Protein Production Technology Podcast · FPG Media

Special Episode: Sebastian Rakers - BLUU Seafood

·36 min·2 clips

Blue Seafood has scaled to 500 liters and is now pushing toward 1,000 and 2,000 liters.

Sebastian Rakers joins Nick to explain Blue Seafood’s place in the cultivated seafood sector. He lays out a company focused on high-quality fish protein, especially salmon and trout, and frames the aim as making cultivated seafood feel normal, not novel. The conversation then shifts to market strategy, with Blue Seafood positioning itself as a B2B and B2B2C company rather than a pure consumer brand. The episode closes on the practical realities of regulation, de-risking, and the long road from approval to scale. Rakers starts by stating Blue Seafood’s mission plainly. The company wants cultivated seafood to become ordinary, not exceptional. Right now, the focus is on familiar species consumers already know, especially salmon and trout. He also explains why the company moved away from a purely B2C idea. Early on, the team had imagined building the next Oatly, but over time it became clearer that it should lean on the knowledge that partners and key players already have. That shift is presented as a way to work with existing expertise instead of trying to replace it all at once. The discussion places Blue Seafood inside a wider cultivated seafood market that still needs proof, patience, and credible routes to entry. Singapore comes up as an early market choice, helped by long-standing business relationships and a desire to de-risk. Europe, by contrast, is described as a more complex path. Rakers points to EFSA as a strong authority with excellent guidelines, but notes that the PAF committee and the need to work across 27 member states make the process harder to navigate. From his perspective, a clear champion inside the European Commission would help companies move through the system more effectively. That person would need both technical competence and the authority to build awareness and openness among stakeholders. He argues that the official 18- to 24-month timeline for approval often turns into something closer to 36 months in practice. For a startup, that difference matters because financial security is limited and certainty is scarce. The conversation keeps coming back to the same point: safe food matters, but so does the structure around getting it to market. Nick presses on the commercial and policy implications, while Rakers stays focused on what it takes to survive the scale-up phase. The exchange is measured and detailed, with little theatrics and plenty of room for the guest to explain the industry from the inside. By the end, the episode leaves cultivated seafood sounding less like a slogan and more like a long, carefully managed transition. It also leaves open the practical question of which markets will move first and who will help make that happen. The final stretch lands on cautious optimism rather than certainty. Rakers acknowledges the difficulty without backing away from the opportunity. The message is that progress is real, but the path remains slow and highly dependent on regulation, partnerships, and timing. The episode’s tone stays close to the realities of food technology rather than drifting into speculation. That makes it useful for listeners who want to understand how cultivated seafood is actually trying to enter the world.

As heard by us

A grounded look at how cultivated seafood moves from promise to market reality.

Cultivated seafood is treated here as both a market problem and a regulatory one, with Sebastian Rakers explaining how Blue Seafood wants it to become normal.

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Hear how cultivated fish is being pushed through regulation and scale-up.

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