NEW TECH FOODS

Bluu Seafood has opened a new headquarters in Hamburg, Germany, opening Europe’s first pilot plant for cell-based fish in preparation for market entry.  

The European biotech company has relocated from Lübeck to Hamburg-Altona, ‘leaving behind’ its lab-scale facility in exchange for the new 2,000-square-metre site. The new headquarters has zones dedicated to customised research, production and office space, to develop and produce cell-based fish.  

The new fermenters, which have a capacity of 65 litres with the potential to expand to 2,000 litres, will enable Bluu Seafood to cultivate muscle, fat and connective tissue cells from Atlantic salmon and rainbow trout in much larger quantities than before. 

Bluu Seafood’s fish products, such as fish sticks or fish balls, are GMO-free and free from heavy metals and microplastics. They are similar to conventional products in terms of taste, nutritional content and cooking behaviour. 

Sebastian Rakers, Bluu Seafood’s co-founder and co-CEO, said: "With the facilities at our new site, we can continue to develop our products and prepare intensively for the future market entry of cultivated fish. We are thus laying the foundations to supply the first markets. In Hamburg, we have the ideal conditions to continue to grow and continuously reduce production costs."  

He continued: "We will only see a real shift towards a more sustainable diet when products based on alternative proteins are available in larger quantities and are also affordable. That is what we are working on at Bluu. If the scalability and market conditions are favourable, we will be able to offer cultivated fish at wholesale fish prices in as little as three years. The new site is an important building block in this development." 

Bluu Seafood expects cell-based seafood to be approved as safe for human consumption in Singapore in early 2025, followed by the US and the European Union. 

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