San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based BlueNalu, announced the launch of its cellular aquaculture business at the annual conference of the International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research in Washington, D.C. in mid-June.
The new company, founded by president and CEO Lou Cooperhouse, chairman Chris Somogyi, and Chris Dammann, sees great promise in developing and delivering seafood products cultured from fish cells, according to Cooperhouse.
“BlueNalu’s mission is to be the global leader in cellular aquaculture, providing consumers with great tasting, healthy, safe, and trusted seafood products, that support the sustainability and diversity of our oceans,” Cooperhouse said in a press release.
BlueNalu is currently developing products involving finfish, crustaceans, and mollusks, according to FoodNavigator-USA.com. The company received a significant but undisclosed initial funding round from New Crop Capital, an investment firm that funds companies with products or services designed to replace foods derived from conventional animal agriculture, which New Crop calls “an antiquated and inefficient food production system with serious vulnerabilities.”
“BlueNalu intends to disrupt the current industry practice, in which fish are farmed or wild-caught. Instead, we plan to produce real seafood products directly from fish cells, in a way that is healthy for people, humane for animals, and sustainable for our planet,” Cooperhouse said.
However, in a joint statement, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb and FDA Deputy Commissioner Anna Abram in a statement the FDA has undertaken an examination of the cultured, or cellular, seafood market.
The use of animal cell culture technology as a method of food production and manufacturing “raises many important considerations from a technical and regulatory perspective,” Gottlieb and Abram said.
The FDA is holding a public meeting on 12 July in College Park, Maryland, to discuss the opportunities and challenges of this new market.
“This is a dynamic space that’s gaining interest among companies for various reasons, including appealing to consumers motivated by animal welfare concerns and commercial incentives, including environmental impact, for replacing traditional animal-derived materials for non-animal derived components,” Gottlieb and Abram said.
A significant technical challenge in using animal cell culture technology to develop foods intended to resemble conventional meat, poultry, and seafood products is the development of the growth medium used to multiply the cells and ensure that they differentiate into the correct cell types, according to Gottlieb and Abram.
