15 Dec 2021
The Spanish edition of Business Insider features our work
You can see a translated version of the article below (automatically-generated translation):
"Portugal hosts a pioneering initiative to produce sea bass in vitro, without bones, mercury, microplastics, or negative environmental impact. The Algae2Fish project will use algae to grow boneless fish fillets from lab-grown sea bass cells. Although it is cultured meat that captures the most covers , moves the most money and generates the most interest in the alternative protein market , more and more startups and research projects are focusing on producing fish in vitro or developing seafood plant based .
In Portugal, a laboratory sea bass is cooked , without thorns, without toxic agents and without the environmental problem that overfishing and pollution of the oceans imply . This is the Algae2Fish project and it wants to print completely real fish in 3D with the same benefits and identical texture and taste.
The team, led by Frederico Ferreira from the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences of the University of Lisbon, with funding from the sustainable food NGO Good Food Institute (GFI), will base the development of new techniques on algae to grow boneless fish fillets from sea bass cells.
Laboratory sea bass will be free of mercury and microplastics , which are increasingly present in marine ecosystems and end up reaching human organs , including the placenta.
The researchers will use techniques that include 3D printing and a material extracted from algae and plants, which will be used to give structure to a product grown from fish cells. In this way they will be able to replicate the complex and characteristic fibrous texture of conventional fish, contributing to the diner's experience being identical to that of tasting a traditional sea bass fillet.
The algae used will also contain antioxidants, increasing the nutritional value of the final product. These sea vegetables will be responsible for providing the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish , key to brain, heart, eye or bone health.
Another method will be electrical stimulation to enhance the transformation of fish stem cells into muscle and fat. These can then be used to create different biolinks, using 3D printing to form patterns in the resulting meat, recreating both the flavor of the fish and the characteristic alternating stripes or streaks of muscle and fat in a fillet.
The algae will be completely sustainable , as existing suppliers can grow it locally.
“In Portuguese we have a saying: a fish without bones is a problem solved”, jokes Frederico Ferreira, head of the project. Their boneless sea bass fillets will not only be very good for children, but they also aim to help solve a global problem .
"I come from a country that loves fish and I want to continue eating fish. There is a role for sustainable small-scale fishing, but we cannot continue with deep-sea fishing that causes so much damage to ocean ecosystems," he adds.
"There are huge opportunities for more companies and governments to invest in plant-based and farmed seafood to meet growing demand in a sustainable way," said Seren Kell, director of science and technology at the Good Food Institute Europe.
The Algae2Fish team was one of 21 successful applicants for GFI's Competitive Research Grants programme, which funds innovative open access research in plant-based foods, cultured meat and fermentation.
The search for alternatives is especially key in Europe, which imports 3 times more seafood than it produces. In addition, global demand for seafood is forecast to increase by 5% over the next decade.
Nearly half of the EU's marine habitats are at or near risk, mainly due to pollution, fishing and aquaculture.
The technique could be made available to other startups around the world that base their projects on cultivating new products from the sea. Cell cultured fish will be able to help meet growing demand without compromising the survival of the oceans."
See the original article here: https://www.businessinsider.es/portugal-atreve-lubina-cultivada-laboratorio-981013