Forget your hook, line and sinker. An Israeli foodtech company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish fillet using animal cells cultivated and grown in a laboratory.
Lab-grown beef and chicken have drawn attention as a way to sidestep the environmental toll of farming and tackle concerns over animal welfare, but few companies have forayed into seafood.
Israel’s Steakholder Foods has now partnered with Singapore-based Umami Meats to make fish fillets without the need to stalk dwindling fish populations.
Umami Meats extracts cells – for now from grouper – and grows them into muscle and fat. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a ‘bio-ink’ suited for special 3D printers. The outcome: a narrow fillet that mimics the properties of sea-caught fish.
Cell cultivation alone is still too expensive to match the cost of traditional seafood, so for now the fish cells are diluted with plant-based ingredients in the bio-ink.
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They have figured out a process for grouper and eel and hope to add three other endangered species in the coming months.
