this week that seafood is one of the most obvious areas of animal protein to disrupt from a sustainability and animal welfare angle. If others agree, that investment figure for Ocean Hugger could go up significantly in the future.

Legendary Vish Creates Plant-based Salmon through 3D Bioprinting

To create a more sustainable seafood option, three Ph.D. students decided to apply their experience in 3D bioprinting. The result is the Austrian startup Legendary Vish, which uses plant-based ingredients and 3D bioprinting to re-create a realistic salmon fillet.

I spoke to Robin Simsa, the CEO of Legendary Vish this week. He said a benefit to bioprinting salmon is that it offers an alternative to aquaculture and wild salmon. Fish that are raised in aquaculture farms are often fed antibiotics and are at risk for contaminating wild fish with parasites/pathogens, and wild salmon can contain microplastics and heavy metals. Additionally, salmon is susceptible to overfishing since it is a popular seafood and often touted as a “health food.” Legendary Vish’s 3D printed plant-based salmon fillet is free of these toxins and contaminants, and void of potential environmental concerns.

The plant-based salmon fillet looks shockingly real, with a convincing red-orange color and white stripes of fat. When asked if the salmon fillet truly tasted like salmon, he said the flavor and aroma are very accurate. However, they are working on developing an improved “mouth feel” for the product, in hopes of making it a firmer texture. The salmon will contain nutrients and health benefits similar to real salmon, like protein and Omega-3 fatty acids.

Legendary Vish’s salmon is a unique seafood alternative because it is crafted from mushroom protein and algae. Other companies re-creating fish like Shiok, BlueNalu, and Wild Type use cell-based technology to create seafood alternatives. In the world of 3D printing, Redefine Meat and Novameat create plant-based beef and pork alternatives. 

Legendary Vish has not yet received outside capital, but is currently speaking with investors. The company’s goal is to release their bioprinted salmon to the European market by 2022, first focusing on Scandinavian countries, and then turning to larger cities within Europe. Next year, they may begin testing the salmon in certain markets on a small scale.

Plant-Based Sushi Startup Ocean Hugger Foods Falls Victim to COVID-19, Ceases Operations

COVID-19 has claimed another food-related business, this time plant-based seafood startup Ocean Hugger Foods.

The company, which had raised $500,000 in late 2019, had been gaining traction through much of 2019 for vegan sushi products as it reeled in wins at select Whole Foods and quick service restaurants such as Ahipoki.

But once COVID-19 hit, the bulk of the company’s customers closed down for months and, as a result, Ocean Hugger couldn’t survive.

The company disclosed the news via an open letter on its website. From the letter:

Due to the COVID-19 health crisis our world is facing, and the fact that our company sells exclusively to foodservice customers (such as university and corporate cafeterias, and restaurants) who are suffering greatly during this time, it is with tremendous sadness that we must report that Ocean Hugger Foods must cease operations.

The company had launched its second product at last year’s National Restaurant Show, a vegan eel sushi (unami). The product followed its original ahimi (the company’s plant-based “tuna” sushi).

While some food companies that rely heavily on food service were able to sustain themselves through ramped up restaurant delivery or by pivoting to direct to consumer channels, Ocean Hugger didn’t benefit much from either of these alternative models. Sushi is the type of food most prefer to eat fresh and in-venue, and it certainly isn’t the type of product that could be delivered direct to consumer through order-by-mail.

While Ocean Hugger wasn’t the only company with plant-based sushi alternatives, they were maybe the most well known and seemed to be on a good trajectory before COVID-19.

With restaurants in the US and other markets slowly reopening, hopefully other startups who have been struggling like Ocean Hugger can start to sell their products again. However, with some markets starting to see an increasing number of COVID cases as people start heading to restaurants, chances are we’ll probably see some future COVID-related casualties.