Vegans often reprimand meat-eaters for their climate impact, and many hardcore carnivores shy away from plant-based alternatives due to perceived taste and protein differences.
But, now there may be an option to please both sides of the spectrum, where ordering fish and chips or tilapia tacos at a restaurant doesn’t have to come with a side of guilt.
Atlantic Fish Co., a startup based in Raleigh, uses cellular agriculture to create sustainable seafood, by growing white fish meat in a lab. The company will be presenting at CED’s Venture Connect summit in Raleigh on March 20-21.
“We can make a lot more things in the world, but we can’t make more oceans,” said Doug Grant, Co-Founder and CEO of Atlantic Fish.
Over 90 percent of global marine fish stocks are overfished, according to data from the World Bank.
Growing up a “hardcore carnivore,” Grant said he became ethically conflicted about where his food was coming from as he started learning more about the climate impact of eating meat. Now, his diet is almost entirely plant-based.
Grant said that as the world’s population continues to grow and demand for protein becomes even higher, humans will need to start turning to alternative protein sources. The technology that Atlantic Fish uses is scalable to feed potentially billions of people, and Grant said they hope to eventually license their technology to larger companies.
To create an artificial piece of fish meat, one must start with a live fish. From a biopsy—a piece of tissue collected from the fish—a cell can be manipulated to continuously divide, called an immortalized cell line.
With the help of a growth medium which supplies all of the nutrients that the cells need, the cells can continue to divide and form onto a type of scaffolding, creating a replica of the muscle of a fish.
“It enables us to make really good products that people love, they feel great about eating, no ethical qualms,” Grant said. “It’s better for the planet.”
Grant said it can be a challenge to obtain the biopsies. Atlantic Fish has been on fishing boats, at fish farms and in labs to acquire samples of different white fish species. The goal is to produce fish that is overfished in the wild and can’t be easily grown on a fish farm.
Once the cells are immortalized, additional live fish are no longer needed for biopsies.
Grant said Atlantic Fish is one of the only alternative protein companies on the East Coast focused on seafood and that most other alternative seafood companies work on replicating raw fish for sushi.
Atlantic Fish has raised almost $1 million and will be launching a product demo within the first half of the year. The company aims to put their product on the market within two to three years, first selling to restaurants.
“I’m so excited,” Grant said. “I’ve been working on this for a while, and I can’t wait to try it for the first time.”
Their goal is to reach price parity with wild-caught seafood by getting their product under $20 per pound.
Grant, a former Navy pilot who lives in D.C., works full-time with two others at Atlantic Fish who run lab operations in Raleigh, including Co-Founder Trevor Ham and cell line scientist RJ Savino.
