Transitioning from a linear to a circular bioeconomy represents a pivotal shift in resource utilization and waste management. A circular bioeconomy emphasizes reuse, recycling and repurposing of materials, as opposed to a linear bioeconomy, where resources are extracted, and waste is disposed.
This shift from a linear to circular use of resources leads to a significant reduction of waste and environmental impact. While it is more difficult to convert well established food supply chains into a circular bioeconomy, it is easier to develop solutions in newer products like cell-cultured seafood. To encourage a circular use of resources in cell-cultured seafood, scaffold materials may be made from a variety of seafood processing byproducts. Figure 1 shows Overview of waste/byproducts of seafood processing industry.
In this study, Orange-spotted Grouper (Epinephelus coloides) myoblast cells were grown on multiple upcycled scaffold materials and the cell adhesion was evaluated using quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation (QCM-D). This method is a very accurate and precise method, which provides real-time measurements on cellular adhesion and biocompatibility of scaffold materials.
QCM-D provides real-time kinetic data, which is not possible with other methods. While adhesion to scaffolds has been measured using other methods, there are no current studies using QCM-D to measure the adhesion of cell lines to scaffold materials in cellular agriculture/aquaculture. The results of this study will identify varying levels of adhesion for three different hydrogels. This information can be used for designing an optimum scaffold for cell-cultured seafood and fish meal production.