Technical, commercial, and regulatory challenges of cellular agriculture for seafood production

Background: Cultivated seafood is a promising novel approach to global food security and sustainability, as current seafood production methods may not meet the needs of increasing world population and rising seafood consumption. Hence, cell-based seafood is an important part of modern food innovation to supplement current seafood production. Life cycle assessments (LCAs) of the commercial and environmental impact of cultivated meat highlight the importance of low-cost culture media without serum and antibiotics to commercial feasibility. LCAs comparing production of cultivated with conventional seafood are limited. Scope and approach: This review discusses the cultivated seafood production process, with focus on cell line derivation, media formulation, and culture parameters. Present challenges facing the industry include development of serum-free media, and isolation and maintenance of different types of stem cells from seafood species. A survey of published LCAs is presented, along with their implications for technological advancements required for commercial viability. Consumer preferences and current regulatory landscape for cell culture-derived foods, crucial for the development of cultivated seafood, are also discussed. Key findings and conclusions: Currently, the isolation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) is more straightforward approach than other stem cell sources for cell-based fish, but isolation of stem cell niches for crustaceans and molluscs and optimization of culture conditions remain a challenge. Serum-free media development involves resource-intensive profiling of serum replacements, and determination of optimal concentrations, but may yield cost efficiencies in large-scale cultivated seafood production. Tackling these challenges is instrumental to the long-term sustainability of cultivated seafood production.