appealing to the food industry for numerous reasons, including the potential for cheaper production down the road. Growing (and buying) only the valuable parts of the animal would reduce waste.
Cell-based meat production could also open up previously rare animal or seafood proteins, or allow scientists to design artisan products.
"There is the opportunity for each producer to create their own versions of the product (much like craft brewers, farmhouse cheesemakers and charcuterie producers now), therefore giving them diversity and competitiveness in the market," wrote the authors of a 2018 journal article in Trends in Food Science & Technology on the topic of cell-based meat.
Sarah Lucas, Mosa Meat's head of operations, said the science is getting more sophisticated, and new players such as BlueNalu are jumping in to develop different kinds of animal products. While Mosa Meat doesn't work with fish cells, Lucas said it could be a smart target. That's because fish cells can grow at room temperature, unlike mammalian cells.
"This could mean that the production process uses less energy, which would be fantastic," Lucas said.
Creating the perfect fish fillet is an exacting science. A live fish is first put under anesthesia so scientists can collect a sample of muscle stem cells. The fish isn't harmed during this process, scientists said, and can go on living a happy fish life. One sample can produce billions of cells.
The muscle stem cells are then placed in a plant-based broth full of nutrients, which stews in a bioreactor while the cells grow and multiply. Essentially, the cells are "tricked" into thinking they're still inside a body and therefore continue doing their work to create tissue.
From here, the cells are concentrated down and mixed with a nutritious liquid called "bio-ink," which is then 3-D printed into the desired shape, such as a fish fillet, a scallop or any other seafood creation. By the end of this year, the startup expects to make scallop-sized pieces of fish, like the kinds found in Poke bowls. One day, BlueNalu plans to make a variety of fish, crustaceans and mollusks.
We don't know yet how the fish will taste, as the startup is too early in production. But Cooperhouse said he's confident they can produce a fillet whose taste and texture will meet consumer expectations. In fact, he thinks leaving out the undesirable bits like bones and blood will result in a superior alternative to "real fish" caught in oceans.
Besides BlueNalu, there's only one other seafood competitor on the foodtech industry's radar: a Bay Area company called Finless Foods. This company raised $3.5 million from investors in a seed round last summer, and they're still early in the science.
BlueNalu executives think their own team may be the most advanced in cell-based seafood. And they also have a marketing edge. While most cell-based meats require animal serums (made of blood) to grow, BlueNalu has created a plant-based alternative. This will appease most consumers concerned about animal cruelty.
While alternative meat products have been around for decades in the form of bean burgers and tofurky dogs, it was only with the advent of shockingly convincing fake beef that set the industry on fire. Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat designed plant-based burgers that look and taste like the real thing. They even bleed.
Consumers have flocked to try the products, and investors are tripping over themselves to grab a stake. Beyond Meat burst onto the stock market earlier this month in one of the best-performing initial public offerings in decades. The company's stock price soared over 200% in a fortnight, giving the company a market cap of $4.8 billion and igniting investor interest in alternative meat.
Two weeks after Beyond Meat's debut on Nasdaq, Impossible Foods raised $300 million from tech investors and celebrities. They were valued at $2 billion during the deal.
And perhaps the biggest news of all—the Impossible Whopper is now available at select Burger King locations across the nation, cementing alternative meat's place in American culture.
"As demand increases, we expect a flood of new entrants chasing an expanding market opportunity," said PitchBook Emerging Tech analyst Alex Frederick. In his recently published foodtech report, Frederick noted venture capitalists have poured $7.5 billion into foodtech startups in 2018, an all-time high.
The big promise of alternative meat is obvious: less animal cruelty, less impact on the environment, and a good option for vegans and vegetarians who prefer their burgers with fewer beans.
But Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are both playing in the plant-based arena, creating products from things like wheat and potato protein. Although their products were certainly designed in food laboratories, they are ultimately not animal products. They're excellent imitations of animal products.
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