Today we are having a look at some alternatives to fish and seafood, either vegan or cell-grown that several startups offer. We’d like to taste them, but some pictures will have to do, for now.
Cell-grown seafood
Finless Foods is a food startup working toward a world where everyone has access to seafood, without the environmental devastation or the health hazards of traditional fishing and aquatic farming.
They use cellular-agriculture technologies to grow marine-animal cells, creating fish and seafood products. This means people can enjoy fresh, sustainable seafood at affordable prices, without catching or farming the species on which they’re based.
They’ve starting producing bluefin tuna, a fish that has recently been threatened by predatory fishing practices. They plan on easing the strain of wild fishing on bluefin tuna by producing it in a clean, safe way on shore. This will help our ocean ecosystems and provide a luxurious, healthy source of protein for people to enjoy.
BlueNalu, which recently secured $20 Million in Series A financing, does something similar using “cellular aquaculture”, in which living cells are isolated from fish tissue, placed into culture media for proliferation, and then assembled into fresh and frozen seafood products.
They are specifically focused on species that are over-fished, primarily imported, or difficult to farm-raise. As a result, they can reduce pressure on wild fisheries, displace the need for foreign imports, create local jobs, enhance food security and promote increased consumption of healthy seafood options globally.
Plant-based seafood
Good Catch is a company that makes seafood substitutes with legumes and algae oil.
They use a six-legume blend of peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy, fava beans and navy beans. When blended in the perfect proprietary ratios, render an amazing texture resembling the exact flakiness of seafood.
Aside from tasting great, legumes are nutritional powerhouses. They are:
• Packed with protein
• Full of dietary fiber and minerals
• Very low in fat
Algal oil, offers the primary note in the taste profile. It also has DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a prized essential omega-3 fatty acid found in fish oils, which fish absorb when they consume microalgae.
Recently Bumble Bee Foods announced a joint venture partnership with Gathered Foods Corp., maker of Good Catch plant-based seafood products.
New Wave Foods elaborates plant-based, sustainable, vegetarian and kosher shrimp. It has sustainably ocean farmed seaweed and other “natural ingredients”. It can be cook the same way as regular shrimp. The benefits of this seafood is that it is:
- Zero cholesterol
- Lower in calories
- Vegetarian and kosher
- No shellfish allergens
- Sustainably sourced, environmentally friendly
