Cell-based seafood—derived from commonly consumed fish (for example, salmon and tuna) or shellfish (for example, crustaceans such as shrimp and crab)—is also known as cultured, cellular or in vitro seafood. It is derived from the tissue of an aquatic species, but has never been part of a live, swimming animal.
The flesh is made in the laboratory by harvesting cells from a small number of donor fish or shellfish and culturing them in a bioreactor. For three-dimensional tissues like fillets, an edible, biocompatible scaffold is needed to provide structure for cell growth and maturation.
The resulting lab-made meat, a mix of mostly muscle and fat cells, tastes similar to the live-caught version, but has none of the animal ‘waste’: no bones, no scales, no eyeballs.
Some people object to the idea of their meat being grown in a lab, but Wildtype’s founders say that more awareness about slaughter is changing that. “A lot of people have intentionally turned a blind eye to how our meat and seafood is made because we all know it’s not a great story,” says [Wildtype co-founder] Justin Kolbeck.
