Global seafood consumption has more than doubled in the past 50 years to meet this rising demand and take some of the pressure off marine ecosystems, a new high tech method of making seafood from fish cells is being born.
That brings together cellular biology, 3D bio printing and food science.
To get a better understanding of how it works, I paid a visit to Blue Nalu, one of the few companies that's pushing the development of this ground breaking technology.
Just to be clear I am not talking about a plant based flavour approximation like beyond me and impossible burgers.
Blue Nalu was growing the real thing using a process they call cellular aquaculture and they are doing it without genetic modification.
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We call solar agriculture is actually a new way to manufacture seafood directly from fish cells.
That is always a big question people have.
How do you actually do that?
In our case, we really have decided to go all natural.
We want a process that mimics what happens in a fish when it grows from small to big.
We replicate that basically in our bioreactors.
To grow fish in a dish, first you have to start with the cells.
So we take a small chunk of muscle from the species of interest.
From that muscle we can isolate the different cell types.
We isolate these cells, put them in a nutrient solution.
And then with the right conditions, they do execute the same thing as they would do in the fish only without the restrictions of a fish body.
The greatest challenge for myself and also this entire category is this we've never done before Growing cells in a lab is nothing new.
It's the way that blue knowledge grows and structures their fifth products that makes them pioneers in this field.
Most labs that grow cells use a growth medium called FBS, which stands for fetal bovine serum.
FBS is made from the blood of unborn calves This nutrient rich solution has everything that cells need to grow.
But understandably, it isn't the kind of surf and turf that purveyors of sustainable seafood would like to be associated with.
That's why Blue Nalu has developed its very own animal free serum by replacing the key components of FBS with plant based alternatives.
So rest assured, at BlueNalu, the fish cells eat vegetarian.
But getting the cells to grow is just the first step.
They won't turn into a fish fillet by themselves.
In the first place, we try to make a piece /of
Starfish.
We have decided that's the thing people want to see.
One of Bluenose goals is to create structures of the seafood products as similar to nature as possible.
In our case we will grow all the cells we need for fish fillet, and then use it 3D printing approach to put it all back together.
Right now we're focusing on fin fish.
So for example, the mahi, tuna, red snapper
And then eventually we'll also look at mollusks, and crabs, lobsters, and all other seafood products.
BlueNalu isn't the only company working in the ever-expanding field of cell-based meats.
According to a recent report from The Good Food Institue more than 25 cell-based meat companies have already been announced.
Only six of those companies are working on cellular seafood.
And of those, only a few have held public tastings.
Back in June, San Francisco-based company Wild Type held a tasting of its cellular salmon, including poke, ceviche, and sushi rolls.
You'll notice all those dishes involve uncooked salmon, because at this point, Wild Type's salmon can't be heated past 212 degrees Farenheit.
Or it begins to flake and fall apart.
Singapore based Shiok Meats held a public testing of its cell-based dumpling back in March.
The dumpling cost thousands of dollars to produce and the only people to get a taste were, Advisors of the company.
Bluenale hasn't had any public taste test quite yet, but they have had a few taste tests behind closed doors.
The overall consensus is that we already have the fishy taste, but we need to optimize the texture.
One has to say that right now we are only concentrating on growing the cells
Fish eats other fish, or crustaceans, and that influences the taste.
So we will analyse what the composition is.
And we'll then compliment the growth video with other few components, that then would give you the taste you want.
We do get excited by doing small scale test.
Blue Nile strategy is really about skill production.
We've been the first to market in large value.
I would say in three years and the first consumers should be able to get a taste.
With the world appetite for sea food increasing, people are turning to imports and harmful fishing practices to meet the demand.
According to Global Fishing Watch, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing accounts for 20% of the global catch.
And bycatch, unwanted fish and other marine species, could account for as much as 40% of the global catch.
This is not just hurting marine ecoysystems.
It's also hurting the fishing industries bottom line.
According to a 2017 World Bank Group report, fishing less and fishing better could generate an additional $83 billion for the fishery sector.
We recognize that many economies rely on fishing as perhaps a sole source of income for many of their residents.
We're all about the fact that All three of us can work together welcome farm race and our cellular agriculture process we hope we could feed the world news ahead.
If you buy fish actually you have to look at where does it come from is it on the fish list right so i think i would say You have to worry more about the white cod fish than our product.
If you're still not sure how you feel about cell-based seafood it's understandable.
Some of the science is still kept under wraps to maintain a competitive edge.
It'll be years before I get the answers to all the question I have now.
We'll have to wait and see, how it's going to be labelled in stores, how it tastes, and whether anyone will be crazy enough to attempt some sort of hybrid species [UNKNOWN], For now I'm glad that the desire to be kinder to our oceans, and the creatures that inhabit them, is driving innovation in this emerging industry.
Thanks for watching, I'm your host [UNKNOWN] See you next time What The Fam.
