Lab-Grown Salmon Hits the Menu at an Oregon Restaurant as the FDA Greenlights the Cell-Cultured Product
The decision clears the way for the first cultured fish to join the small but growing alternative protein market
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While lab-grown chicken has been legal in certain U.S. states for a couple of years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the first cultured fish for entry into the alternative protein club: salmon produced by the food tech company Wildtype.
On May 28, the agency issued a letter stating it has “no questions” about Wildtype’s claim that its cell-cultivated salmon is “as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods.” This marked the final step in the FDA’s safety consultation process for the product, reports the Verge’s Dominic Preston.
Emily Nytko-Lutz, an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in biotechnology patents, tells the Verge that seeking the agency’s pre-market safety consultation isn’t required for a company to sell its food, but it helps with marketing. In fact, Wildtype celebrated the green light by announcing a partnership with the James Beard award-winning chef Gregory Gourdet, who began serving the lab-grown salmon at Kann, his Haitian restaurant in Portland, Oregon, in late May.
“Introducing Wildtype’s cultivated salmon to our menu hits the elevated and sustainable marks we want our menu to offer guests who share a similar value system to ours,” Gourdet says in the announcement.
Lab-grown or “cultivated” meat has emerged as an alternative to killing animals for food. In terms of fish, the FDA’s decision comes as the seafood industry is suffering from pollution, climate change and overfishing, writes International Supermarket News. Meanwhile, seafood demand is projected to increase due to an ever-expanding human population and growing affluence. As such, lab-grown fish could lessen the burden on the fishing and fish farming industries, per Wildtype, as well as mitigate concerns about food contamination.
To make their product, the food company’s scientists collect living cells from Pacific salmon and grow them in cell cultivators that mimic the inside of a wild fish—controlling factors like temperature, pH and nutrients, per their website. After harvesting them, the team incorporates plant-based ingredients to make the hunk of cells taste, feel and look like salmon fillets.
They claim their final product has the same amount of healthy omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids as traditional salmon, while avoiding the risk of mercury, antibiotics and parasite contamination. As noted by Popular Science’s Andrew Paul, Wildtype’s product is also notable because of its specific salmon cut, “saku”: the Japanese name for a block of seafood that can be eaten raw as sushi or sashimi.
Currently, cultivated meat products are more expensive than animal products, and they’re sold at high-end restaurants. Wildtype’s salmon is only appearing on Kann’s menu on Thursday nights in June, but it will become available every day in July. It’s also set to debut in four more restaurants over the coming four months.
“It’s important to recognize that at present the cultivated meat industry has exciting long-term potential, but right now it’s just potential,” Glenn Hurowitz, the founder and CEO of climate advocacy group Mighty Earth, told Reason’s Emma Camp last year. “This is a tiny industry.”
Still, cell-cultivated meat has caught the attention of regulators and is facing an “uphill battle” for approval in some areas, as reported by Food&Wine’s Stacey Leasca. A handful of states, including Florida and Alabama, have banned or are considering bans on the creation and sale of the alternative protein. For now, Wildtype is only the fourth company to receive approval by the FDA for its cultivated animal products, according to the Verge.
