VOA科学技术2023 Israeli Company Creates 3D-Printed Fish

An Israeli company says it has 3D printed the first ever ready-to-cook fish fillet using animal cells grown in a laboratory.

Lab-grown beef and chicken have drawn¹ attention as a way to get around the environmental issues linked to farming. But few companies have explored lab-grown seafood².

Israel's Steakholder Foods has worked with Singapore-based Umami Meats to make fish fillets.

Umami Meats takes cells from a kind of fish called grouper and grows them into muscle and fat. Steakholder Foods then adds them to a 'bio-ink' that works with special 3D printers. The result: a narrow fillet that copies the properties of sea-caught fish.

Umami hopes to bring its first products to market next year. Singapore will be first, and then countries like the United States and Japan after official approval.

The lab-grown fish is developed in a process known as cell cultivation³. Cell cultivation alone is still too costly⁴ to match the cost of traditional seafood. So, for now, the fish cells are mixed with plant-based substances in the bio-ink.

A glass dish moves in the 3D printer, the white fillet building mass with each pass. It breaks apart easily like normal fish. When fried and seasoned, it is hard to tell the difference.

"As time goes by, the complexity⁵ and level of these products will be higher, and the prices linked to producing them will decrease," said Arik Kaufman of Steakholder Foods.

The process is simpler than with beef, but there are some difficulties. Cow stem⁶ cells have been studied a lot. But much less is known about fish, said Umami's chief, Mihir Pershad.

"We have to figure out what the cells like to eat, how they like to grow, and there's just not so much literature to start from," he said.

Pershad added, "The number of scientists, you can imagine, working on fish stem cell biology is a small fraction of those working on animal cells and human cells."

Umami has figured out a process for grouper and eel⁷ and hopes to add three other at-risk species⁸ in the coming months, Pershad said.

Meeting the price of fish from the sea is a key difficulty.

Pershad said the company wants buyers to choose their product "based on how it tastes and what it can do for the world and the planetary environment."

He added, "And we want to take cost off the table as consideration."

Words in This Story

3D printing – n. the action or process of making an object from a three-dimensional digital copy. The process usually involves a machine laying down many thin layers of a material

fillet – n. a piece of boneless fish

cultivation -- n. the act of growing or raising something under conditions that you can control

stem cell -- n. a simple cell that is able to develop into any one of various kinds of cells

fraction – n. a part or amount of something

species -- n. a group of animals or plants that are similar and can produce young animals or plants

1 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

2 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

3 cultivation   

n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成

参考例句：

• The cultivation in good taste is our main objective.培养高雅情趣是我们的主要目标。
• The land is not fertile enough to repay cultivation.这块土地不够肥沃，不值得耕种。

4 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

5 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

6 stem   

n.茎，干，船首，词干，血统；vt.堵住，阻止，抽去梗；vi.起源于，发生

参考例句：

• Cut the stem cleanly,just beneath a leaf joint.把茎切整齐点，正好切在叶根下。
• The ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。

7 eel   

n.鳗鲡

参考例句：

• He used an eel spear to catch an eel.他用一只捕鳗叉捕鳗鱼。
• In Suzhou,there was a restaurant that specialized in eel noodles.苏州有一家饭馆，他们那里的招牌菜是鳗鱼面。

8 species   

n.物种，种群

参考例句：

• Are we the only thinking species in the whole of creation?我们是万物中惟一有思想的物种吗？
• This species of bird now exists only in Africa.这种鸟现在只存在于非洲。