Cultivated Seafood
Upside Foods 
The Upside Foods team welcomes Cultured Decedance employees into its ranks.
USA, Berkeley. Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats), the leading company in the cultivated meat, poultry, and seafood industry, announced the acquisition of Cultured Decadence, a Madison, Wisconsin-based cultivated seafood company.
The acquisition will expand Upside Foods' industry leading portfolio of cultivated meat, poultry, and seafood products. Cultured Decadence will continue to develop cultivated lobster, scallops, and other seafoods with an outsized environmental and animal welfare impact.
About Cultured Decadence
Cultured Decadence is a Wisconsin-based cultivated seafood company using cell culture and tissue engineering to create seafood, specifically crustaceans products, directly from cells. The company aims to produce a variety of products to help address the growing demand for nutritious, safe, and sustainable seafood worldwide.
Complement the portfolio
Cultured Decadence was founded in 2020 and has developed proprietary cell lines and cell feed for a variety of delicious, high-impact seafood products, including lobster and other crustaceans. This acquisition will enable Upside to complement and expand its product portfolio and accelerate commercialization of a range of seafood products grown directly from animal cells, without raising animals. Cultured Decadence will adopt Upside's brand and remain in Wisconsin as Upside's Midwest hub.
This acquisition follows the recent opening of Upside's Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in California, the most advanced cultivated meat, poultry and seafood production facility in the world. EPIC will be able to produce both the existing products and species portfolio as well as that of Cultured Decadence, validating the multi-species technology platform.
„Upside's unparalleled R&D and scale up capabilities will significantly accelerate the commercialization of cultivated delicious, sustainable and humane seafood. “
Cultivated meat, poultry and seafood is real meat produced directly by growing animal cells, without the need to raise and slaughter animals. It is not vegan, vegetarian or plant-based.
Crustaceans are the most fuel-intensive sector in seafood, accounting for 22% of the carbon emissions from fishing vessels. Meanwhile, institutions around the world are increasingly recognizing the intellectual capacity of crustaceans. Last year, the United Kingdom formally recognized lobster, shrimp, crab and other crustaceans as sentient beings capable of experiencing pain, pleasure and joy. In 2018, Switzerland banned the act of boiling lobsters alive.
In addition to the grand opening of EPIC, Upside recently announced a partnership with 3-Michelin Star chef Dominique Crenn and an investment from Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey. In April 2021, Cultured Decadence announced an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round and receipt of Wisconsin state grants.
Source: Upside Foods
