Lab-grown fish fingers anyone? Birds Eye owner explores cell-cultured seafood

Pulmuone Corporate

13/09/2021 13:00

By James Davey
    LONDON, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Europe's largest frozen food
group and the maker of Birds Eye fish fingers has teamed-up with
U.S. company BlueNalu to develop seafood products grown from
cells in a laboratory rather than harvested from the oceans.
    Nomad Foods, which also owns the Findus, Iglo, La Cocinera
and Green Cuisine brands, told Reuters on Monday it aimed to
commercialise cell-cultured seafood to help meet rising demand
and to support efforts to safeguard the long-term sustainability
of the planet's fish stocks.
    Through the tie-up, Nomad and BlueNalu will collaborate on
market research and consumer insights, assess what is needed to
gain the approval of regulators and explore new business and
product opportunities for European markets.
    Europe is the largest importer of seafood in the world, with
its citizens consuming more than three times as much as they
produce, according to the European Union's Blue Economy Report.
    "The importance of sustainability has never been more
apparent, and the role of technology in delivering these needs
is accelerating," said Nomad Foods Chief Executive Stéfan
Descheemaeker.
    The process developed by San Diego, California-based
BlueNalu sees living fish cells, isolated from the muscle, fat
and connective tissue of a fish, fed the nutrition and care they
need to multiply. They are then shaped into portions of seafood
using practices commonly utilised in the food industry. There is
no genetic modification.
    Nomad, which operates and manufactures in 14 markets across
Europe, is the world’s largest purchaser of sustainable wild
caught fish.
    It said its agreement with BlueNalu represented the first of
its kind in Europe between a consumer packaged goods company and
a cell-cultured seafood company.
    BlueNalu is developing a variety of seafood products
directly from fish cells.
    It focuses on fish species that are typically imported,
difficult to farm-raise, are overfished or non-sustainable or
typically contain higher levels of environmental contaminants.
    BlueNalu's tie-up with Nomad Foods follows already announced
collaborations with Pulmuone Co Ltd.  017810.KS  in South Korea,
Sumitomo Corporation  8053.T  and Mitsubishi Corporation
 8058.T  in Japan, and Thai Union  TU.BK  in Thailand.
    Rivals to BlueNalu include Bluu Biosciences, Finless Foods
and Wild Type.    

 (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Edmund Blair)
 ((james.davey@thomsonreuters.com))