Meals expertise startup Kuleana—which is rebranding as Present Meals—is launching a direct-to-consumer possibility for its sensible fish-free tuna and salmon with transport out there nationwide. Beginning right now, shoppers can join early entry to Present Meals’ on-line store launching subsequent month. The web store will embody the model’s flagship product, Kuleana Tuna, together with a brand new vegan smoked salmon, seasonal merchandise, and unique gives.
San Francisco-based Present Meals—which counts Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as an investor—launched in 2019 to create next-level fish options with out the moral and environmental penalties of the standard seafood trade. Its first product, Kuleana Tuna, is made out of a novel mixture of substances equivalent to algae, radish, bamboo, and potato, and has the same dietary profile to conventional tuna with vitamins equivalent to iron, omega-3, and vitamin B12.
Out there in two codecs (poké cubes and fillets) in 8.8-ounce packages, Kuleana Tuna comes able to eat and has a shelf lifetime of seven days within the fridge and 12 months within the freezer. Present Meals’ new fish-free smoked salmon can be made out of the model’s hero substances (algae, peas, potato, and bamboo) and will probably be out there in 4-ounce, two-serving packages. The tuna and smoked salmon can be utilized in conventional dishes that decision for sushi-grade tuna equivalent to carpaccio, sashimi, sushi, and ceviche.
“That is seafood made out of crops that you would be able to eat on daily basis and in each chapter of life—no mercury, no microplastics, no being pregnant restrictions, no planetary pressure, and no compromises on style, texture, or dietary density,” Adrienne Han, Present Meals Vice President of Shopper Advertising, advised VegNews.
Beforehand, Present Meals’ vegan tuna was solely out there on the menu at choose eating places equivalent to Poké Bar, Blue Sushi Sake Grill, and Poké-Poké. Within the retail sector, Kuleana Tuna was solely bought at Los Angeles space well being retailer Erewhon and on-line retailer GTFO It’s Vegan.
“Our restaurant and grocery companions proceed to give you scrumptious and ingenious methods to arrange our plant-based seafood,” Han stated. “In 2022, we’re making Present Meals much more accessible by way of [direct to consumer] and retail, so the catch of tomorrow will be loved within the present … every time and nonetheless, from the consolation of residence.”
Shoppers can join early entry to Present Meals’ vegan seafood here.
Fish-free tuna has ocean-saving potential
Final yr, Present Meals was named considered one of 100 Best Inventions of 2021 by TIME journal. Its sushi-grade vegan tuna was chosen for its distinctive ingredient record, health-promoting qualities, and world-saving potential to make industrial tuna fishing out of date.
“Tasty and nutritious plant-based options for meat and rooster have been out there for years. However seafood? Not a lot,” TIME wrote about Present Meals’s progressive tuna. “That’s the void that [Current Foods] is attempting to fill with its 100-percent plant-based, sushi-grade, ready-to-eat tuna …[and it] retains the iron, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acid of the true factor—with out the microplastics, mercury, or excessive ldl cholesterol. And the advantages are greater than dietary—it could additionally assist to alleviate reliance on industrial fishing within the face of accelerating demand for recent meals.”
Can fish ever be sustainable?
Although the fishing trade would possibly declare in any other case, seafood isn’t sustainable. Overfishing of many in style species has positioned them on the brink of extinction. Mislabeling and the dearth of traceability within the provide chain make it much more difficult for shoppers to be absolutely knowledgeable. A brand new report revealed within the present concern of scientific journal Science discovered that 75 p.c of China’s seafood imports are processed and reexported, which primarily erases traceability. 
“The current apply of importing seafood, processing it, after which exporting it (‘reexporting’) at a big scale complicates tracing seafood from the water to the plate and permits mislabeling,” the article identified. Reexports obscure the excellence between home and imported seafood and can be implicated in unlawful, unreported, and unregulated fishing and different sustainable practices.
On the flip facet, vegan seafood choices at the moment are being licensed as sustainable seafood. In 2020, the World Sustainability Group (WSO) and the Good Meals Institute partnered to launch the Good friend of the Sea Gold Customary certification program to assist plant-based seafood corporations certify their merchandise based on sustainable certification standards of the WSO’s Good friend of the Earth agriculture requirements. This goals to guard the setting by selling extra sustainable sources of protein and additional boosting the expansion of plant-based seafood.
For extra about vegan tuna, learn:
Nestlé Launches Vegan Tuna
Good Catch’s Vegan Tuna Salad Is Now Available by the Pound at Whole Foods
OmniFoods Launched Vegan Seafood to Take on Asia’s Biggest Meat Category
Nicole Axworthy is the Information Editor at VegNews and creator of the cookbook DIY Vegan.
