Since the breakthrough approval of cultured meat in Singapore and, shortly after, in the U.S., the idea of growing food items from cells in a petri dish has grown in scope, from the creation of lab-grown dairy to lab-grown fish. The latter is a slightly more recent concept that could be about to take off, as several startups are now choosing to focus on this particular area within the food tech industry. In this article, we explore the ins and outs of cultivated fish, which is likely to hit the shelves in the next few years in an attempt to overcome issues such as overfishing and an increased demand for seafood. Lab-grown fish is essentially produced by extracting a small sample of cells from wild-caught fish and cultivating it in a bioreactor that is filled with a liquid known as “growth medium”, which is rich with sugars, minerals, amino acids, and proteins designed to give the fish cells the nutrition they need to multiply. One of the main challenges that lab-grown fish startups have encountered is keeping cells from sticking to the sides of the tanks, where they naturally gravitate. Dr. Christian Dammann, chief technology officer of cultivated fish company Bluu Seafood, explained to Technology Networks that ideally you want to have suspension cultures, but most animal cells do not like that, preferring to be attached to something. Bluu Seafood found its own way around this by developing its own micro-materials to keep its fish cells stuck together. “We created spheroids,” said Dammann. “So instead of adhering to a surface, they adhere to each other. And that seems to keep them happy. Then we grow them in a bioreactor.”

Full story : How biotech startups are trying to save the oceans with lab-grown fish.