Shiok Meats

Shiok Meats was founded in August 2018 by Dr Sandhya Sriram and Dr Ka Yi Ling. With over 20 years of combined experience in muscle, fat, and stem cell biology fields, they grew Shiok Meats into the world’s first cultivated crustacean meat company and Southeast Asia’s first cultivated seafood company. Since its inception, Shiok Meats has also raised USD 30 Million in funding from a global suite of investors – USA, Europe, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, as well as acquired Gaia Foods, a cultivated red meat company headquartered in Singapore.

Using its technology to grow meat from healthy cells instead of animals, stem cells are isolated from a small sample of crustaceans (shrimp, lobster, crab) and grown in a nutrient broth. These cells are then expanded into smaller bioreactors and progressively moved to larger bioreactors, large stainless-steel tanks in a food manufacturing facility. Once the cells have grown to a large enough mass, they form the meat, which are collected and separated from the liquid. The final meat then finds its way into delicious dishes. The brand is a registered trade mark and has provisional patents within its growing IP portfolio.

“Our greatest challenge was that there was no existing science for creating cultivated seafood, so we started from scratch. Starting from Singapore allows us to tap into a rich IP ecosystem of partners and strategic location to protect our innovations and launch into Asia.”

- Dr Sandhya Sriram, Group CEO and Co-founder, Shiok Meats

Shiok Meats is in the final phases of research and development and plans to launch its shrimp commercially in restaurants in 2024. Shiok Meats is also experimenting with different technologies to enhance their product offerings for the future, combining food science and tissue engineering to mimic wild-caught meat in look and texture as well as taste.

They wanted to leave a legacy by helping humans, animals, and the planet – both Dr Sandhya Sriram and Dr Ka Yi Ling have done it. Motivated by their love for both food and innovative science, they used their years of knowledge to create sustainable, delicious, and healthy meats that will help futureproof our planet.