Berlin-based Bluu Seafood revealed fish sticks and fish balls made from cells cultured in a lab, without killing any real fish
Sarah Kuta
Daily Correspondent
August 9, 2022
Lab-grown fish sticks
Bluu Seafood is preparing for regulatory approval processes for its cell-cultured fish products in Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. Bluu GmbH / Wim Jansen
Lab-grown fish products are one step closer to arriving on grocery store shelves. This week, Berlin-based Bluu Seafood revealed what the company says are the first market-ready products made from cultivated fish cells: fish fingers and fish balls.
Bluu Seafood is now preparing to enter the complex web of regulatory approval processes in Asia, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, meaning the cell-cultured products could be heading for dinner plates around the world within the next few years. The company hopes to be able to sell its products by 2025.
Since 2020, Bluu Seafood has been perfecting the art of making seafood without actually killing any fish. It’s one of several companies working to develop lab-grown fish foods that may help address seafood production issues like overfishing, cruelty and contamination from heavy metals and plastics.
Fish balls
Bluu's lab-grown fish balls Bluu GmbH / Wim Jansen
To make its products without harvesting any fish, the company collects tissue from a live fish, then uses stem cell technology to create duplicate cells by feeding them a “nutrient-rich medium” in a bioreactor, per the company website. The cells then begin growing up scaffolding structures to help give them the right fishy flesh texture.
Once the company has developed an initial biomass of cells, the system is self-sustaining and does not require any more real fish from that point forward.
“That is the amazing thing about ‘immortalized’ cells—while ‘normal’ cells double for, let’s say, 20 times and then stop, the immortalized cells keep on doubling—theoretically forever,” Simon Fabich, the company’s co-founder, tells TechCrunch’s Paul Sawers.
These cultivated fish cells are the main ingredient in Bluu Seafood’s fish fingers and balls, but the company also adds plant proteins to “optimize cooking behavior and mouthfeel,” per a statement.
At the moment, Bluu Seafood is developing lab-grown cells from Atlantic salmon, rainbow trout and carp. The company is also working on more complicated fish products, including sashimi and fillets.