Biotechnology company Triplebar and cultivated seafood platform company Umami Meats have joined forces to develop optimized cell lines suitable for large-scale production of cultivated seafood. Their first project will be the Japanese eel, one of the most popular and critically endangered fish species. By improving the fitness and performance of cell lines, the two companies aim to enable lower-cost, more efficient production of cultivated foods. This will help reduce the cost of high-quality foods, reduce supply-chain risks in the global fishing and aquaculture industry, and relieve pressure on depleted fish stocks in the world’s oceans.
Triple bar brings a robust algorithm of evolution to develop products and biological production systems used to produce them in the lab. Its technology can be applied to food, pharmaceuticals, and other verticals. In January, Triplebar announced a partnership with global ingredients giant FrieslandCampina to co-develop and scale up the production of elements essential to human nutrition. Together, the two companies will produce microbial cells via fermentation methodologies, which can produce proteins with a much smaller land, water, and energy footprint than traditional livestock.
On the other hand, Umami Meats is developing an operating system for cultivated seafood. This standardized, modular production process empowers seafood producers to locally manufacture a range of delicious, affordable, and healthy cultivated seafood products tailored to local consumer tastes. The company has established a novel production process built around cell types rapidly producing mature muscle and fat. It is now optimizing production architecture and process design to reduce costs, increase productivity, and establish a reliable, repeatable process that can scale at production sites worldwide.
Through the unique combination of stem cell biology, machine learning, and digital twins, Umami Meats is pioneering the development of a standardized, modular, and automated production process to produce cultivated seafood from various fish species. The company’s product roadmap prioritizes the world’s most popular seafood from species that are IUCN Red Listed, unsuited to large-scale aquaculture, and facing growing demand. Building partnerships that accelerate the process development cycle and improve product quality has been a core priority for the company over the past year.
Umami Meats’ CEO believes technology can make seafood better, healthier, and more sustainable than conventional aquaculture and wild catch, especially for endangered species. He is confident that this collaboration between Umami Meats and Triplebar will accelerate the commercialization of cultivated seafood and the transition to a more robust and sustainable food system for everyone. The two companies plan to announce additional agreement details later this year. To restore ocean ecosystems and preserve biodiversity, their partnership represents a significant step forward in producing cultivated seafood.
Image provided by UmamiMeats
