Could lab-grown seafood be the answer to a fishing industry in crisis?

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Could lab-grown seafood be the answer to a fishing industry in crisis?

A Singapore-based company is taking cells from endangered, threatened and protected seafood species and growing them in a lab.

As overfishing, ocean pollution and climate change threaten marine ecosystems, lab-grown fish and seafood have been touted by some as a potential solution to the fishing industry’s challenges. 

Singapore-based company Umami Bioworks is developing a platform to manufacture cell-based seafood products. 

“We look for species that are endangered, threatened or protected, and have high demand and name recognition from consumers, but that can’t be easily grown on farms economically,” Mihir Pershad, Umami founder and CEO, told CNBC Tech: The Edge.

The company has focused its efforts on a handful of species, such as eel, bluefin tuna, red snapper, lobster and prawn.  

But unlike other lab-grown food companies, Umami’s goal isn’t to make a finished product. 

“Our goal is actually selling production capacity, to basically be a technology partner. Our core platform brings together stem cell biology, machine learning and industrial automation,” Pershad said. 

Umami hopes to begin commercialization in 2025. 

In 2023, it teamed up with Israeli company Steakholder Foods to produce the world’s first 3D printed lab-grown fish fillet, and it is currently working with a Malaysian biotechnology company to bring the first large-scale cultivated food factory to Southeast Asia.

Partnerships like these will be key to ensure the sustainability of Asia’s aquaculture industry, which accounts for 92% of global production. 

Watch the video above to find out how Umami Bioworks is making its cell-based seafood products.

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