The company, Steakholder Foods, claims to have developed a product with a texture similar to that of a real eel. However, it is entirely plant-based.

The task is a complex one, as the flesh of this freshwater fish is singularly soft and tender.

Although the company does not specify the type of plant ingredients used in its revolutionary 3D-printed product, soy protein and eggplant are already used in the plant-based alternatives to eel currently on the market.

Why eel?

Beyond questions of taste or flavour, this innovation provides a response to a major problem. Indeed, this species is on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species and is considered Critically Endangered.

Several causes have been identified, including water pollution, illegal fishing and the destruction of eel habitats.

For several years now, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has been recommending a halt to fishing. This position is supported by some of the world’s leading chefs through Relais & Châteaux.

In December, the hotel and restaurant network shared the decision of its World Culinary Council, which decided to call on all member chefs to stop using eel in their dishes.

In a video, top names in the business, such as the triple-Michelin-starred chef Mauro Colagreco of the Mirazur in Menton (France), called on MEPs to ban eel fishing. Yet, according to Steakholder, the global eel market is growing at an annual rate of 2.19%, and was worth US$4.3 billion in 2022 alone.

The species is a highly sought-after delicacy in France, where it is cooked in matelote fish stew, for example, and in Japan, where it is prepared in all kinds of ways, like on skewers or glazed in a traditional dish called kabayaki.

So, just as the French start-up Gourmey is seeking to replace foie gras with a synthetic product, the Israeli startup is proposing a way to continue eating eel in a different form.

While the development of this plant-based eel is, for the moment, more of a response to food security concerns in the Gulf region – the company has partnered with a governmental bodybased in the Gulf Cooperation Council – it also paves the way for envisaging 3D printing as a new, more ethical way of producing food.

Previously, the firm has 3D bio-printed a fillet of cultivated grouper fish in the same way. Cells from the endangered species, supplied by a Singaporean company, were used as the basis of the ink for 3D printing.