The world's seafood supply is threatened, with… appreciation A gap of 28 million metric tons in the amount of seafood needed to feed our growing population by 2030. With the threat of overfishing, a warming climate, an increasingly polluted marine environment, rising ocean temperatures and other significant ecosystem disruptions, Seafood now contains Pollutants Microplastics, mercury, oil from spills, nuclear waste, and PCBs further compromise our seafood supply as these toxic substances inevitably make their way into the food web.
A new solution is needed to provide the world's population with safe, nutritious seafood that relieves pressures on our fish stocks and ocean ecosystems. Advances in food growing technologies make these safer food alternatives possible while allowing marine wildlife to remain in the ocean to restore and replenish their populations. The future is cell-cultured seafood.
Cell cultured seafood is made directly from fish cells through a process known as cell culture. It starts with a small tissue sample from a live fish, which is then grown in bioreactors to grow authentic, sustainable, high-quality seafood.
Selecting the best cell lines and developing them by engineering them to produce high-quality foods is not a new practice. Cells are the building blocks of most conventional foods and beverages, and single-celled organisms are regularly used to create high-quality nutritional sources such as bread, yogurt and cheese.
By following guidelines proposed by the World Health Organization, the US Food and Drug Administration, and the European Union, food manufacturers can now increase and improve food from the natural world to expand the food supply sustainably. On a large scale, cell-cultured meat can be produced With 96% less greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy consumption, 99% less land use, and 96% less water use. Of traditional meat.
Although limited in size, cell cultured chicken is already available to consumers through select restaurants in the United States after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 2022 that cell culture-produced poultry is safe to eat. and a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announcement on the inspection, sampling, and regulation of cultured meat in June 2023. The extensive data collection required to meet the FDA's stringent safety standards is just as demanding as it is for farm-grown foods. Developed using processes that mirror those found in life sciences, these meats can be a safer, more sustainable and humane solution to feeding billions of people while reducing environmental damage.
Cell-cultured seafood: Innovation takes advantage of proven technologies
Blue nal, a leading global developer of cell-cultured seafood headquartered in San Diego, California, strives to provide consumers with great-tasting, healthy, safe and reliable products that support ocean sustainability and diversity, starting with its first product, Toro bluefin tuna. With cell line development at the heart of the implantable protein space, the company is banking on it Molecular devicesTechnologies and expertise in producing, characterizing and scaling up biologicals to gain regulatory approval and make these new food sources widely available.
The cellular meat culture process begins with collecting a small sample of living animal cells from which the desired cell type is isolated via manual or more efficient techniques Single-cell automatic dispensers. Cells that have the desired qualities and are ready for manufacturing, such as rapid growth and high viability, are then monitored using… PhotographersAllowing them to grow into a population of monoclonal cells – a process that helps ensure the best cell quality, safety and stability. These cells are then placed in a nutrient-rich culture medium where their number continues to increase, effectively creating a renewable food source.
Verifying that cultured meat cells are genetically uniform – this is done using a process known as monoclonalization – helps select only the safest, strongest and fastest cells to produce cultured meat. Not all cells collected from an animal will exhibit the features necessary to produce a robust product that tastes similar to the meat we are accustomed to eating. Therefore, it is important to isolate and select the single-cell-derived culture that displays the most suitable features for making great-tasting meat. The process of isolating single cells and culturing them in genetic cell cultures is a critical factor in safety tests provided by regulatory agencies.
A monoclonal assurance workflow that includes single-cell distribution followed by image-based verification of clonality and growth rates allows BlueNalu to reduce its process from a manual manual that takes five or six weeks to just two weeks. The easy-to-use software allows seamless navigation of single-cell distributions and monoclonal verification, resulting in objective results that are not open to individual interpretation. This improved workflow eliminates the possibility of using mixed population cells and builds confidence in the purity of single cell culture.
Continue reading below…
This type of verification also supports tracking of cell growth rate. Selection of the strongest cells is key to ensuring reproducible cell lines. Once this is achieved in the laboratory, these cells must remain robust so they can be cultured repeatedly. The data generated from the cells is verified at each stage and provides the required documentation for regulatory purposes.
Genetic stability is important for food safety because once all the characteristics of a cell line are known, the manufacturing process can address any potential risk. In an industry facing significant challenges from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing that enables mislabeling rates of up to 33%, this verification ensures the identity of the seafood product and ensures the consumer gets what is expected.
Efficiency: Scale-up seafood cell lines using automation
Incorporating automation into cell line development can accelerate and increase quality control within a tedious and complex process. Eliminating the element of human error that can lead to batch-to-batch variation and contamination are examples of critical risks that arise not only in food safety but also in the drug discovery process.
By using similar processes to ensure the highest standards of safety and durability that pharmaceutical companies use to bring safe and effective treatments to market faster, sustainable meat, poultry and seafood can be just as safe and accessible. Modern technological innovations are already being adapted to meet the needs of the cultured protein industry.
For example, fully automated work cells for cell line development enable increased volume, reduced human error, and improved productivity at the touch of a button.
Safety: Preparing cell line development to become mainstream
To ensure food safety, it is necessary to choose the appropriate technology for each stage of the process: from single-cell isolation, to monoclonal verification for FDA regulation, to growth monitoring and quality control.
Traceability – tracking cell lines from initial cultivation to the final product – is vital to meeting or exceeding the stringent regulatory standards set for conventional meat. In-depth, multi-stage analysis provides scientists with critical data needed for regulatory submissions to the FDA and USDA. Our data-driven control process ensures the same great, safe product over time.
This type of reliable cell production, which has long been used in cell line development for life sciences, has the added benefit of not requiring the addition of antibiotics or hormones. It also eliminates the possibility of exposure to environmental pollutants in the air and groundwater, which are unavoidable in regular farm or wild environments. However, the complexity of the processes required to match the flavour, texture and nutrients of many seafood varieties presents a challenge.
The way forward: healthier food, healthier people, healthier planet
Bluefin tuna, especially the fatty belly fish known as toro, is in high demand, leading to this species Facing critical challenges. Concern is growing about the severe impacts of permanent loss of this apex predator on marine ecosystems, biodiversity and food security for millions of people around the world. Cloning bluefin tuna using cell culture could alleviate these pressures on the species while also paving the way for the manufacture of more diverse seafood.
Although there aren't any companies making cell-cultured seafood for purchase yet, several companies are working on this promising technology. Many in the food industry are excited about the prospect of providing a steady supply of high-quality seafood that eliminates the negative impacts and health concerns associated with industrial fishing. By using proven techniques and well-established processes in cell line development, these products may be effective In restaurants And on consumers' plates very soon.
About the authors:
Courtney Benson, Ph.D., is associate director of research and development at BlueNalu.
Dwayne Carter, Ph.D., is a field applications scientist in molecular devices.
Laurent Madden, Ph.D., is the Chief Technology Officer at BlueNalu.
