Cell-based shrimp manufacturerCellMEAThas announced plans to bring its flagship Dokdo cultured shrimp product to the US, Korea, and Singapore markets by 2024.
Off the back of an $8.1 million Series A funding round, the firm will establish a production facility in Seoul that is reportedly capable of producing 100kg of cultured shrimp per day.
The company’s COO, Heejung Kim,told FoodIngredientsFirstthat the firm intends to embark upon a Series B funding round once the center has been launched, where it hopes to raise between $30-40 million to significantly scale its current production capacity.
3D printing seafood
Recent years have seen a substantial rise in demand for alternative meat options for a variety of reasons, ranging from opposition to animal slaughter to environmental concerns. As such, the development of novel technologies like food culturing, tissue engineering, and food 3D printing has substantially increased in order to produce alt-meat products in a more cost-effective and sustainable manner.
The alt-seafood market, however, has been slower to receive the same R&D and commercialization efforts, and mainly consists of minced fish options like fish fingers due to the challenges of whole cut production. Saying this, there are some players who are actively deploying 3D printing to create and commercialize better alt-fish products.
例如，基于维也纳的启动Revo Foods, previously known asLegendary Vish，一直在发展自己的3D printed plant-based salmonfor several years. Last year, the firm debuted its product at a“世界第一”公共品尝活动and laid out its intention to create an automated 3D printing production line for its alt-seafood range.
More recently, Israeli 3D printing food start-upPlantishraised over $12 million in seed funding which it will use to bring its到2024年到美食餐厅的Alt-Seafood产品。该公司的植物鲑鱼是使用该公司申请专利的3D打印技术制造的，然后以与常规鲑鱼的准备方式相同。
CellMEAT’s cultured shrimp
Dokdo Shrimp是韩国的区域性优质美味佳肴，其大小比常规品种大，长度高达25厘米。Dokdo Shrimp仅在日本的北极海洋和海洋中发现，通常价格约为每公斤160美元。
Cellmeat声称它利用其无血清培养基和专有组织工程技术，声称它将能够以每公斤5美元的价格低于5美元的价格来销售其培养的虾。
The company plans to produce three different sizes of Dokdo shrimp and is currently able to produce 10kg per day in its prototype labs. Once its new facility is launched, the firm expects to ramp up its production capacity to 100kg per day.
To achieve this, CellMEAT will launch another funding round with which it hopes to raise up to $40 million. The funds will be used to create another large-scale production facility that will help it to commercialize its tissue engineering and culture technologies.
Off the back of this, CellMEAT plans to distribute its cultured Dokdo shrimp products throughout Korea, Singapore, and the US at a much cheaper price point than is currently possible.
The firm is currently contributing to theMinistry of Agriculture of South Korea’shigh-value-added future food technology initiative and is receiving funds from the韩国粮食，农业和林业技术计划和评估研究所为了继续研究其技术。
Commercializing food 3D printing
虽然3D印刷的海鲜市场目前仍然是商业化，但几家Alt-Meat 3D印刷公司已经在全球市场上推出了其产品。
Aiming to become the“world’s largest alt-meat company”by 2030,重新定义肉has already commercialized its food 3D printing technology in multiple markets. The firm launched itsfirst series of ‘New-Meat’ productsto selected restaurants and hotels in Israel in July 2021, and by the end of the year had推出了高端餐厅的范围throughout Europe.
Elsewhere, fellow food 3D printing start-upSavorEathas partnered with global hospitality firmSodexotopilot its robot chef food 3D printerat select universities in the US, bringing it a step closer to commercializing the system and its first alt-meat product.
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特色图片显示CellMEAT’s cultured Dokdo Shrimp. Photo via CellMEAT.
