SeafoodSource is closely following the plant-based and cell-based seafood alternatives market by compiling a regular round-up of updates from the sector. If you have an announcement, please send it to [email protected].
– Montgomery, Alabama, U.S.A.-based restaurant Wintzell’s Oyster House has added Mind Blown plant-based seafood to its menu.
The 85-year-old seafood restaurant, which is known for its “fried, stewed, and nude” oysters, will be adding Mind Blown plant-based oysters, fried shrimp, and crab cakes to its offerings, and including them as plant-based alternatives to traditional favorites like Po’Boys and seafood baskets.
“At Wintzell’s, we take pride in tradition, but we also recognice the importance of offering innovative and sustainable choices for our customers," CEO Danielle Kennedy said. “Partnering with Mind Blown allows us to expand our menu while staying true to our commitment to serving the best seafood–plant based or otherwise.”
Mind Blown CEO and co-founder Monica Talbert said she was thrilled her product was being adopted by “an iconic seafood institution like Wintzell’s.”
“This partnership is a testament to how far plant-based seafood has come," she said. "Whether you’re a longtime seafood lover or looking for something new, these dishes will absolutely blow your mind.”
– Paris, France-based alternative seafood producer OLALA! is closing.
In a long LinkedIn post about the closure, OLALA! said that it had failed to find its market. “We have not managed to reach a sufficient level of turnover to sustain the company,” the post read.
“It is difficult to predict whether the world of plant-based alternatives to animal products will be a market of the future, but we can testify to the very strong resistance that persists among foodservice players," the company said. "Still too few of them accept, in the current economic conditions, to see their food costs increase, even if it is for excellent environmental reasons (overfishing, state of the oceans) or health reasons (heavy metals, pollution, quality of farmed fish)."
The post noted that the announcement came as the company had just received its IFS Food certification for its Boulogne-sur-Mer plant, which it said had confirmed “the quality and seriousness of our industrial project for which our teams have worked tirelessly throughout 2024.”
In early 2024, the company announced that it was partnering with Scandinavian company Everland to help it market seafood analogs. At the time, OLALA! CEO and co-found Simon Ferniot said “we want to make waves. We’re here to challenge the market but to do it sustainably. Everland helped build a platform for breaking through the ordinary and creating lasting change for the better.”
Now, the company says that it is closing because its “industrial model required a different market dynamic.”
– Singapore-based technology company UMAMI Bioworks has announced a new AI model tailored exclusively to the seafood industry. The newest iteration of the company’s ALKEMYST model, which was originally developed to accelerate cell-cultivated seafood production, expands its applications to support the broader seafood value chain, including aquaculture, wild fisheries mangagement, and seafood supply chains.
“This next-generation version of ALKEMYST is a huge step forward in AI-driven seafood innovation,” said UMAMI Bioworks CEO and cofounder Mihir Pershad. “We’ve expanded ALKEMYST beyond cultivated seafood, enabling businesses across the entire seafood value chain to make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. This is more than just an AI model – it is a transformative tool for the future of global seafood.”
The model is trained on public and private marine genomic, metabolomic, and seafood sensory data. It was designed to respond to the needs of the cultivated seafood industry, but due to the shared biology between cellular and whole-animal systems, UMAMI has found wider applications for the tool.
Key uses of ALKEMYST include optimizing feeding, increasing protein content, developing climate-resiliency, enhancing land-based aquaculture, optimizing precision of cell culture media, enhancing product nutrition, and developing new products.
