Hong-Kong based OmniFoods has unveiled OmniSeafood, a new line of plant-based seafood products including fish-style fillets as well as salmon, minced tuna and crabmeat alternatives. The company joins the growing list of players in the plant-based seafood space such as Nestle and Thai Union, the world’s largest canned-tuna processor.
OmniFoods says it launched the new products in an aim to slow overfishing, driven by increasing seafood consumption worldwide.
OmniFoods founder David Yeung pointed to the increase in annual global seafood consumption over the past 70 years from 20 million tonnes in 1950 to 180 million tonnes in 2020. “Can the ocean endlessly supply food to us? The problem is there is no way that the ocean and the world can keep up with that appetite we have been building,” said Yeung.
The UNFAO has reported that the percentage of overexploited fish stocks has doubled since the 1980s, indicating that current levels of wild fish catch are not sustainable. Commercial fishing has also seen an average 21% increase in greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of fish caught according to research from the Institute for Marine Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania.
OmniSeafood will roll out first in Asia, and is targeted to expand to the UK.
READ MORE: Seafood and chicken next for plant-based food entrepreneurs who are aiming to slow overfishing, climate change [South China Morning Post]
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