Forsea’s cell-cultivated iteration of unagi kabayaki - grilled fresh eel on a bed of aromatic rice - at a tasting event in Tel-Aviv. Photo: Liran Maim

Israeli sustainable seafood start-up aims to bring cell-based eel unagi to Japan and China

The following is an excerpt from an article published by South China Morning Post: 

Forsea hopes to roll out its first commercial product by 2026, and is forging connections with partners in Japan, the biggest consumer of eel

Israeli alternative protein start-up Forsea aims to bring its cell-based eel unagi to Japan and other Asia-Pacific markets including China and Hong Kong to provide a more sustainable version of an enormously popular dish.

Source: Forsea

Forsea hosted a tasting event showcasing its cell-cultivated freshwater eel unagi at a Japanese restaurant in Tel-Aviv earlier this month, and is in the process of raising funds to launch a commercial pilot plant to bring the product to the Asia-Pacific region where demand for eel is huge, said Roee Nir, CEO and co-founder in an interview.

“Eel is a really high-priced fish that has tremendous market potential. Once we decided that eel was our first market, our focus immediately shifted to the [Asia-Pacific] region where the largest market for this fish is,” said Nir.

Unagi is a signature Japanese dish which typically consists of freshwater eels that are barbecued in a sweet sauce and served on top of rice, or as a sushi topping.

Wild eel has been in short supply because of overfishing, and the surging demand for the fish in Japan and elsewhere has pushed the wholesale price of freshwater eels as high as US$60 per kilogram, according to Forsea.

The Japanese are the world’s largest consumers of eel, with a record 160,000 tons consumed across the country in 2000.

There is even a day on the Japanese calendar in midsummer known as Doyo no Ushi no Hi, typically coinciding with the hottest day of the year, when the entire population is advised to eat unagi to maintain strength.

The primary market that Forsea is targeting in Asia-Pacific is Japan, but the company will also be looking at China, Singapore, Korea and Hong Kong, said Nir.

It hopes to roll out its debut commercial product by 2026, and is currently forging connections with strategic partners in Japan.

“Japan is a very important market for us. The other large consumer of eel is, of course, China,” said Nir.

Source: Forsea

“In Japan, we have already established relationships with local food companies, fish companies, and we are looking to do the same in China.”

Forsea was founded in late 2021 and currently has a team of 16 people – one based in Japan and the rest in Israel.

The start-up’s patented approach to cultivating fish tissue involves creating an ideal environment for fish cells to spontaneously form their natural composition of native fat and muscle. They grow as a three-dimensional tissue structure, just as in nature, the company said.

The environmental advantages are obvious when compared to traditional production methods.

Bottom trawling, for example, a widespread practice in which heavy nets are dragged along the seabed, stirs up marine sediment and releases a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, according to a research paper by 26 marine biologists, climate experts and economists published in the magazine Nature in 2021. That is equivalent to 3 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“The current practices, whether fishing or aquaculture, are either impacting the environment or diminishing the fish stocks,” said Nir. “At the end of the day, there must be an alternative to this.”

And the farming of freshwater eels faces several constraints, including a lack of usable land due to competition with industrial development, and pollution as over-farming leads to heavy metal contamination.

Asia consumes 72 per cent of the fish produced worldwide, and per capita consumption is double the global average, according to a report by the Good Food InstituteAsia-Pacific, an alternative protein think tank.

Cultivated seafood is genuine animal protein made from fish, crab, shrimp, and other sea creatures, but produced by growing it from cells rather than catching or raising aquatic animals, said Mirte Gosker, managing director of the Good Food Institute Asia-Pacific.

“By decoupling seafood production from conventional aquaculture and fishing methods, such products offer a reduced risk of foodborne illness, a complete absence of microplastics, and a guaranteed lack of contamination by mercury and other heavy metals,” she said. [Continues...]

Author: Martín Choi | South China Morning Post  Read the article in full by clicking the link here

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