Will Fungi Save the Seas?

Will Fungi Save the Seas? Oshi & The Better Meat Co. Win $1 Million Grant to Advance Mycoprotein Salmon 

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BIRD Foundation Grant Intended to Promote R&D of Mutual Benefit to the U.S. and Israel

July 25, 2023—Today, Oshi (formerly Plantish) and The Better Meat Co. announce that the two alt-protein startups have jointly been awarded a $1 million USD grant from the BIRD Foundation. Such Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) grants are part of an Israeli and U.S. government joint program intended to foster collaboration between Israeli and American companies by advancing industrial R&D of mutual benefit to both nations.

Due to overfishing, dams, logging, and other human activities, many wild salmon populations are in steep decline, with some now believed to be extinct. The remaining wild salmon are often contaminated with pollutants. Whilst salmon populations are declining, the demand for salmon is only growing every year. The two companies are aiming to tackle this problem through the creation of delicious mycoprotein-based salmon fillets.

But Israel’s Oshi and the United States’’ Better Meat Co. are working together to create a healthy, humane, and sustainable alternative to salmon that delivers on taste and nutrition without harming fish or human health. Combining Oshi’s cutting edge 3D technology and The Better Meat Co.’s innovative mycoprotein fermentation technology, the two start-ups will use the BIRD grant to create fish-free salmon whole cuts made from a high-protein, all-natural, whole food mycoprotein with nearly no processing at all.

Oshi co-founder Dr. Ariel Szklanny states, “We’re honored to be selected for this prestigious grant with The Better Meat Co. and look forward to reducing pressure on our finned friends by making alt-salmon fillets that are better than the ‘reel’ thing.”

Joanna Bromley, co-founder of The Better Meat Co., noted, “Humanity only stopped harpooning whales once there were better alternatives to whale oil. Our goal is to create better alternatives to salmon with our friends at Oshi so we can leave more fish where they belong: in the water.”

Oshi was founded as Plantish in 2021. Based in Rehovot, Israel, the company is focused exclusively on creating whole cut fish fillets without harming a single fish. https://oshi.com 

Founded in 2018 and based in Sacramento, California, The Better Meat Co. harnesses the power of fungi fermentation to create B2B ingredients from whole food mycoproteins. https://www.bettermeat.co 

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