Pearlita has spent “months and months” experimenting with shellfish alternatives in its leased commercial kitchen at the Piedmont Food Processing Center in Hillsborough. Using seaweed, mushrooms and natural flavorings, the company has developed five market-ready products: crab, shellfish pieces, shucked oysters, ceviche and clam chowder.

The foods imitate the ocean taste and texture of shellfish but are gluten free and pose no danger of shellfish allergies or illnesses such as vibriosis, an intestinal ailment caused by bacteria.

“There isn’t a lot of great tasting vegan or plant-based seafood on the market that doesn’t have sort of an off flavor,” [Nikita] Michelsen says. “Ours has no off flavor.”

Eventually Pearlita plans to incorporate cell culture, or cell agriculture, into its foods, starting with oysters. Each year Americans eat about 2 billion oysters, but wild oyster reefs have declined 85% globally and farmed oysters can’t keep pace with demand.

Cell-cultured oyster meat would introduce a new, sustainable supply of alternative seafood that also would help the 28% of vegans who struggle with nutrient deficiencies, Michelsen says. Cell culture would boost the protein and omega 3 fatty acid content of Pearlita’s oysters.

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