It's worth pointing out that there is no such thing as "sushi-grade" fish in the US. The fish used in commercial sushi is always flash-frozen on the ship. Neither the USDA or FDA have designations for fish similar to the grades they have for say beef. There is a regulation around freezing temperatures in order for it be sold for raw consumption but this has nothing to do with the quality of the fish. The regulation is used to guarantee parasite destruction. I can highly recommend the book "The Sushi Economy" by Sasha Issenberg for a very interesting look at how the sushi trade works.
Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
111–120 of 199 posts
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
The industry term for how prices drop as you make more of something is the "learning curve".
I'd go with "economy of scale".
They're different things. I could build my own processor fab for probably around €100 000, and those things used to cost millions – but I'm not exploiting economies of scale. Rather, I can look up how to best do it instead of having to work it out myself, plus I have better other technology available (e.g. a laser cutter can be modified to make parts of it).
I'd still have the problem of sourcing materials and disposing of all that toxic waste, though, which probably isn't a problem with the salmon.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your concern about the nutritional content of Beyond Meat? Its macros are comparable to that of the product it replaces.
Isn't it high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and sugar?
It's not high in sugar. The macros are comparable to those of meat.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
The photo on their website looks amazing, with perfect fatty stripes. Photos from one of their early tastings in 2019 didn't look so good. Mostly chopped up, and larger pieces didn't seem to have the fatty layers. https://i0.wp.com/thespoon.tech/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/w... It makes me question if the salmon in the photos on their website is really lab grown. If so, it is quite an achievement.
I had a different reaction on seeing it. Yes, it has the striped pattern, but the texture looks completely wrong. Compare their image now with e.g. https://i.redd.it/12cdw2wb55p01.jpg . It's superficially similar; the 'early tasting' picture you link to looks _better_ from a texture perspective, to me. That doesn't mean it's not tasty, but I would not choose this over the real thing (traditional preparation? idk).
Compare crab stick to the real thing. People still eat poor imitations if it tastes good.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#115This movement towards synthetic meat seems very antithetical to the natural foods heuristic. Isn't what we've learned over the last half-century or so that processing food in an attempt to make it more nutritious/uniform/etc. generally involves a reductive analysis of the value of the food and in doing so destroys most of the actual nutrient value? The "shopping at the edges of the market" thing is a tolerably good h…
Isn't what we've learned over the last half-century or so that processing food in an attempt to make it more nutritious/uniform/etc. generally involves a reductive analysis of the value of the food and in doing so destroys most of the actual nutrient value?
Pretty much.
I had a boss who was very sanctimonious about her lunches. She would hover over other people and say, "I never eat processed foods."
Then she'd put a fake chicken patty in the microwave and slather it with vegan mayonnaise.
I've found that the louder someone is about their eating habits, the less likely it is that they use logic to choose their food.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#116This is a cool company that started out of QB3. One of the co-founders was a postdoc at UCSF working in regenerative medicine before starting wildtype. I think these wetlab incubator spaces near universities is really key to getting more biotech startups.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
See the comments below - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26905472 ~$200 for a 6-piece sushi roll.
Ok, well that's way less than thousands of dollars so it's a start! Not to mention, they probably haven't realized the economies of scale yet at all.
Exactly. Also if you decided to go on a boat and catch one yourself that easily could end up in thousands...
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#118How is it that anyone thinks you're going to grow nutritious tissue without an immune system and expect anything but bad long-term outcomes?
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#119What I'm looking forward to is lab-grown meat that improves upon nature. Imagine pigs didn't exist but someone figured out how to make bacon in the lab. What do we not have on this Earth that makes bacon seem like chicken breast? What might we invent that's three levels past otoro?
Be careful what you wish for: people are programmed to like a fat and salt. Fatter salter meats probably aren't as good for you as nice lean salmon...
That's without the industrial side of this: meats with built in preservatives and colouring that are actually no good for you but look good and supermarkets will prioritise.
I think both GM and lab grown meat suffer from this issue: smart doesn't mean good for you, it means good for the sales person sadly.
Re: Wildtype: Sushi-grade salmon grown from Pacific Salmon cells
#120What are their methods? Does this make $100/lb salmon?
I could see people paying that sort of money for 4 ounces of nigiri in some endangered species.
Cruelty free blue fin tuna, anyone?