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Lab-grown meat is becoming more and more common. Recently, the Israeli company Forsea Foods presented the first prototype of cell-cultured freshwater eel, with the intention of starting to market it next year.
The production of the first lab-grown freshwater eel meat has been carried out for several reasons, mainly because of the scarcity of the eel population, which has been reduced by up to 95% in the last three decades. This has been caused by uncontrolled overfishing and pollution of the seas.
The project developed by Forsea Foods was based on embryonic cells from a freshwater eel. With the collaboration of a Japanese chef, the company has succeeded in creating unagi kabayaki, grilled marinated eel on rice, and unagi nigiri, a type of sushi. During the process, the team used organoids, which are made up of embryonic stem cells extracted from fertilized eel eggs. These are cells that can develop into any type of tissue and, when grown, take on the structure of real meat, along with some plant-based ingredients.
“It has a unique taste and texture: it is very tender and fatty, but it also has a unique umami taste and we are working to capture that,” said Roee Nir, CEO of the Israeli startup. For the time being, Forsea Foods is still working to perfect this food so that the first lab-grown eel meat will be available for sale in 2025.