NEW YORK, July 12 — After successfully recreating the taste, texture and smell of beef, scientists and food manufacturers are scrambling to put the next big thing in faux protein on grocery store shelves: Faux fish. 

In recent years, brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat — the leaders in the faux meat market — have succeeded in scoring premium shelf space in mainstream grocery stores and fast food restaurant chains, including A&W Canada, Tim Hortons and most recently, Burger King with their plant-based meat.

With overfishing depleting the planet's oceans and threatening the marine food chain, scientists and food manufacturers are applying similar plant-based principles and cellular technology to recreate fish and tackle another planetary crisis.

As noted by The New York Times, Impossible Foods is currently developing faux fish using the same heme protein used in its faux beef. Last month, the team produced an anchovy-flavoured fish broth made from plants. 

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At Whole Food stores across the US, consumers can purchase plant-based tuna from Good Catch, which replicates the fish flavour using legumes, algal oil and omega-3s. 

Ocean Hugger also recreates the texture and appearance of raw ahi tuna used in sushi with tomatoes, while New Wave Foods produces plant-based facsimiles of shrimp. — AFP-Relaxnews