Madrid, Spain-based start-up Mimic Seafood recently launched its first plant-based sefaood analog product.
Mimic's Tunato is a plant-based tuna analog comprised of tomato, olive oil, algae, soy sauce, and a blend of spices.
Mimic Seafood has the goal of creating sustainable plant-based products and meeting the consumer demand for healthier food options. The company wants to develop plant-based seafood analogs using natural and commonly used ingredients such as eggplant, olive oil, and seaweed, it said.
“It’s a tomato-based product,” Mimic Foods CEO Ida Spyer told the Food Navigator. “Anyone that has ever cooked with tomatoes will know they can be real ‘chameleons’ – they can be sweet or savory, juicy or hard. They can be like leather if it’s a sundried tomato, or they can be like mush.”
The start-up has developed a water-removal device that can change the texture of tomatoes through an evaporative proces. Tunato tastes like traditional tuna but does not replicate tuna’s full nutritional value, Spyer said, specifically in regard to protein and omega-3 levels, though the company is trying to change that in future iterations of the product.
“We are thinking of trying to increase different nutritional aspects of our products, but protein wouldn’t necessarily be one of these. The reason is that no one actually needs more protein. Most people get more than enough,” Spyer said.
Tunato is available in stores in Spain and Denmark and will soon launch in the Netherlands. Mimic's second product, an aubergine-based eel alternative, is also expected to hit markets soon.
The Aubergeel is created from Japanese eggplant, soy sauce, mirin, sake, honey, whole cane sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and corn starch flour.
Photo courtesy of Mimic Seafood
