A local startup is using artificial intelligence and robotics in an unlikely way: making sashimi and other fish dishes taste better, last longer, and be more humane.
El Segundo-based Shinkei Systems wants to bring a traditional Japanese method of handling fish to fine dining in America, using technology to replace the labor-intensive process historically handled by practitioners on board. Investors have just bet millions that it will succeed.
The company’s AI-driven robot—called Poseidon—is designed to perform a traditional form of fish processing called ikejime in Japanese. It’s a method of killing fish that enthusiasts say improves flavor, texture, and shelf life.
Two people handle fish that were released through Poseidon, a fish processing robot from Shinkei Systems.
(Mikey Santillan/For The Times)
Although fish processed this way can be found in some of Japan’s top restaurants, it hasn’t been marketed in the United States because it’s usually too expensive. Automating the process will make it more accessible to Americans, said Saif Khawaja, the company’s CEO.
“My goal is that you walk into your local grocery store and you can buy fish that lasts three times longer, tastes better and is handled humanely,” he said.
The company raised $22 million in a funding round led by Founders Fund and Interlagos last month, bringing its total funding to $30 million since its inception. It has four Poseidons operating on ships in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and hopes to have 10 more operational next year.
The process of ikejime involves taking live fish that have just been caught and quickly putting them out of their misery by killing them with a brain spike and cutting their gills. This stops the build-up of stress hormones and lactic acid, which can hurt the flavor and texture as the fish suffocates.
Although traditional practitioners sometimes add a step in which the spinal cord is destroyed, Poseidon only takes the first steps of the ikejime technique.
Reed Ginsberg feeds the fish in Poseidon.
(Mikey Santillan/For The Times)
This method is largely artisanal even in Japan, where only a few fishermen will make the effort to process batches of fish this way to sell to specific sushi chefs who are obsessed with the highest quality ingredients.
Even in Japan, the method “is still too labor-intensive to replicate at high speed without damaging the fish,” Khawaja said, adding that “it is impractical and unsustainable for fishermen to adopt methods that require significant hands-on work,” in the U.S., “the U.S. requires significant hands-on work,”,”
Shinkei says it also has a higher calling than just better-tasting fish. Khawaja said one of the motivations behind developing the technology is to try to find a kinder, gentler way to kill fish than letting them die in the air.
On childhood fishing trips with his father in the Red Sea, he remembers it being “very difficult to watch” fish suffocate after they were caught.
(Clockwise from left) The spiked hole and gill slits that Poseidon makes humanely kill the fish. A black cod sits on ice after being passed through Poseidon. A black cod that Poseidon had shaped and enthralled. (Mikey Santillan/For The Times)
While in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Khawaja was moved by an essay that argued that fish suffer inhumane deaths because they cannot feel pain. He even once considered developing sensors to make fish’s pain audible.
Shinkei provides Poseidon machines to fishermen, who then sell the fish processed through the machines back to Shinkei. Shinkei in turn sells the fish to restaurants and other retailers under its fish company, Seremoni.
Poseidon is about the size of a refrigerator and sits on the decks of fishing boats. It processes fish within seconds of being caught. The fish is fed through a hole in the machine and into a small vinyl cavity. The machine uses AI to identify what type of fish it is and where exactly its brain and gills are.
The fish emerge with a hole in their head and cuts near their gills before being placed in an ice slurry to drain their blood.
Killing fish quickly, bleeding it and chilling it without freezing leads to fish that are noticeably better, Khawaja said.
“There will be a difference in flavor profile, and there will be a difference in texture profile,” he said.
Poseidon-treated fish fillet, on the left, sits next to a regular fish fillet.
(Mikey Santillan/For The Times)
The company chose Los Angeles for its headquarters and manufacturing because it has the right mix of potential employees and customers. It has engineering talent, as well as a large fishing fleet and plenty of high-end restaurants.
“The best engineering talent in the world, in my opinion, is in Southern California,” said Ceremonies co-founder Reed Ginsberg.
The city is also a major hub for health and consumer goods, as well as a trendsetter for progressive food fads.
Chef Michael Cimarusti, co-owner of the Michelin-starred Providence restaurant in Los Angeles, says he tries to buy local ikejime fish whenever he can because the method preserves the quality and color. Fish preserved using ikejime look as if they were “pulled out of the water minutes ago,” he said in an interview posted to YouTube by The American Fishing Tackle Co.
Shinkei processes thousands of pounds each week across operations in Washington, central California and Massachusetts, with plans to expand to Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico this year. After feedback from fishermen that the bots took up too much deck space, the company developed the “2” bots, which are about half a foot larger while processing fish twice as fast.
The ceremonial black cod is ready for transport after being released through Poseidon.
(Mikey Santillan/For The Times)
Currently, Black Cod and Black Sea Bass processed through Poseidon are sold under the Shinkei brand to Ceremonies retailers such as Happier Foods and served in high-end restaurants including Atomix and Sushi Zo. This summer, the company plans to add salmon and red snapper to its offerings.
