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].
– Saudi Arabia’s Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has approved a microbial, single-cell protein called Uniprotein for use as feed in fish and crustacean aquaculture.
Uniprotein, created by Danish biotech firm Unibio, is a protein alternative which closely mirrors the amino acid profile of fishmeal but does not contain fish proteins or soy. It has been approved for aquaculture use by the E.U., Japan, India, Thailand, Russia, and Chile and is under consideration for approval in a number of other countries.
Unibio Chief Commercial Officer Olivier Hartz said that the move into Saudi Arabia (KSA) was a strategic one.
“This is a significant step into KSA, a key region that is working toward feed and food self-sufficiency under the Vision 2030 program, while increasing local fish production,” Hartz said, referencing Saudi Arabia’s program that sets out strategies to ensure 600,000 metric tons (MT) of seafood production domestically by 2030.
Unibio markets Uniprotein as “the world’s most cost-efficient, single-cell protein solution,” which it believes can solve the problem of natural resource exhaustion. So far, it has been used in feed for salmon, trout, shrimp, sea bream, and sturgeon.
– Plant-based seafood company AQUA Cultured Foods, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A., has again been named to Forward Fooding’s 2024 FoodTech500, which the company called, in a LinkedIn post, “the world’s premier list of the most innovative global talent at the intersection of food, technology, and sustainability.”
The post said that AQUA Cultured was chosen from a pool of 1,420 applicants from over 70 countries. The alternative seafood company, which was also named to the FoodTech500 2023 list, said the honor recognized its “unwavering dedication to improving our food system.”
London, U.K.-headquartered Forward Fooding bills itself as the “largest global network of AgriFoodTech entrepreneurs powered by entrepreneurs since 2015.”
For the last six years, the organization has developed a FoodTech 500 list which it says highlights the "most innovative global businesses at the convergence of food, technology, and sustainability.”
– Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.-based nonprofit Greener by Default, which works to widen access to plant-based meals, will partner with over 400 U.S. hospitals in collaboration with foodservice and facility management company Sodexo.
The partnership expands an existing relationship between Greener by Default and Sodexo serving New York City hospitals, which was launched in 2022. That program, Sodexo said in a press release about the expanding partnership, cut the New York Health system’s carbon emissions by over one-third in its first year.
"The continued success of patient menus that position plant-based options as the default demonstrates how small, cost-effective shifts can have an outsized impact while still preserving freedom of choice for diners and ensuring their access to nutritious, sustainable foods that don’t compromise on taste," Greener by Default CEO and Co-Founder Katie Cantrell said.
