World's first fish farmed on mycoprotein

That is the claim from the company Cirkulär from Lund in Sweden. They have farmed and sold fish without fishmeal for commercial sale. They are now in dialogue with Norwegian feed producers.

Pål Mugaas Jensen Pål Mugaas Jensen Pål Mugaas Jensen Editor LandbasedAQ

Published 1 October 2025 - 11:35

According to them, this is the first time fish farmed on mycoprotein has reached the market. The protein is made from yeast cells that have fed on waste from the forestry industry.

Central to this is the company Cirkulär from Lund, which converts industrial side streams from the forestry industry into high-value, circular base ingredients.

After operating a pilot plant in southern Sweden for the past two years, the company is now taking the next step towards a full-scale production facility.

Production of fish based on mycoprotein addresses two global challenges: the fish feed industry's dependence on soy and fishmeal, and the forestry industry's need for circular solutions for its side streams.

The initiative is part of 'Feed of the Future', led by Axfoundation and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), together with several actors throughout the value chain.

About Cirkulär

Cirkulär develops circular production solutions that convert industrial by-products into high-value base ingredients using yeast fungi.
Cirkulär AB was founded in 2019 in Lund by Eric Öste, son of Oatly founder Rickard Öste.
Among the investors are MBP Solutions, Reynir Indahl (founder of Summa Equity), Sebastian Sjöberg (CEO of McKinsey Sweden) and Parham Abuhamzeh (CEO of EQT).
The company has been recognised by the Swedish Energy Agency as a so-called cleantech company.

The mycoprotein is produced at Cirkulär's pilot plant in Skåne. Now the production will be scaled up.

From validation to commercial reality

Since 2023, Cirkulär has operated a pilot factory on an industrial scale in Skåne. Thus, the mycoprotein is made and the bioproduction process has been thoroughly validated. Using a proprietary fungus and fermentation technology, the fungal culture is fed with side streams from the forestry industry and converts these into a circular protein mass that is ideal as fish feed, he further states.

Erik Öste is CEO and founder of Cirkulär.

"The facility has demonstrated stable performance and now proves that circular proteins can be produced reliably on a larger scale, the company reports. This breakthrough shows that our technology is not only robust but also commercially viable" says Eric Öste, managing director and founder of Cirkulär to LandbasedAQ.

The fish they have produced is rainbow trout farmed in Älvdalen by the company Älvdalslax.

"We call it the fish of the future, and it is part of the Vinnova-funded project «Framtidens Foder för Fågel, Fisk och Fläsk», where the goal is to replace soy and fishmeal with mycoprotein (as well as insect meal and mussel meal), which are significantly more sustainable at all levels" says the managing director.

He tells the fish had an average weight of 4.1 kg when they started slaughtering.

"So far, 2.4 tonnes out of a total of approximately 6 tonnes are delivered in this first round", he says.

In dialogue with Norwegian players

"Who do you see as potential customers for the mycoprotein"?

"At the moment, we are fully focused on the fish feed industry, where the Norwegian industry naturally has the highest priority, as the world's largest market. We are currently in dialogue with several Norwegian producers", he reveals.

Why they focus on fish feed first

Food production accounts for about one-third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and is the largest cause of biodiversity loss (WWF).
Feed accounts for more than 90% of the climate impact from farmed rainbow trout.
78% of the fish from Swedish marine fishing is not food for humans but goes to animal feed (Swedish Institute for the Marine Environment).
Soya is often included in today's feed and is usually grown in large monocultures, which reduces biodiversity and requires extensive use of chemical inputs.
The soya used in Swedish feed today is, however, RTRS certified (WWF, Swedish Society for Nature Conservation).

Source: Cirkulär

The fish is now sold in selected Hemköp stores (Swedish grocery chain), as well as served at Urban Deli (Swedish restaurant chain) and via Fiskhallen Sorunda (foodservice) to selected restaurants in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

"Have you conducted any parallel studies of the fish and fish health"?

"Yes. Sensory tests conducted by experts at Grythyttan showed that rainbow trout raised on the feed of the future tastes just as good as fish fed with traditional feed."

Öste says that the 'fish of the future' was described as having 'a fresh taste with nutty and mineral tones, as well as a good texture that was soft, slightly juicy and melted in the mouth'.

"The fish maintains the same high quality as fish raised on regular feed - and it grows just as well. For the farmers, this means both new business opportunities and an active contribution to the green shift", he believes.

Fish feed made from mycoprotein by Cirkulär.

Scaling up

And with a validated process and a first product on the market, Cirkulär is now moving towards full-scale facilities with a capacity of tens of thousands of tonnes annually.

"In addition to addressing the challenges in the fish feed industry, the goal is to deliver ingredients to a range of different industries - from animal feed and food to skincare and biostimulants", says Öste.

More information about "Fish of the future" can be found here:
https://www.axfoundation.se/nyheter/varldens-forsta-fisk-uppfodd-med-mykoprotein-svensk-satsning-bakom-framtidens-foder 🔗 https://www.axfoundation.se/en/projects/feed-of-the-future (scroll down to Fish of the future).