World’s First Cell-Based Lobster Meat Launches In Asia

Singapore-based Shiok Meats have unveiled the first-of-its-kind product as part of a lobster gazpacho and lobster terrine.

Shiok Meats’ first ever cultured lobster meat featured in lobster gazpacho and lobster terrine. Credit: Shiok Meats

The world’s first cell-based lobster meat has been unveiled at a tasting event in Asia. 

Singapore-based Shiok Meats, are the world’s first cell-based crustacean meat company, and launched a cell-based shrimp prototype back in 2019. 

Now, the company has offered diners at an exclusive tasting event the taste of a ‘sustainable seafood future’, with the unveiling of their new cell-based lobster meat. 

Shiok Lobster was showcased to diners as part of a lobster gazpacho and a lobster terrine.

Co-founders of Shiok Meats Dr Sandhya Sriram and Dr Ka Yi Ling presenting the new lobster prototype. Credit: Shiok Meats

Also known as lab-grown or cultured meat, cell-based meat is one of the leading solutions to prevent the ongoing plundering of the world’s oceans to provide fish for people’s consumption. 

Huge fishing vessels that kill swathes of wildlife as part of ‘unintentional’ bycatch, and ocean-polluting offshore fish farms, could be a thing of the past with the rise of cell-based meat and fish. And because it’s crafted in a lab rather than via fish on an offshore farm, it’s healthier than farmed fish because it contains no antibiotics.

The world has a little longer to wait until a bigger roll-out of cell-based crustacean meat though, with Shiok Meats aiming to release their products in 2022, starting with Shiok Shrimp. 

Cell-based fish is just the latest exciting development in the race to replace our current food system - one that requires the farming and slaughter of millions of animals every day - with a kinder, and more sustainable option.

And it’s easy to see how alternative proteins are already beginning to transform the industry: Israel welcomed a trial launch for the world’s first lab-grown meat restaurant last month, while meat giant McDonald’s recently announced its first vegan burger, dubbed the McPlant. And TIME magazine just named plant-based Impossible Pork as one of ‘The Best Inventions of 2020’.   

For more on the future of food, and how lab-grown meat could help save billions of animals from factory farms, listen to our podcast episode with James Arbib: Rethinking Humanity.

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