Nothing fishy about it! Lab-grown, 3D-printed SALMON goes on supermarket shelves for the first time

Austrian shoppers will notice a new fish in their grocer’s freezer, one that has never been in water. And American consumers will have the chance to try it next year.

A food tech start-up has claimed credit for delivering the first-ever 3D-printed vegan food, a “salmon-inspired” mushroom fillet, to supermarkets.

This innovation follows a lab-grown and artificial chicken breast, which the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared safe for human consumption last January.

Dubbed “THE FILET,” the new vegan salmon promises high protein, vitamins and, like its aquatic counterpart, omega-3 fatty acids.

But beyond the promise of reducing stress on natural fisheries around the world, production of “The Fillet” will also be less energy-intensive and more sustainable despite its high-tech manufacturing process, according to start-up Revo Foods, based in Vienna.

According to Revo Foods, 3D printing uses between 77 and 86 percent less carbon dioxide and 95 percent less fresh water than all the conventional steps needed to capture wild salmon, from ship to tray. The company also hopes to reduce global overfishing

Revo said its 3D printing, in total, uses between 77 and 86 percent less carbon dioxide and 95 percent less fresh water than all the conventional steps needed to capture wild salmon, from ship to shore. passing through the plateau.

“With the milestone of industrial-scale 3D food printing, we are entering a creative food revolution,” Robin Simsa, CEO of Revo Foods, said in a statement, “an era where food is made exactly according to customer needs.

A good source of lean protein is, of course, a frequently cited “need” among salmon eaters.

And here, Revo’s vegan salmon has a reasonably high content 9.5 grams per 100 grams: less than normal salmon, which generally contains around 20 grams per 100 grams, but not negligible.

To make its 3D printed salmon, Revo Foods partnered with start-up Mycorena, which helped design a mycoprotein from mushrooms capable of being distributed and deposited via a 3D printer.

Revo’s vegan salmon has a reasonably high content of 9.5 grams per 100 grams: less than normal salmon, which usually contains around 20 grams per 100 grams, but it’s not negligible.

To make its 3D printed salmon, Revo Foods partnered with start-up Mycorena, which helped design a mycoprotein from mushrooms capable of being distributed and deposited via a 3D printer.

In recent years, researchers have successfully 3D printed food products as diverse as laser-baked cheesecakes and lab-grown meat.

The impetus came to the theory that Printed food alternatives could make food production more environmentally sustainable.

These concerns have been a recurring topic in the fishing industry for over a decade, with a 34 percent of global fish stocks are depleted by widespread overfishing and mass trawling techniques that kill off closely related species that were never intended to be eaten.

Climate scientists estimate that global food production accounts for about a quarter of carbon emissions, with 31 percent of this subset comes from livestock and fish farms, and another 18 percent comes from its processing and transport.

Revo Foods believes that the key to the success of THE FILLET and its other products will lie in the start-up’s ability to “recreate an authentic taste that appeals to the flexitarian market”.

But whether the company can help stem this tide of overfishing may simply depend on whether pescatarians and “flexitarians” can learn to enjoy eating a mushroom manufactured to taste just a little bit fishy.