bigideaventures
  • Accelerator
  • Funds
  • Portfolio
  • BIFC
  • Team
  • Media
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Apply
Select Page

Siew mai goes high tech: Singapore’s first cell-based shrimp dumplings launched

by admin | Mar 30, 2019 | Press

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s first cell-based meat venture Shiok Meats lifted the lid on its lab-grown shrimp dumplings at the Disruption in Food and Sustainability Summit (DFSS) on Friday (Mar 29).

There were just eight dumplings showcased at the summit, but the high-tech dim sum took months and S$5,000 to cook up.

Only three people at the unveiling got a taste – all three are advisors of Shiok Meats, a food tech start-up that focuses on growing seafood from stem cells. The Shiok Shrimp Dumpling is their first product.

“It tastes like siew mai!” said Good Food Institute APAC managing director Elaine Siu.

shiok meats 3
The Shiok Shrimp Dumpling at Shiok Meats’s launch on Friday (Mar 29). (Photo: Cindy Co)

Another advisor, CEO of Monde Nissin Henry Soesanto said the dumplings were “very promising”.

All this reporter got was a whiff as Shiok Meats CTO Ling Ka Yi took the dumplings out of a steamer. Yes, they did smell like shrimp.

“The three advisors who tasted it, they definitely said that it tasted like shrimp. So we’re very happy,” said Shiok Meats CEO Sandhya Sriram.

Founded in August last year, Singapore-based Shiok Meats is the first cell-based meat company in Southeast Asia. It is the brainchild of two stem cell biologists: Dr Sriram, 33 and Dr Ling, 31.

shiok meats 2
CTO Dr Ling Ka Yi and CEO Dr Sandhya Sriram, co-founders of Shiok Meats. (Photo: Shiok Meats)

While cell-based meat companies are not new, with Memphis Meats operating since 2015, most are based in the United States.

Rather than focusing on beef, chicken and pork, Shiok Meats wants to create shrimp, crab and lobster meat for the Asian market.

“(In Asia), we eat a lot of seafood, and not many companies were doing seafood,” she said. “And (personally), Ka Yi and I were very fascinated about saving the ocean as individuals.”

As one of the first companies growing shrimp meat, Shiok Meats had to do everything from scratch.

“There is no academic research out there so even figuring out which part of the animal is a good source for stem cells (was difficult),” she said.

And buying shrimp became a problem, as the company had to find shrimp farms that did not use antibiotics or hormones.

“Currently the way shrimps are being grown in farms, they are being grown in dirty water and being injected with antibiotics and hormones to keep them clean and make them bigger. We had to find very specific shrimp farms for clean shrimp to source our stem cells,” said Dr Sriram.

Cell-based meats have fewer toxins and are less taxing on the earth’s resources, according to Dr Sriram.

“The vision of the company is to completely replace farmed shrimp and wild-caught shrimp. (We want to have) Shiok Shrimp in supermarkets, hawker centres, restaurants, everything,” she said.

For the year ahead, they plan to lower the cost of production by 100 times.

Stem cells have to be placed in a nutrient mix for the cells to grow into meat, but this solution is now too costly for mass production.

This is why creating eight dumplings cost the company about S$5,000.

“If we can hit that magic potion, the price (of the eight dumplings) will come from S$5,000 to S$50,” she said.

She estimates that it would take them at least five years to reach the mass market, but Shiok Meats is in talks with three premium restaurants to use their shrimp by the end of next year.

Many investors have already expressed their interest in Shiok Meats, although most of them are based outside Asia.

“We raised a little more than half a million in two and a half months of starting the company, (but) most of it was money from the US,” said Dr Sriram.

FRANKEN MEAT?

Lab-grown meat has had a rocky start with consumers in other countries, with some media outlets labelling it “Franken meat”.

Will food-obsessed Singaporeans accept it?

Assistant Professor Charlene Chen of the Division of Marketing and International Business at NTU’s Nanyang Business School, believes that there is a future for cell-based meat in Singapore.

“Consumers often buy products to express their values and identities, and buying cell-based meat is a way to express one’s concern for animal welfare (and) the environment in general,” she said.

Assistant Professor Leonard Lee, of the Department of Marketing at NUS Business School was less enthusiastic.

“Singaporeans may be receptive toward such products that potentially serve broader societal needs,” he said, “(but) consumers in Singapore may also be more risk-averse particularly when it pertains to their health and safety.”

Dr Sriram believes that the mixed reception towards cell-based meat stems from a generational divide, citing surveys that she has done with more than 700 members of the public.

“The Millennial generation are the ones who are more open and receptive because they truly care about the environment and sustainability, and they’re willing to try newer things,” she said. “I think that it’s the older generation that might find it hard to accept.”

Members of the public that CNA spoke to were generally open to trying cell-based meat.

National University of Singapore student, 24-year-old Cheong Yinn Shan said: “I would definitely be keen to try this. The meat industry contributes a lot of greenhouse gases and has a high water footprint, so I will support any innovations to reduce our society’s reliance on factory-farmed meat.”

Ms Jelena Lim, a 23-year-old Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy student, expressed reservations.

“I would eat it because I’m curious, but the price has to be comparable to traditional meat, it has to taste good, and there are no ethical dilemmas from using stem cells,” she said.

Retiree Robert Tan, 60, had similar doubts.

“The (long-term effects of cell-based meat) may never be known in our generation, as it may be 50 years down the road. My take is that if FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and medical authorities say that it is okay, we just follow,” he said.

Source: CNA/cc(hm)

Recent Posts

  • Founder’s Story: Meet Alison Fagan founder and CEO at @CF Foods Group
  • 3 innovators that are shaping the next stage of food innovation in Singapore
  • Spanish startup Cocuus raises €2,5M in Funding to scale its 3D bioprinting technology for the production of alternative proteins
  • Mewery Looks To Slash Cultivated Pork Costs With Microalgae Ingredients
  • Milk without the cow

Archives

  • June 2022
  • April 2022
  • February 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • July 2018
  • April 2018
  • February 2018
  • March 2017
  • December 2016
  • July 2016
  • July 2015

Categories

  • Blog
  • Events
  • Podcast
  • Portfolio
  • Press
  • Research Paper
  • Uncategorized
Apply New York Apply Singapore Apply Paris
  • Contact
  • Funds
  • Investing
  • Partners
  • Portfolio
  • Foodivate
  • Research
  • Terms
  • Anti Spam
  • Copyright
  • DMCA
  • FTC
  • Privacy
  • Social Media
New York

88 Pine St., 14th Floor
New York, NY 10005

Singapore

No. 9 Chin Bee Drive,
SG, 619860

Paris

Station F, 5 Parv. Alan Turing 75013 Paris, France 

Newsletter
Stay on top of our latest news.
Loading
Don’t worry, we won’t spam you.
© 2020 Big Idea Ventures. All Rights Reserved
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
 
Required 'Candidate' login to applying this job. Click here to logout And try again
 

Login to your account

  • Forgot Password?

Reset Password

  • Already have an account? Login

Enter the username or e-mail you used in your profile. A password reset link will be sent to you by email.

Close
 

Answers

 

Account Activation

Before you can login, you must active your account with the code sent to your email address. If you did not receive this email, please check your junk/spam folder. Click here to resend the activation email. If you entered an incorrect email address, you will need to re-register with the correct email address.