Who knows, in a few years you may have a piece of lab-grown fish on your plate. Bluu Seafood, a German company that develops lab-grown fish, recently took a big step, unveiling two products they will be launching in a few years: fish fingers and fish balls. These products are made from cultured fish cells and enriched with vegetable proteins to optimize the taste.
The products are now market ready and will soon enter the regulatory approval process. Bluu Seafood aims to launch in Singapore by the end of 2023. The company will also apply for approval in the United States, the United Kingdom and the EU. In addition to fish balls and fish fingers, the Berlin start-up has also developed the first prototypes of more complex products, such as fillets and sashimi.
Stem cell technology
Bluu Seafood works with a so-called stem cell technology to develop their products. That process starts with a one-time ‘fish biopsy’, which does not require the fish to be killed. Stem cell technology is then applied to develop complete cell lines in a laboratory setting. Bluu uses the Atlantic salmon, the rainbow trout and the carp.
The company is one of many working to address the problems that have arisen in the fishing industry, including overfishing, heavy metal and plastic pollution, and animal cruelty.
Up to 30 percent more farmed fish thanks to a better light system
Fish farming is a fast-growing sector in the Netherlands with more than 50 companies. It is also a high-tech industry.
Regulations
But developing a market-ready product does not automatically mean that the product will soon be launched on the market. Singapore is so far the only region in the world where lab-grown meat can be marketed. That’s why this island is Bluu’s first port of call.
The next step is to get approval in the rest of the countries. The EU in particular is a major challenge, as the legal framework differs in all 27 countries. That’s why Bluu decided last year to become a co-founder of Cellular Agriculture Europe, an industry coalition designed to help like-minded companies make their voices heard on policy issues related to cultured meat, fish and dairy products.
Bluu expects that the first laboratory-grown fish balls will be in the supermarket by 2025.