Umami Meats has announced a research partnership with Waters Corporation, as it looks to speed up the development of an efficient process for producing cultivated seafood.

Singapore-based Umami is working to provide a sustainable alternative to wild-caught fish – with a focus on species that are unsuitable for farming and endangered due to growing consumption.

The food tech start-up is collaborating with food and nutrition scientists at speciality measurement company Waters to develop laboratory methods for cultivating fish.

The Waters research lab in Singapore aims to expedite advancements in food and water safety by facilitating collaborations with industry and academic experts.

Umami Meats is utilising the analytical technologies and food science expertise available within Waters to optimise production efficiency on the path to process scale-up.

In addition, the partnership will provide the baseline for future work in the area of process control automation.

“Over 2 trillion fish are caught every year for human consumption, and because most of these species cannot be farmed, many are being driven to extinction by overfishing,” said Mihir Pershad, CEO of Umami Meats.  

“Our collaboration with Waters Corporation is a significant step towards developing an efficient, cost-effective process for producing cultivated fish. We strongly believe in the value of analytical data from scientific research tools to advance our development process and product quality, and we are excited by what will be possible with the network and support of the food and nutrition scientists at Waters’ research laboratory in Singapore.”

David Curtin, vice president Asia Pacific at Waters Corporation, added: “By collaborating with industry and academic experts we can help to expedite the efficient production of cultivated seafood for safe consumption and drive advancements in food and water safety research”. 

“Both Umami Meats and Waters share a common vision that innovative research is essential to the future safety and sustainability of our food and water supplies.”