Published on
updated on
Reading 2 min.
What do plant-based tuna steaks or scallops taste like, in this case those made with cellulose? Chicagoans will have the opportunity to form their own opinions starting in August by booking at American restaurants that will accept these new ingredients resulting from a fermentation process.
To make food without slaughtering animals, scientists don’t just grow bovine stem cells under a microscope to feed them growth hormones and get a piece of steak. There is another way, fermentation. In 2022, the Good Food Institute, the lobby group for companies manufacturing plant-based alternatives, reported that manufacturers had invested $842 million in this research. In practice, they rely on an age-old process to make bacteria proliferate, as in beer and wine. This way, they obtain a chain of cells capable of constituting an edible texture. The recipe is based on biomass, to which mushrooms or algae are added to trigger fermentation.
And as crazy as it may seem, you can make fish and seafood like this! In this case, tuna and scallops. In Chicago, Aqua Cultured Foods cultivates cellulose fiber, the material that mainly makes up wood, to reproduce entire fillets of seafood. The material is waited for to reach the desired thickness before pasteurizing it, then adding flavors, or even a suitable color. And there you have it! This one seems so well put together that it is about to end up on the plates of customers in (potentially starred) restaurants in the United States.
According to exclusive information from the specialist media GreenQueenconfirmed by the American start-up via LinkedIn, the food tech company has obtained authorization to market its fishless recipes to restaurateurs starting next August. Residents of the Chicago area should be the first to be able to form an opinion about the taste of these fishless scallops and tuna steaks. Everything is ready for the chefs to get behind the stoves since a factory of nearly 500 m2, dedicated to this production in Chicago, is capable of manufacturing more than two tons of these fermented seafood products.
This announcement, which will undoubtedly cause a reaction, comes a year after the authorization of lab-grown chicken meat. The United States became the second country to give the green light to artificial meat, after Singapore. The approval specifically concerned the productions of Upside Foods and Good Meat. Each of the start-ups also praised their partnership with great starred chefs such as Dominique Crenn and José Andrés respectively.