Researchers at Técnico Lisboa, the School of Engineering, Technology and Science at the University of Lisbon, have successfully produced cultured sea bass fillets using 3D bioprinting. The researchers say this is the 'world's first' cultivated 3D bioprinted sea bass fillet.

The university’s research in cultivated seafood first began in 2019 as part of its project for the Entrepreneurship course unit, with the aim to develop fish for sushi. Since then, the research has continued in the laboratory of the Institute of Bioengineering and Biosciences (iBB).

The researchers’ first attempts produced thin sashimi slices – current progress has led to fillets up to six centimeters thick, featuring the characteristic texture of sea bass.

The 3D-bioprinted seabass also possesses the fish’s aroma due to the microalgae-based bioinks used for bioprinting. “Depending on the microalgae selected for the inks used in the bioprinter, it is possible to produce the desired smell, having the sea or fishy odor that consumers are looking for,” Técnico Lisboa said in a statement.

"We start with cells, usually stem cells, which have the potential to differentiate into the types of cells present in meat and fish, such as muscle cells and fat cells,” Diana Marques, PhD student in bioengineering at iBB, explained.

“Next comes the food processing step – we have a biomass, a huge set of cells, and we can put them all together and create simple products like a goldfish or a nugget,” Marques continued. “If we want to make a more structured product – and if we apply techniques like 3D bioprinting – we can make a fish fillet or a steak."

For 3D bioprinting, two 'ingredients' are essential – a bioprinter capable of completing the task, and bioinks suitable for human consumption. The bioinks were developed by Marques during her master's thesis and the bioprinter is the result of the work of Afonso Gusmão, a PhD student at Técnico and researcher at iBB who, during his master's thesis, adapted a commercial 3D printer for use in this project.

Gusmão added: "My goal is to test the various inks that have been developed – each one has different parameters such as viscosity and printing temperature than the previous one”.

From being designed for use with plastic, the printer now operates with bioinks containing sea bass cells, some for muscle material and others for the fat naturally present in fillets of the fish.

Gusmão is now developing bioreactors in which cell cultures are exposed to small electric shocks, stimulating them to align themselves along a direction, called electrospinning. He said: “If we are creating these fibres, we can provide textures and structure to the thread that we would not otherwise achieve".

Once the differentiation between muscle and fat cells has been made in the cell culture, the ingredients are ready to incorporate into the respective bioinks. These are then inserted into the bioprinter syringes and form the basis for the production of the fillet.

Now that the cultivated fillets are a reality, the team plans to conduct taste tests with the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), which will compare these prototypes to conventionally farmed fish.

Earlier this year, Atlantic Fish Co unveiled the 'world's first' cultivated black sea bass, made with both cultured sea bass cells and plant-based ingredients.

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