For the first time, lab-grown seafood companies have met the US Food and Drug Administration requirements to demonstrate the safety of new cell culture products. WildType cultivated salmon are currently available for sale in Portland, Oregon.
This is the first time that “cultivated seafood” or “cell cultured seafood” has been available to sell anywhere in the world, according to the Good Food Institute, a think tank that advocates alternative proteins. This is a major milestone for the emerging cultivated protein industry, with the aim of delivering real meat and seafood on a large scale without recreating the environmental hazards of large-scale livestock operations.
It is also a sign that the Food and Drug Administration under the Second Trump administration allows the regulatory process around lab-grown meat to continue without political interference despite widespread Republican skepticism about technology.
WildType, which produces sushi-grade salmon by growing fish cells under laboratory conditions, is the fourth-largest grown protein company, and has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and reached the FDA to discuss the safety of salmon grown in the first Trump administration in 2019. Questions from agents over the next six years. Corbeck described the experience as a “science-driven, data-driven process,” saying that the team of regulators dealing with Wildtypes remains roughly the same on three presidential terms.
“Did you feel like a long time in your early-stage startup’s life? Yes,” Corbeck said. “But in my opinion, it’s perfectly appropriate, and the reason is that this is a new way of making food. And I think consumers have the right to feel like our food authorities have turned every possible stone upside down.”
in Letter to the companyFDA said it was “no questionable” about WildType’s conclusion that its cell-grown salmon is “as safe as comparable foods produced otherwise.” However, the agency added that if WildType’s manufacturing process changes, it should contact the FDA again for further consultation. The FDA did not respond to Grist’s request for comment.
The company is currently partnering with Can, a Haitian restaurant in Portland led by James Beard Award-winning chef Gregory Gaudette. The restaurant began serving WildType salmon every week on Thursday this month. In July, the fish will appear on the menu full-time.
Corbeck said Kann sold out all the salmon portions grown on the first night of the service. “I don’t think people saw this as something crazy, wild new,” he said. Instead, it is “another option on the menu and ultimately what we work for. We want to offer consumers another option of seafood.”
Consumers are increasingly choosing alternative protein alternatives in grocery stores and restaurants, from plant-based burgers and chicken nuggets to fake meat made from fermented bacteria. Like other alternative protein companies, cultivated protein brands often position their means of production as more sustainable than animal agriculture. The main source of methane Emission In the US, cultivated meat differs from other alternative proteins in that it is not vegan. that teeth No massacre of meat or large amounts of animal genocide.
Federal regulators sell only a handful of these products, but there is a growing political backlash against cultivated meat.
Last month, three states with Republican-led legislatures enacted bills that would ban or temporarily ban the sale of such products. Nebraska, Montanaand Indiana. They join three other states with similar bans: MississippiLaw prohibiting the sale of cultured meat It passed unanimously At both the Capitol and the Senate earlier this year. Alabama;and Florida.
Governors of these states have framed these laws as necessary to protect consumers from “fake meat” (as the office of the Nebraska Governors I’ll put it) and ranchers from unfair competition in the market. This attitude raises doubts not only the safety of cultivated foods, but also the legitimacy of meat. Montana Legislation Define cultivated meat as “The concept of meat… not from the whole slaughtered animal.”
However, recent protests from ranchers suggest that these state officials will not speak for all farmers and consumers. For example, in Nebraska, ranchers have it Welcome competition From a cultivated protein company.
Madeleine Cohen, who leads the Good Food Institute’s regulatory team, argued that these states are at the expense of opportunities to create jobs and tax revenue. “There are a few states that have chosen to win more political victory than consumer choice and our general free market system,” Cohen said. “And they’ll be sitting on the sidelines now, and they miss out on financial opportunities.”
However, Corbeck and other supporters argue that biotechnology is necessary to meet the growing demand for meat and seafood without depleting the world’s natural resources. Both are overfishing that occur when wild fish are harvested faster than they breed – warming temperatures pose a risk to global food security. Research shows that climate change is already affecting fish and shellfish populations around the world. Fish farms are increasingly common alternatives to wild fishing, but these energy-intensive operations can pollute waterways.
Corbeck assembled cultivated salmon as a way to reduce the impact of the food system on aquatic ecosystems and protect them in order to “enable people to continue fishing for future generations.”
“How do you put a little pressure on wild fish strains and keep these places beautiful?” he said he’s referring to areas like Bristol Bay in Alaska, where the world’s largest socky salmon fisheries are located.
Susie Gerber, head of the Meat, Poultry and Seafood Innovation Association or Amplifier, the cultivated protein trade group, has expressed optimism about the future of the industry. She noted that Trump was recently released. Presidential Order We call for a boost to seafood production in the United States.
“The timing is perfect,” Gerber said. “Other seafood that produces wild type and amplifier members are extremely pleased to answer this call and join farming colleagues in aquaculture, wild and agriculture to ensure a bright future for American seafood.”
Eric Schulze, an independent consultant for a cultivated meat company and former federal regulator, said the FDA’s thumb to wild type should reassure Americans about cultivated meat.
“The United States produces the world’s safest foods – traditional cultivation and cultivation – this clearance only increases food safety and enhances consumer choice,” Schulze said. “Everyone wins.”
