See new type of fish to fry made in 3D printer – 04/05/2023 – Market

Forget hook and line. An Israeli food technology company says it has 3D printed the first ready-to-cook fish fillet using animal cells grown and grown in a lab.

Lab-raised beef and chicken have gained attention as a way to circumvent agriculture’s environmental impact and address animal welfare concerns, but few companies have invested in seafood.

Israel’s Steakholder Foods has now partnered with Singapore-based Umami Meats to make fish fillets without the need to chase dwindling fish populations.

Umami Meats extracts cells –for now from grouper– and turns them into muscle and fat. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a “bioink” suitable for special 3D printers. The result: a fine fillet that mimics the properties of fish caught at sea.

Umami expects to bring its first products to market next year, starting in Singapore and then, depending on regulations, in countries such as the United States and Japan.

Growing cells is still too expensive to match the cost of traditional seafood, so for now, fish cells are diluted with plant-based ingredients in bioink.

“Over time, the complexity and level of these products will increase, and the prices associated with producing them will decrease,” said Arik Kaufman, chief executive of Steakholder Foods.

A glass plate slides back and forth on the 3D printer, the finger-length white fillet gaining mass with each pass. It has the flocculation of traditional fish and when fried and seasoned it’s hard to tell the difference.

The process is simpler than with beef, but there are some drawbacks.

Stem cells from cows have been studied extensively, but much less is known about fish, said Umami chief executive Mihir Pershad.

“We have to figure out what cells like to eat, how they like to grow, and there’s not a lot of literature to begin with,” he said.

“The number of scientists, you might imagine, working on fish stem cell biology is a tiny fraction of those working on animal cells and human cells.”

They found a process for grouper and eel, and hope to add another three endangered species in the coming months, he said.

Matching the price of natural fish is a fundamental challenge.

“We want consumers to choose based on taste and what they can do for the world and the planetary environment. Also that cost is not a concern,” added Pershad.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves