LAB-GROWN seafood company Shiok Meats is changing tack after months of efforts to scale up production bore no fruit. The startup has lost half its staff in the last six months, and now faces allegations its core technology does not work.

Co-founder and chief executive Sandhya Sriram told The Business Times (BT): “We have come across some roadblocks and challenges as we tried to scale, and hence we are shifting our focus to red meat for now.”

The company’s subsidiary Gaia Foods, acquired in 2021, focuses on cell-based red meat.