Snappers to eels: S’pore startup Umami Meats on producing “cultivated, not caught” seafood

In a world grappling with the challenges of a rising inhabitants and dwindling sources, progressive options are wanted to make sure a sustainable and safe meals provide.

One such answer is being pursued by Umami Meats, a pioneering firm on the forefront of the choice protein revolution in Singapore.

Based by Mihir Pershad, Umami Meats is on a mission to revolutionise the best way seafood is produced and consumed, providing a viable, eco-friendly, and scrumptious different to conventional meat merchandise.

Finally, the startup’s objective is to develop expertise options that allow cultivated seafood to turn into a worldwide supply of wholesome, reasonably priced, and scrumptious fish for shoppers worldwide.

Revolutionising seafood manufacturing

Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats / Picture Credit score: Umami Meats

The inspiration to begin Umami Meats got here when Mihir was working as a Enterprise Associate at a enterprise studio, constructing firms from university-developed applied sciences.

In that function, he led the event of a number of firms that had been producing illness administration options for the aquaculture business.

I recognised that illness posed an existential, long-term menace to sustainably producing seafood to fulfill rising world demand, and that different manufacturing applied sciences can be wanted to feed 10 billion folks whereas rising the soundness, resiliency, and safety of our meals provide.

– Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats

Recognising the necessity for a paradigm shift in seafood manufacturing to fulfill the calls for of a rising world inhabitants, he launched into a journey to create an organization that would supply wholesome, reasonably priced, and scrumptious cultivated seafood to shoppers worldwide.

Umami Meats differentiates itself from different different protein firms by means of its give attention to growing a platform for producing “cultivated, not caught seafood”.

Whereas many firms within the business are creating branded business-to-consumer (B2C) merchandise, Umami Meats goals to empower meals producers by providing them a whole plug-and-play manufacturing answer.

By partnering with conventional seafood producers and licensing their expertise platform, Umami Meats permits the native, price-competitive manufacturing of cultivated fish.

This seeks to deal with the challenges confronted by conventional producers within the face of diminishing wild catch fisheries, rising prices, and rising contamination of fish with heavy metals, microplastics, and different pollution.

Whereas the science behind Umami Meats could seem complicated, Mihir defined that it begins by isolating a stem cell from a pattern of fish tissue. These cells are then grown and nurtured to know their development patterns, dietary necessities, and the optimum situations for maturing them into muscle and fats.

The cells are then positioned in a metal cultivation vessel, the place they endure fast development, rising from a number of million cells to a number of tons of fish muscle and fats in only a matter of weeks.

The matured muscle and fats are then processed utilizing cutting-edge applied sciences reminiscent of 3D printing and molding to create fascinating, nutritious completed merchandise.

Why cultivated seafood is superior to conventional meat

Picture Credit score: Umami Meats

Umami Meats gives a variety of advantages in comparison with conventional meat merchandise, making it a gorgeous choice for shoppers.

We will produce fish that’s free from heavy metals, microplastics and antibiotics, but nonetheless has glorious diet and flavour.

We will [also] regionally produce endangered species which are usually costly and troublesome to search out, lowering emissions from transport these fish around the globe. [This preserves] biodiversity in our oceans and [create] a secure provide and market value for these species.

– Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats

Moreover, by avoiding the ecosystem injury and bycatch related to industrial fishing practices, Umami Meats contributes to the restoration and rewilding of our oceans, providing shoppers entry to their favorite seafood whereas defending the fragile steadiness of marine ecosystems.

Whereas the advantages of Umami Meats are important, educating shoppers about cultivated seafood and its benefits stays a significant facet of the corporate’s technique.

Recognising that completely different markets prioritise attributes like style, value, healthiness, and sustainability in a different way, Umami Meats conducts intensive analysis to know the preferences of shoppers in every market.

Armed with this information, the corporate tailors its communications to focus on the attributes that resonate most with every particular viewers. This method ensures that Umami Meats successfully communicates the long-term advantages and influence of their cultivated seafood manufacturing mannequin, whereas additionally educating shoppers in regards to the general benefits of cultivated manufacturing.

As Umami Meats continues its journey in direction of bringing its first merchandise to market, the corporate is actively collaborating with prospects and conventional meals producers to develop a complete shopper schooling technique that emphasise the sustainability and well being advantages of cultivated fish.

Nonetheless gearing up for business launch

Umami Meats’ present choices embrace crimson snappers and Japanese eels, and the corporate plans to collaborate with college and company companions to develop their product pipeline to greater than 10 species within the subsequent few years.

Though Umami Meats has but to commercially launch its merchandise, the corporate has hosted a number of tasting occasions with leaders at conventional meals firms, fishing firms, and senior authorities officers.

Up to now, their response has been fairly constructive and is commonly considered one of shock that our merchandise are practically indistinguishable from conventional fish.

– Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats

umami meats team — Picture Credit score: Umami Meats

He added that making certain the protection and regulatory compliance of their merchandise is a prime precedence for Umami Meats. Consistent with this objective, the corporate has established a sturdy inside high quality and security infrastructure to make sure that their cultivated seafood meets the very best requirements.

To additional improve their security measures, Umami Meats can be actively engaged in analysis and improvement collaborations with universities and meals testing firms. By leveraging cutting-edge scientific developments, they’re growing environment friendly strategies to guage the protection of cultivated seafood throughout the manufacturing course of.

Moreover, the corporate maintains open strains of communication with regulatory our bodies in key markets reminiscent of Singapore, the US, Japan, searching for their suggestions and suggestions to make sure that their security program surpasses regulatory necessities worldwide.

Securing satisfactory funding is a vital facet of any startup’s journey, and Umami Meats has been profitable in attracting buyers who imagine of their imaginative and prescient. The corporate has raised roughly S$3 million from a various vary of influence, agri-food, and tech buyers. These embrace Higher Chunk VC, Genedant, Hatch, The Yield Lab, Katapult, and Prithvi Ventures.

It has additionally acquired non-dilutive grant assist to allow their analysis from varied sources, together with the Singapore authorities, the Good Meals Institute, and the Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Basis (SIIRD).

This funding permits Umami Meats to proceed their pioneering work in growing sustainable, cultivated seafood and assist convey their merchandise to market.

COVID-19 was a double-edged sword

Umami Meats confronted the distinctive hurdle of launching simply weeks earlier than the primary COVID-19 lockdown in Singapore. The timing was removed from very best, as they needed to navigate the uncertainties and disruptions brought on by the pandemic.

Provide shortages, lengthy lead occasions for essential tools, and the issue of hiring and onboarding new workers had been only a few of the obstacles they encountered. Nevertheless, the resilience and resourcefulness of the Umami Meats workforce prevailed, permitting them to search out progressive options and overcome these challenges.

They utilised artistic methods to realize shared entry to important tools and located methods to work with workforce members remotely earlier than ultimately bringing them to Singapore.

Whereas COVID-19 initially posed important challenges for many companies, Mihir sees the pandemic as a double-edged sword.

On one hand, the lockdowns and disruptions had a damaging influence on the corporate’s operations, hindering their capacity to entry their lab and conduct analysis. Nevertheless, the pandemic additionally make clear the vulnerabilities of our present meals system, highlighting the necessity for extra resilient and localised meals manufacturing.

This context is now apparent to most individuals we communicate with, and that helps us to debate the significance of recent meals manufacturing applied sciences like cultivated meat and seafood.

– Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats

As folks turn into extra conscious of the fragility of our present system, the demand for sustainable and dependable options grows, presenting a chance for Umami Meats to showcase the worth of their progressive method.

‘Scaling’ up over time

Umami Meats’ development over time has been outstanding, propelled by securing strategic partnerships with key gamers within the meals worth chain, together with Ingredion, Asahi Kasei Company, in addition to main fishing firms and meals producers.

umami meats fishball laksa — Picture Credit score: Umami Meats

These partnerships have enabled the corporate to reveal a number of product utility prototypes, starting from fish ball laksa and Thai-style fish truffles to battered fish tacos and a latest innovation, a complete fish fillet.

By means of these collaborations, Umami Meats has leveraged experience and sources to push the boundaries of cultivated seafood manufacturing and elevate their product choices.

Their imaginative and prescient is to be the “intel inside” the seafood business, enabling the world’s largest seafood companies to supply thousands and thousands of tons of cultivated seafood.

By partnering with suppliers and value-added producers, Umami Meats goals to beat the dwindling conventional provide of seafood, meet latent demand, and assist these companies obtain their local weather and sustainability objectives. The corporate gives full provide chain traceability, localised manufacturing, and entry to a secure, year-round provide, mitigating the volatility related to conventional fisheries.

We additionally see cultivated manufacturing as a means to make sure a dependable, native provide of seafood free from contaminants like mercury, microplastics, dioxins, and antibiotics.

By creating this secure provide, we are able to keep away from shortages that set off meals insecurity and value shocks in our meals system, whereas additionally producing seafood with a decrease carbon footprint that enables our oceans to heal and recuperate from the pressures we now have put them below for many years.

– Mihir Pershad, founder and CEO of Umami Meats

When envisioning the way forward for the choice protein panorama, Mihir firmly believes that new protein sources will play a pivotal function in establishing a sustainable meals system able to feeding the inhabitants for the subsequent century.

Whereas aquaculture programs had been developed to fulfill rising demand when wild catch fisheries confronted provide challenges, the present panorama requires a extra complete method. With the rising issue of farming endangered species and the constraints of aquaculture and fisheries, Mihir recognises that cultivated seafood manufacturing is a essential answer.

Nevertheless, he acknowledges that the “protein shift” won’t happen in a single day and emphasises the necessity for a multi-faceted method. Within the medium time period, a mixture of untamed catch fisheries, aquaculture, and cultivated seafood can be essential to fulfill the rising demand, notably in Southeast Asia.

Umami Meats’ achievements and recognition within the business mirror their dedication to excellence and sustainability. As a signatory to the United Nations International Compact Sustainable Ocean Rules, Umami Meats exemplifies their dedication to enabling ocean restoration, conservation, and blue carbon sequestration. Moreover, their membership in 1% for the Planet reinforces their dedication to supporting environmental initiatives.

The accolades bestowed upon Umami Meats, together with being recognised as a Semi-Finalist in XPRIZE Feed the Subsequent Billion, a Fi International Startup Innovation Problem Finalist in 2021, and receiving the Finest Rising Sustainable Seafood Firm–Southeast Asia award on the International Inexperienced Enterprise Awards 2022, underscore the corporate’s influence and innovation within the sustainable seafood sector.

With their progressive method, strategic partnerships, and dedication to sustainability, Umami Meats is driving the event of a future the place cultivated seafood manufacturing gives a dependable, environmentally pleasant, and ethically produced answer to the world’s rising urge for food for seafood.

As the corporate continues to develop its vary of choices and form the way forward for meals manufacturing, the influence of Umami Meats will resonate far past the confines of the business. By means of their endeavours, they’re paving the best way for a extra sustainable and safe future for each our planet and our plates.

Featured Picture Credit score: Umami Meats