Wildtype Is First Approved Cultured Salmon; Launching in Restaurants

Wildtype Inc. is the first cultured/cultivated seafood company to gain FDA approval for public consumption of its product. James Beard-award-winning Haitian restaurant Kann in Portland, Oregon, will immediately begin serving the company’s salmon on Thursday nights in June, then every day starting in July.

That makes Wildtype the third cultured protein company to receive government approval, behind cultured chicken producers Upside Foods and Good eat. Those companies who received similar FDA non-objection letters in June of 2023, also are sampling their products in select restaurants but have not geared up production to meet wide distribution.

A fourth company, Mission Barns, has a pending FDA applications to market a  cultivated fat. Cultured meat and poultry is regulated by the FDA and USDA under a joint regulatory framework, but for cell-raised seafood the FDA has sole jurisdiction.

Wildlife received the FDA non-objection May 28. After the June trial run at Kann restaurant tastings will expanding to four additional restaurants.

The FDA’s no objections/no questions letter said Wildlife’s cultured salmon is “as safe as comparable foods produced by other methods and would not contain substances that adulterate the food.”

A follow-up letter acknowledged the cells used to create the Wildtype salmon were taken from coho salmon from a Washington state hatchery at the “fry stage” of development, shortly after the fish hatch from the egg. The FDA did caution Wildtype on choosing acceptable naming terminology when it markets its product.

Wildlife first submitted paperwork to FDA in June of 2022.