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Category: Cell-Based News

  • Meatable Raises $35M For Cultivated Pork Production, Eyes 2024 Singapore Launch

    meatable pork
    4 Mins Read

    Dutch startup Meatable has raised $35M in funding to scale the production and accelerate the commercial launch of its cultivated pork. Bringing the total funding received by the company to $95M, the announcement comes a month after it worked with Mosa Meat, HollandBIO and the Dutch government to create a ‘code of practice’ facilitating cultivated meat tastings in the country.

    The Series B investment round was led by Agronomics, and so Invest-NL join as a new investor, contributing $17M. Meatable aims to use the funds to scale its processes and speed up the commercial launch of its cultivated pork. The scaling and optimisation of its manufacturing processes will also help it become cost-competitive with conventional meat.

    “Our pursuit for appropriate protein alternatives that further a sustainable and circular society remains ceaseless,” said Bastiaan Gielink, senior investment manager at Invest-NL. “The breakthroughs achieved by Meatable have convinced us that they possess the know-how and team to make this potential a reality.”

    Meatable eyes 2024 Singapore launch

    cultivated sausage
    Courtesy: Meatable

    In October 2022, Meatable partnered with Singapore’s ESCO Aster, the only regulator-approved contracted cultivated meat manufacturing facility in the world, in its bid towards achieving approval from the Singapore Food Agency. And in May, it hosted its first cultivated meat tasting event in the city-state, with the goal of launching its pork sausages and dumplings in select restaurants and retailers in 2024.

    Meatable co-founder and CEO Krijn de Nood confirmed to Green Queen that the company will be looking to expand to the US after the Singapore launch, before exploring other markets, depending on the regulatory processes. The US became just the second country to approve the sale of cultivated meat products in June, granting regulatory clearance to Upside Foods and Good Meat.

    “In order to gain regulatory approval in the US, we’re working with the relevant US experts and authorities on this matter – including the US Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture,” said de Noord. “Our application in Singapore gives us useful points of reference as well.”

    Opti-ox technology helps avoid FBS

    cultivated meat singapore
    Courtesy: Meatable

    To produce its cultivated pork, Meatable uses a proprietary technology called Opti-ox, eschewing the need for fetal bovine serum (FBS).

    “To create Meatable’s cultivated meat, our team first isolates a single animal cell, taken harmlessly from an animal. While immortalised cell lines are more commonly found in the industry, they require an alteration of the cells to allow them to multiply indefinitely,” explained de Nood.

    The company’s patented tech instead uses pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which “have the natural ability to keep on multiplying and to do so rapidly” – and these double in just 24 hours. “The difficulty with using PSCs is that it can be more challenging to change them from stem cells into more specialised cells, such as muscle or fat,” said de Nood. “However, by using these cells in combination with patented opti-o technology, we’re able to produce real muscle and fat cells that are fully differentiated in just [eight] days.” That’s about 30 times faster than it takes to rear a pig for pork on the farm.

    “This is coupled with a perfusion process that allows the team to work in a continuous cycle to generate very high cell densities,” he added. “This means we can grow a lot of cells in our bioreactors, and harvest cultured meat from the reactors continuously. This is a great step forward as it increases productivity and makes the process easy to scale.

    “Altogether, this means that when it comes to making real cultivated meat, we have the tools to make the process extremely efficient and one that can scale to serve customers around the world.”

    Asked about consumer perception of cultured meat – people who are vegetarian or vegan may be uneasy about the idea of eating meat grown from an animal cell – de Nood stresses that cultivated meat isn’t “like meat” – it is meat.

    “Cultivated meat addresses some of the concerns people might have about eating traditional meat. For example, there is no harm done to animals and it will in time be much more environmentally friendly to produce than industrially farmed options. In the end, cultivated meat will be a dietary choice, just like any other. We are aiming to make that choice as self-explanatory as possible.”

    A 2021 poll conducted by Israeli cultured meat producer Aleph Farms – which applied for regulatory approval in Switzerland and the UK last month – showed that 87-89% of Gen Zers, 84-85% of millennials, 76-77% of Gen Xers, and 70-74% of Boomers were at least somewhat open to trying cultivated meat.

    “These numbers are growing every day,” said de Nood. “We know that education is essential. The more people know about cultivated meat, the more they are open to it and willing to try.”

    The post Meatable Raises $35M For Cultivated Pork Production, Eyes 2024 Singapore Launch first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Cultivated Meat Startup Aleph Farms Files for UK Regulatory Approval

    2 Mins Read

    Israeli-cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms has filed for regulatory approval to put its cell-based steak on restaurant menus in the UK, reports Bloomberg. The alt-protein producer made the application on July 21, days after applying for approval in Switzerland, which was the first such filing in Europe.

    Aleph Farms, which makes cell-based whole-cut meat, is the first cultivated meat company to apply for regulatory clearance with the UK’s Food Standards Agency. It plans to start production in the UK in the next few years and is in talks with potential commercial partners.

    “The strategy is to file in the UK and Switzerland which are interesting markets,” Aleph Farms CEO Didier Toubia said. “We believe the UK will take a couple of years, but the potential is huge.”

    Aleph Farms steak.

    The regulatory race

    Post-Brexit, the UK is reviewing novel food regulation changes that could speed up cell-based and precision fermentation approvals. However, it still relies on the European regulatory framework. No cell-based meat company has yet filed for regulatory approval in the EU, where the process can be seen as opaque and complicated.

    “The EU must develop a coherent strategy to support the sustainable protein sector and ensure regulatory processes are clear, in order to reap the benefits of cultivated meat,” Seth Roberts, policy manager at GFI Europe, told Bloomberg.

    Cultivated meat is grown via animal cells in bioreactors, and is seen as a cruelty-free and more sustainable alternative to meat. Cell-based chicken has been available in Singapore – a hotbed for cultivated meat – since December 2020, when Eat Just gained the world’s first such regulatory approval. And in June, the US too issued its first approval to Upside Foods and Eat Just’s Good Meat.

    The post Cultivated Meat Startup Aleph Farms Files for UK Regulatory Approval first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Aleph Farms Takes First Step Towards Cultivated Meat in Europe with Swiss Regulatory Application

    Aleph Farms Cultivated Beef Steak
    3 Mins Read

    Israel-based cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms has officially submitted an application to the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office seeking regulatory approval to sell the world’s first cultivated beef steaks under its Aleph Cuts brand in Switzerland.

    Aleph’s milestone application is a collaborative effort with Migros, Switzerland’s largest food enterprise, which has been instrumental in navigating the country’s specific regulatory approval process.

    Leveraging the expertise and infrastructure of food production leaders like Migros, Aleph Farms aims to accelerate the scale-up, go-to-market activities, and commercialization of Aleph Cuts globally.

    Swiss consumers are eager to try cultivated meat

    As part of their collaboration, Aleph Farms and Migros have conducted extensive consumer research in Switzerland, revealing that 74 percent of Swiss consumers are open to trying cultivated meat due to factors like curiosity, sustainability, and animal welfare.

    Aleph Cuts Petit Steak
    Aleph Cuts Petit Steak, Courtesy Aleph Farms

    Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, emphasized the importance of collaborative efforts to ensure food security while respecting planetary boundaries. “Food systems affect everyone, and it will take a coordinated effort between regulators, innovators and incumbents to ensure food security in a way that helps humanity live within its planetary boundaries,” Toubia said in a statement.

    “At Aleph Farms, we carefully consider partnerships that reflect our core values and sustainability commitments,” Toubia said. “Together with Migros, we are establishing the cow cell as the third category of food products from cattle, alongside beef and milk. We look forward to working closely with Switzerland’s Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office to enable access to both high-quality nutrition and world-changing innovation.”

    The two companies are working together to develop a go-to-market strategy for Aleph Cuts, including distribution and commercialization through fine dining food service channels in Switzerland. The country’s affinity for innovation and quality-conscious attitude towards food further contributes to cultivated meat’s growing momentum worldwide.

    Global cultivated meat market

    Pending regulatory approvals, Aleph Farms plans to launch Aleph Cuts in limited quantities in Singapore and Israel later this year, offering exclusive tasting experiences curated with select partners. The company’s regulatory team is currently engaging with authorities in various markets, including Switzerland, to ensure compliance with safety requirements.

    Chef José Andrés cooks Good Meat's chicken
    Chef José Andrés cooks Good Meat’s chicken | Courtest

    Demand for cultivated meat appears high in the U.S., which recently became the second country to approve cell-based protein for sale and consumption. Two California companies, Eat Just’s Good Meat and Upside Foods, have both served their cultivated chicken to diners in collaboration with esteemed chefs Dominique Crenn and José Andrés.

    Earlier this week, Good Meat announced a giveaway contest for a cultivated chicken meal at Andrés’ China Chilcano in Washington D.C. The contest was announced after the restaurant’s initial reservations to try the novel meat booked up in less than five minutes.

    The post Aleph Farms Takes First Step Towards Cultivated Meat in Europe with Swiss Regulatory Application first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Aleph Farms Takes First Step Towards Cultivated Meat in Europe with Swiss Regulatory Application appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Steakholder Foods Inks Landmark Agreement for Bio-Printing Technology in the Gulf

    3D-bioprinted steakholder foods
    2 Mins Read

    Israeli deep-tech cultivated meat company Steakholder Foods has announced a strategic partnership with an accredited governmental body based in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the first of its kind multi-million-dollar collaboration.

    Steakholder Foods, a member of the UN Global Compact, says the new partnership will help to address local food security goals across the Gulf region by leveraging its groundbreaking 3D printing technology to create hybrid fish products that are healthier and better for the planet.

    ‘A huge step forward’

    Ultimately, the company says its goal is to establish a large-scale production facility — the first of its kind in the Persian Gulf region. To facilitate this, the agreement specifies an initial down payment to Steakholder Foods for the procurement of its 3D printer technologies, followed by a milestone-based sales and procurement plan for industrial-scale output.

    “After intensive years of development, Steakholder Foods is excited to sign this first agreement with a strategic partner, generating our first income stream that represents one of the first substantial income agreements for a company in the cultivated meat industry, a huge step forward,” Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods, said in a statement. “We believe that we have chosen the right partner, and together, we are committed to advancing the cause of food security and creating a positive impact on the world.”

    Local Singaporean fish dish by Chef Moran Lidor. Photo by Shlomi Arbiv

    The strategic alliance aims to promote the scalability of Steakholder Foods’ 3D-printed food technology in GCC territories, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

    Under this partnership, Steakholder Foods will contribute its expertise in providing mature Ready-to-Cook (RTC) 3D printer technologies and customized bio-inks, enabling the production of a diverse range of species-specific cultivated fish and meat products, as well as vegetable-based alternatives.

    This innovative technology aims to overcome the limitations of traditional fish and meat production, delivering consistent, nutritious, and safe food products that closely resemble the taste, texture, and appearance of conventional meat, fish, and vegetables.

    Looking ahead

    Yair Ayalon, VP of Business Development at Steakholder Foods, sees the strategic partnership as a pivotal moment in the company’s journey towards commercializing its 3D printing capabilities. “Looking ahead, we remain committed to pursuing additional strategic partnerships to enable us to deliver innovative solutions for the foodtech industry,” Ayalon said.

    The announcement follows Steakholder’s May debut of 3D-printed cell-based grouper fish — a world’s first made with bio-inks from grouper cells provided by Singapore-based startup Umami Meats, with which Steakholder initiated a strategic partnership last year.

    The post Steakholder Foods Inks Landmark Agreement for Bio-Printing Technology in the Gulf first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • You Can Taste Upside Foods’ Cultivated Chicken at Bar Crenn Beginning Next Month

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    2 Mins Read

    Following the USDA approval for its cultivated chicken, Upside Foods has announced that public reservations for the first dinner service at Michelin-starred Bar Crenn featuring its cultivated meat will go live on Thursday, July 20th at 12pm PT. 

    The public reservations availability follows the world’s first sale of cultivated chicken in the U.S., which took place on July 1, 2023, in San Francisco at Chef Dominique Crenn’s Bar Crenn.

    That dinner featured Upside Foods’ CEO Uma Valeti along with the five winners of the company’s social media contest for a chance to be among the first to taste the cell-based meat. It came just days after the USDA granted approval to California-based Upside and Good Meat — both produce cultivated chicken.

    “It’s truly an honor to serve Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn and introduce cultivated meat to the U.S.,” Crenn said at the time. “It’s the first time meat has made it back on my menu since 2018 because Upside Chicken is the first meat that I feel good about serving.”

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    Upside Foods’ first menu appearance at Bar Crenn | Courtesy

    Crenn served the first cultivated chicken in the U.S. fried in a Recado Negro-infused tempura batter with a burnt chili aioli. The dish was served in a handmade black ceramic vessel adorned with Mexican motifs and Crenn’s logo, garnished with edible flowers and greens.

    Days later on the other side of the country, chef José Andrés served the first Good Meat chicken at his Washington D.C. restaurant, China Chilcano.

    Booking a seating

    Following this first public dinner service, Bar Crenn will serve the cultivated chicken on the first weekend of each month via six-course prix fixe menus priced at $150 per person beginning on August 4th at 5 pm, the company says.

    Reservations will be released monthly on the Bar Crenn website two weeks ahead of the seating on a first-come, first-serve basis.

    The post You Can Taste Upside Foods’ Cultivated Chicken at Bar Crenn Beginning Next Month first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Path to Price Parity: Ark Biotech’s Plan for Affordable Cultivated Meat

    2 Mins Read

    New assessments from Massachusetts-based supplier to the cultivated meat industry, Ark Biotech, shows how cultivated meat could quickly become competitively priced alongside traditional animal-based meat.

    Ark Biotech’s novel techno-economic analysis (TEA) highlights the potential for biomanufacturing advancements as more regulatory approval for cultivated meat is expected in key markets. The U.S. saw its first two manufacturers receive final regulatory approval last month.

    The findings

    Ark Biotech provides industrial-scale bioreactors, operating systems, and services to cultivated meat producers. The company believes that current production limitations are the primary barrier to the widespread adoption of cultivated meat. It identifies four key areas of focus to overcome those limitations: reducing the cost of media, improving cell mass, optimizing the bioprocess, and reducing capital spend.

    Upside Foods’ EPIC cultivated meat factory, Courtesy

    “Industrial cell-culture achievements from the pharmaceutical industry can serve as a baseline for an achievable cost structure for cultivated meat,” reads the report. “Using pharmaceutical achievements as a baseline translates to cost of goods sold (COGS) of $29.5/lb (excluding downstream, packaging, and foodservice margins), reaching a cost comparable to filet mignon. There is ample room to further improve COGS, such as scaling-up media production and using larger bioreactors as well as surpassing pharmaceutical achievements through innovation.”

    Scaling production capacity

    Ark Biotech modeled production capacities at upwards of 50,000 metric tons, much larger than the 10,000 metric tons usually considered in such analyses. It has generated models for up to one million-liter bioreactors; most other studies have only looked at bioreactors with a capacity maximum of 25,000 to 250,000 liters.

    Steak grown from cells | Courtesy Shoji Takeuchi, University of Tokyo

    “Cultivated meat is the most important landmark invention of our time, and bioreactors are critical to actualizing this historic change,” the report reads. A significant portion of bioreactor costs are fixed and most variable costs scale at a factor, says the report. “Reducing bioreactor spend is critical for reducing capital cost.”

    Ark Biotech says it is designing bioreactor capacities that are 100 times larger than pharmaceutical plants, making energy and resource-efficient AI-operated systems that are capable of producing cells and structured tissues at high densities.

    “A great deal of innovation has been made across the cultivated meat ecosystem,” reads the TEA. “With continued focused innovation, especially in the four areas highlighted in this TEA, cultivated meat can achieve price parity. With so much at stake, there’s no time to lose.”

    The post Path to Price Parity: Ark Biotech’s Plan for Affordable Cultivated Meat first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Asia’s Growing Demand for Alternative Protein Benefits Antipodean Exporters, Report Finds

    3 Mins Read

    Asia’s surging demand for alternative proteins could open up new export avenues for manufacturers in Australia and New Zealand, according to recent research.

    The new report, Alternative Proteins and Asia, was compiled by independent alternative proteins think tank Food Frontier, market research firm Mintel, and New Zealand’s food and fiber sector think tank Te Puna Whakaaronui.

    The findings

    The groups say the goal of the report was to discern export opportunities for manufacturers by assessing 11 Asian countries in terms of market size and innovation, market entry and operations, and consumer intelligence.

    Good Meat's cultivated lab meat
    Good Meat’s cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    China, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Japan were identified as the top five countries with the highest market potential. The report’s findings were supported by primary research involving 5,000 consumers across these markets. According to the findings, China demonstrates the most potential as a market for exporters of plant-based meat and cellular agriculture products, such as cultivated meat.

    Food Frontier Executive Director, Dr. Simon Eassom, noted that Australia and New Zealand enjoy an advantageous position due to their close proximity and history of trade with Asia. “With an expanding alternative proteins market in Asia, Australia, and New Zealand have the potential to build a major new food export industry that complements our existing ones,” he said.

    According to Statista, the Asian market for meat substitutes is valued at $4.32 billion and is projected to grow annually at a CAGR of more than 33 percent, hitting $13.63 billion by 2027. The demand is highest in China, where the market for meat substitutes is expected to grow by 20 percent annually.

    Recommendations

    Even though North America has historically dominated global investments in alternative proteins, start-ups from the Asia Pacific and other regions are gathering steam, reducing North America’s market share from 92 percent to 67 percent over the past decade, the report notes.

    According to Eassom, health, environmental, and food security concerns are behind the growing demand for alternative proteins. “Consumer interest in healthy and environmentally sustainable protein options is increasing, leading to more people becoming interested in a flexitarian diet — one where they regularly swap conventional animal meat for new options like plant-based meat, which provides a familiar eating experience without compromising on nutritional value,” he said.

    TissenBioFarm's giant piece of cultivated meat
    South Korea’s TissenBioFarm shows off its cultivated meat | Courtesy

    Te Puna Whakaaronui’s Executive Director, Jarred Mair, emphasized the importance of having a comprehensive fact base on potential opportunities for alternative proteins across key export markets. “This research provides valuable market insights for our conventional protein producers as well as emergent alt-protein ingredient companies in New Zealand,” he said.

    Eassom points to flexitarians as driving demand for alternative proteins in Australia, and he says, the latest research shows this is also the case in Asia. “A quarter of Chinese identify as flexitarian and one-third plan to reduce at least one type of meat,” he said. “Similarly, twenty-six percent of South Koreans want to reduce meat consumption.”

    The new report comes on the heels of a new study from Asia Research and Engagement (ARE) that highlights the impact of animal protein production on greenhouse gas emissions across Asia’s ten largest markets.

    “We are faced with a stark reality whereby this study demonstrates that the business-as-usual approach, even with generous mitigation measures modeled, will not lead to a sustainable future,” Kate Blaszak, ARE’s Director of Protein Transition, said in a statement. “The transformation of the protein system is not just a choice, but one that we need to embrace if we are to achieve the targets outlined in the Paris Agreement, along with many other sustainability targets.”

    The post Asia’s Growing Demand for Alternative Protein Benefits Antipodean Exporters, Report Finds first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Magic Valley and Biocellion Partner to Develop the Future of Cultivated Meat Research

    Magic Valley lamb meat
    3 Mins Read

    Australian company Magic Valley Pty. Ltd and Washington-based Biocellion SPC have announced a partnership to optimize the efficiency of cultivated meat production by enhancing bioreactor design.

    Magic Valley says it has perfected a unique method that involves using a minor skin biopsy from a living animal to create cultivated meat in a fetal bovine serum alternative. The cells can be transformed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and subsequently developed into muscle and fat in bioreactors. Magic Valley says it is the first company in the world to create animal component-free cultivated lamb from iPSC.

    Coupled with Biocellion’s computer simulation technology, the companies say they can offer less costly and more efficient research and development opportunities to help scale cultivated meat and other protein alternatives.

    ‘Revolutionizing the way meat is produced’

    “At Magic Valley, we are committed to revolutionizing the way meat is produced, with a focus on sustainability and ethical practices,” Paul Bevan, CEO & Founder of Magic Valley, said in a statement. “By collaborating with Biocellion, we aim to unlock valuable insights into cellular behavior, enabling us to create delicious cultivated meat products efficiently at scale.”

    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan
    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan | Courtesy

    Simon Kahan, CEO of Biocellion, said the company is excited to collaborate with Magic Valley “in order to accelerate the development of bioreactor designs and drive efficiency in cultivated meat production. Together, we are shaping a future where technology and biology converge to address global protein demands.”

    Meat demand surge

    Like other cultivated meat producers, Magic Valley says it is producing “genuine meat,” that’s more sustainable and ethical than the conventional alternatives. This innovative approach has the potential to spare the lives of the approximately 70 billion animals slaughtered annually. It could also reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 92 percent, land use by 95 percent, and water use by 78 percent. Magic Valley recently unveiled a prototype cultivated pork dumpling. Last September it debuted Australia’s first cultivated lamb meat.

    Cultivated lamb meat | Courtesy Magic Valley

    With the world’s population expected to surpass ten billion within three decades, demand for animal protein is predicted to surge by nearly 100 percent, the companies say. Traditional intensive animal farming methods are unlikely to keep pace with this escalating need.

    Brinc, the Hong Kong-based global venture accelerator, backs both Magic Valley and Biocellion. “As a keen advocate of food technology innovation, Brinc proudly supports the collaboration between Magic Valley and Biocellion, which represents a significant step towards addressing the challenges of sustainable protein production,” Manav Gupta, Founder & CEO of Brinc, said in a statement. “This partnership showcases the potential that interdisciplinary solutions can play to reshape the future of the food industry.”

    The post Magic Valley and Biocellion Partner to Develop the Future of Cultivated Meat Research first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Award Winning Beef Producer Finnebrogue Will Develop Cultivated Wagyu With Ivy Farm

    wagyu burger
    3 Mins Read

    U.K.-based food industry giant Finnebrogue and food tech startup Ivy Farm Technologies have just embarked on a world-first mission to offer cultivated Wagyu beef burgers to the British market.

    The groundbreaking collaboration will leverage Finnebrogue’s award-winning Wagyu cattle and Ivy Farm’s cultivated meat expertise to meet the demand for Wagyu meat while also reducing the environmental toll of its production.

    Award-winning Wagyu

    The partnership comes after Finnebrogue’s Wagyu beef burger was hailed as the best burger in the U.K. by Which? magazine last year. The new venture aims to deliver cultivated Wagyu beef from cells taken from Finnebrogue’s own high-grade Wagyu cattle herd, housed at the Finnegbrogue estate in County Down, Northern Ireland. The cells will be cultivated at Ivy Farm’s 18,000 sq. ft. facility in Oxford, mirroring a craft beer brewery setup.

    wagyu cattle
    Wagyu cattle | Courtesy Finnebrogue

    “Appetite from consumers for sustainable and delicious meat has never been higher,” Rich Dillon, CEO at Ivy Farm said in a statement. “This new collaboration with Finnebrogue showcases how cultivated meat can work with traditional farming, helping to reduce the pressure on producers to intensify operations to meet growing demand, while boosting consumer choice. In Finnebrogue we have found a partner who has a long history and track record of producing premium products that do not compromise on taste and quality,” Dillon said.

    Ivy Farm has produced British pork and Aberdeen Angus beef. The companies say Ivy Farm and Finnebrogue could also expand to include cultivated meat from Finnebrogue’s world renowned venison. Currently only the U.S. and Singapore have approved cultivated meat for sale and consumption.

    Ivy Farm’s state-of-the-art cultivation process will provide a viable, sustainable means for Finnebrogue to meet the surging demand for its Wagyu beef, yielding large quantities of the meat while significantly diminishing its carbon footprint.

    Evolving protein

    “Finnebrogue is best known for its agenda-setting innovation,” Jago Pearson, Chief Strategy Officer at Finnebrogue said. “Whether it be our revolutionary nitrite-free bacon, famous Oisin venison, our award-winning Wagyu burgers or more recently the delicious plant-based alternatives we are producing from Europe’s leading vegan food facility, we have never been bound by the way food has always been produced, nor have we been tied to a single protein.”

    Courtesy Ivy Farm

    The cultivated Wagyu beef will join Ivy Farm’s current line of British pork and Aberdeen Angus beef. This endeavour could potentially pave the way for future innovations, including the cultivation of venison from Finnebrogue’s world-famous stock.

    “Our task is always to make food that is nutritious, delicious, and sustainable for food-loving consumers up and down the land,” Pearson said. “Ivy Farm will be cultivating Wagyu beef from cells derived from the herd we keep on our Finnebrogue Estate in County Down, Northern Ireland. In time, we are excited to help realise the potential this may bring in producing sustainable food that can feed a growing global population.”

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  • José Andrés Serves Good Meat’s Cultivated Chicken at China Chilcano: ‘People Are Going to Be Talking’

    Chef José Andrés cooks Good Meat's chicken
    3 Mins Read

    Both coasts have now had a taste of cultivated meat as chef José Andrés served Good Meat’s cultivated chicken last night after Upside Foods debuted its chicken in San Francisco last week.

    In a tribute to the “godfather of cultivated meat,” Willem van Eelen, a select group of diners in Washington, D.C. were among the first in the U.S. to enjoy the first-ever sale of Good Meat’s cultivated chicken following its USDA approval.

    Honoring cultivated meat’s history

    The historic meal took place at China Chilcano, a restaurant by celebrated chef José Andrés, who honored van Eelen’s centennial birth anniversary with his specially created dish, “Anticuchos de Pollo” at the event last night.

    Good Meat at China Chilcano
    Good Meat at China Chilcano | Courtesy Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro

    Van Eelen, a Dutch researcher and prisoner of war, dedicated his life to creating a sustainable alternative to traditional meat production. He envisaged a world where meat could be grown from cells, not animals. Among those sampling Andrés’ creation were van Eelen’s daughter, Ira, and his grandson, Kick, who continue to champion the cultivated meat cause.

    The charcoal-grilled cultivated chicken dish, featuring anticucho sauce, native potatoes, and ají Amarillo chimichurri, arrived just two weeks after Good Meat, a subsidiary of food technology company Eat Just, Inc., obtained U.S. regulatory approval to sell its chicken to American consumers. The public will have a chance to taste this revolutionary dish later this summer, with limited servings available weekly by reservation only.

    ‘People are going to be talking’

    “I am proud that Good Meat is launching with José Andrés, beginning a new tradition of how Americans will eat meat in the many decades ahead. I am also humbled that our company can honor Willem van Eelen’s lasting legacy at this centennial celebration,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Good Meat and Eat Just, said in a statement.

    “The big day is here, the chicken is here, and people are going to be talking,” Andrés said. “This is a first for the history of humanity.” Andrés said he chose the Peruvian concept for the debut as “Peru is a country of many civilizations at once.”

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    Chef Dominique Crenn served the first USDA-approved cultivated chicken in the U.S. | Courtesy Upside Foods

    Van Eelen’s family also praised the moment. “I am grateful that a promise my father made decades ago has come true,” said Ira van Eelen. “I’m so happy we can stop talking about it and go eat it, because tasting is believing. This is the meat we love and trust, just made in a better way.”

    The dinner follows just days after chef Dominique Crenn served Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken at her Bar Crenn in San Francisco. Both Good Meat and Upside Foods received USDA approval late last month.

    Reservations for the Anticuchos de Pollo begin July 25, with availability from the week of July 31.

    The post José Andrés Serves Good Meat’s Cultivated Chicken at China Chilcano: ‘People Are Going to Be Talking’ first appeared on Green Queen.

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  • Upside’s Cultivated Chicken Debuts at Bar Crenn: ‘The First Meat That I Feel Good About Serving’

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    3 Mins Read

    Making good on its promise following its USDA approval last month, California’s Upside Foods has debuted its cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn in San Francisco.

    Upside Foods, along with fellow California-based cultivated meat producer Good Meat, received the first USDA approval to sell cultivated meat last month. Diners got their first taste of Upside’s cultivated meat on Saturday in partnership with chef Dominique Crenn’s Michelin-starred Bar Crenn in San Francisco.

    First cultivated meat served in the U.S.

    To celebrate the USDA approval, Upside Foods held a contest last month, inviting the winners to attend the tasting. In addition to the historic meal, contest winners also got a tour of Upside’s Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC), which it says it can produce 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat annually. The dinner was hosted by Chef Dominique Crenn and Upside Founder and CEO Dr. Uma Valeti. The event showcased the potential of cultivated chicken to revolutionize the way we consume meat.

    upside food
    Upside Foods chicken delivered to Bar Crenn. | Courtesy

    Upside says its cultivated chicken will be regularly available at Bar Crenn through a series of ongoing Upside dinner services, scheduled to commence later this year. This partnership between Upside Foods and Chef Crenn represents a shared vision for a more sustainable and conscientious future of food.

    “The landmark sale of Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn officially marks cultivated meat’s debut into the U.S. market,” Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of Upside Foods, said in a statement. “It represents a giant leap towards a world where people no longer have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet. I can’t wait for more people to get their first bite – it’s a magical moment that inspires an exciting world of new possibilities.”

    ‘The first meat that I feel good about serving’

    For Chef Crenn, the event holds particular significance as it marks the reintroduction of meat to her menu since its removal from Crenn Dining Group’s restaurants in 2018. At that time, she took a stand against the detrimental effects of conventional meat production on the planet.

    “It’s truly an honor to serve Upside’s cultivated chicken at Bar Crenn and introduce cultivated meat to the U.S.,” Crenn said. “It’s the first time meat has made it back on my menu since 2018 because Upside Chicken is the first meat that I feel good about serving.”

    upside foods chicken at bar crenn
    Upside Foods’ first menu appearance at Bar Crenn | Courtesy

    During the historic meal, guests enjoyed Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken fried in a Recado Negro-infused tempura batter, accompanied by a burnt chili aioli. The dish was served in a handmade black ceramic vessel adorned with Mexican motifs and Crenn’s logo and was garnished with edible flowers and greens sourced from nearby Bleu Belle Farm.

    Crenn says the dish reflected the global benefit that Chef Crenn sees in cultivated meat. “From its exquisite flavor and texture to its aroma and the way it cooks, Upside Chicken is simply delicious, and it represents a significant step towards a more sustainable and compassionate food system,” she said.

    Cultivated meat will also be available on the East Coast as chef José Andrés is expected to serve Good Meat’s cultivated chicken in his Washington D.C. restaurant soon.

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  • Mewery Unveils World’s First Cultivated Pork-Microalgae Burger

    mewery pork burger
    2 Mins Read

    Czech food tech startup Mewery has debuted what it says is a one-of-a-kind burger made from a blend of cultivated pork and microalgae cells.

    According to Mewery, the innovation marks a new milestone in the cultivated meat sector meat as the company continues to develop more ethically sourced and environmentally friendly meat products at lower costs than other cultivated meat products.

    ‘Easily surpasses the taste of traditional plant-based burgers’

    “Currently, 48 pigs are killed every second around the world, amounting to 1.5 billion animals a year. They produce 14.5 percent of all emissions, which is even more than all the transport in the world. Our goal is to try to reduce these numbers dramatically,” Roman Lauš, founder of Mewery, said in a statement.

    Courtesy

    “Our burger tastes delicious and easily surpasses the taste of traditional plant-based burgers,” he added.

    The new burger was showcased during a cultural event in Czechia where a vast majority of attendees — more than 90 percent — indicated their willingness to taste the burger. But dye to E.U. regulations, public tastings of cultivated meat are not allowed. The E.U. has not approved any cultivated meat for sale.

    Mewery could help to change that, Lauš explained. “We are working with the Czech government on the so-called ‘non-employee’ tastings, which could be possible as early as next year,” he said.

    Regulatory approval focus

    The company is putting the bulk of its attention to more welcoming markets for approval, namely the U.S. and Singapore markets, which are currently the only two governments that have given cultivated meat the green light. The USDA gave final approval to Good Meat and Upside Foods last week. Mewery says it expects its approval within the next two years.

    good meat
    Good Meat Courtesy Eat Just

    Mewery launched in 2020 with support from the U.S. accelerator Big Idea Ventures. The company’s proprietary technology replaces the need for fetal bovine serum (FBS), commonly used in cell-culture growth, by using engineered microalgae growth factors to stimulate mammalian cell growth.

    The startup demonstrated the effectiveness of its cutting-edge method with a pork and microalgae prototype last February. Mewery claims this process slashes costs by up to 70 percent compared to traditional FBS methods, making lab-grown meat more competitive with animal meat.

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  • German Cultivated Fish Startup Bluu Seafood Raises $17.5 Million as It Pursues U.S. Approval

    Bluu fish sticks
    2 Mins Read

    German biotech firm Bluu Seafood has announced $17.5 million in a Series A funding round. It also announced that it has applied for scientific approval to distribute its cultivated seafood products in the U.S.

    The Hamburg-based startup’s Series A funding round totals $17.5 million. Funding was led by Sparkfood, a subsidiary of Sonae, and LBBW Venture Capital GmbH. Other contributors to the round include SeaX Ventures, Manta Ray, Norrsken VC, Delivery Hero Ventures, IFB Innovationsstarter GmbH, and Be8 Ventures.

    U.S. approval

    Bluu Seafood plans to use this capital to pursue regulatory approval in the U.S. for its debut products — fish fingers and fish balls. The company is currently in the process of prototyping salmon sashimi and salmon and rainbow trout fillets derived from non-GMO Atlantic salmon and Rainbow trout cells.

    A portion of the Series A funding will be directed towards enhancing R&D capabilities, as well as initiating production in a yet-to-be-constructed pilot plant in Hamburg.

    Bluu co-founders Dr. Christian Damman, Dr. Sebastian Rakers, and Simon Fabich | Courtesy

    Bluu’s U.S. approval request marks the first application of its kind from a European company that specializes in cultivated seafood to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The approval process is projected to take between nine and twelve months.

    That application announcement follows on the heels of the recent USDA final approval granted to Good Meat and Upside Foods, two California-based cultivated meat companies now cleared for sale in the U.S. Bluu Seafood also has an application in Singapore, anticipating approval for its lab-grown fish products there by 2024. Singapore became the first country to approve cultivated meat in 2020.

    Cultivating fish

    Originally named Bluu Bioscience, the company emerged in 2020 from the research of Dr. Sebastian Rakers, who examined disease outbreaks in aquaculture fish species in order to develop treatments. While aquaculture is considered a potential remedy to combat overfishing, it is a high-pollution, energy-intensive method of fish production.

    Courtesy Bluu

    The company says its cultivated fish all come from a “one-time” biopsy that does not kill the fish. The company then harnesses stem-cell technology to grow the fish cell lines in a lab setting.

    The company unveiled its first products last August — a combination of cultivated fish and plant proteins in fish sticks and fish balls.

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  • Cultivated Startup Omeat Emerges From Stealth Mode With $40 Million to Build Its ‘Bridge to the Future’

    Omeat
    3 Mins Read

    California-based cultivated meat start-up Omeat, has emerged from stealth mode after four years. The company says its innovative technology dramatically cuts costs and can be scaled to meet the global demand for various types of animal protein in a sustainable way.

    For the last four years, Omeat has been developing a unique approach to cultivated meat, which involves the use of regenerative factors extracted humanely from living cows to create growth media — the most expensive part of cultivated meat production. The process can cost-effectively grow different kinds of meat including beef, pork, chicken, and fish.

    ‘A simple and elegant solution’

    Founder and CEO of Omeat, Dr. Ali Khademhosseini, a leading tissue engineer, transitioned from developing human tissues for medical applications to creating scalable methods for cultivated meat production due to his awareness of the issues related to traditional animal agriculture.

    Omeat burger
    Omeat burger | Courtesy

    “The conventional approach to meat production comes with major adverse effects on the environment, public health, and animal welfare. We saw an opportunity to leverage our expertise to discover a scalable way to grow cultivated meat,” Khademhosseini said in a statement.

    “The approach we uncovered and are currently scaling is a simple and elegant solution that taps into the natural biology of animals to let nature do its work. The result is real meat that’s pure, delicious, and can satisfy a growing population’s demand for meat in a sustainable and humane way.”

    The start-up farms its growth media from a free-grazing cow herd in California. The farm is designed to be carbon-negative, incorporating various regenerative practices. Working alongside animal welfare scientist Dr. Kristina Horback of UC Davis, Omeat has developed animal-friendly procedures for collecting plasma, the nutrient fluid vital to Omeat’s proprietary growth media.

    ‘A bridge to the future’

    “With one cow providing plasma weekly, we can create many cows’ worth of meat annually,” Khademhosseini explained.

    “This means we can feed the planet with only a fraction of the current number of animals used in beef production. We see ourselves as a meat company, and our goal is to be a bridge to the future of the meat industry. We’re perfecting a sustainable operation that existing farms and ranches can implement, generating the same volume of product but with a fraction of the overhead. It’s way more efficient, and we don’t have to sacrifice the cow.”

    Omeat
    Omeat meatballs | Courtesy

    Omeat raised $40 million in an oversubscribed Series A round last year. Backers include S2G Ventures, Google Ventures (GV), Bold Capital Partners, Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods, Inc., Rethink Food, Trailhead Capital, and Cavallo Ventures.

    Omeat is currently building a pilot plant as well as expanding its team. The company says it is also working toward commercial readiness while in conversation with the FDA and the USDA for regulatory approval; the USDA gave its first approval to cultivated meat producers yesterday — California’s Good Meat and Upside Foods.

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  • Breaking: Upside Foods, Eat Just Earn First USDA Approval to Sell Cultivated Meat in the U.S.: ‘A Giant Step Forward’

    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods
    4 Mins Read

    Leading cultivated meat manufacturers, Eat Just and Upside Foods, have completed the pre-market regulatory review process for cultivated chicken, becoming the first U.S. companies to earn the clearance for sale.

    The USDA has granted Upside Foods and Eat Just’s Good Meat divisions a Grant of Inspection (GOI), allowing the companies to proceed with the commercial production and sales of cultivated chicken. This latest achievement follows the recent USDA label approvals for both Upside and Good Meat. To date, only Singapore has approved the sale and consumption of cultivated meat; it approved Eat Just’s Good Meat chicken in 2020.

    ‘A giant step forward’

    “I’m thrilled to share that cultivated meat will now be available for consumers in the U.S.,” Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of Upside Foods said in a statement. Upside Foods has raised more than $600 million in funding from investors, including Bill Gates, Cargill, Tyson Foods, and Richard Branson.

    “This approval will fundamentally change how meat makes it to our table. It’s a giant step forward towards a more sustainable future – one that preserves choice and life. We are excited to launch with our signature, whole-textured UPSIDE chicken and can’t wait for consumers to taste the future,” Valeti said.

    Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Good Meat and Eat Just called the approval a “major moment for our company, the industry and the food system.”

    Cultivated chicken | courtesy Upside Foods

    “We have been the only company selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world since we launched in Singapore in 2020, and now it’s approved to sell to consumers in the world’s largest economy. We appreciate the rigor and thoughtfulness that both the FDA and USDA have applied during this historic two-agency regulatory process,” Tetrick said.

    Dan Glickman, Good Meat Advisory Board member; former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, commended the USDA’s leadership for working with the FDA to make this milestone happen.

    “Today’s approval demonstrates that the United States is a global leader in the promising alternative protein space while also continuing to support family farmers’ efforts to feed the world through conventional food and agriculture techniques,” Glickman said.

    “We at Upside Foods have long championed the dual regulatory jurisdiction of FDA and USDA, starting with a historic partnership with the North American Meat Institute in 2018. Since then, our team has been working diligently with both agencies to bring our cultivated chicken to market,” said Eric Schulze, PhD, VP of Global and Scientific Affairs at Upside Foods.

    good meat chicken
    Good Meat has earned regulatory approval for its cultivated chicken and serum-free media | Courtesy

    “We are grateful for the FDA’s and USDA’s thoughtful and rigorous review processes, which have enabled us to start bringing safe, delicious, and high-quality cultivated meat products to market in the U.S.”

    Bruce Friedrich,  president of think take The Good Food Institute (GFI) says the dual approval mark a “pivotal moment in our journey towards building a safer, more efficient food system.”

    “American consumers are now closer than ever to eating the real meat they love, that uses far less land and water than conventionally produced meat,” Friedrich said. “By undergoing a comprehensive facility review process and meeting the highest regulatory standards, cultivated meat will provide consumers with a safe and trusted source of protein. As we navigate a future with increasing global demand for meat, it is crucial that governments worldwide prioritize cultivated meat as a solution that satisfies consumer preferences, supports climate goals, and ensures food security for generations to come.” 

    Mirte Gosker, Managing Director of GFI APAC says the news also strengthens Asia’s food security. “Today, our region gained a powerful new ally to help us meet this challenge,” Gosker said.

    “By embracing cultivated meat, the U.S. joins an elite circle of forward-thinking nations leading the way on food innovation. Singapore’s close-knit, world-class R&D hub, coupled with America’s large-scale manufacturing capabilities and huge consumer market, creates a powerhouse combination greater than the sum of its parts.”

    Where to try cultivated meat

    Upside is currently filling its first commercial order for cultivated chicken at its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) factory. The facility has the potential to produce 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat per year.

    Upside Foods’ EPIC California factory, Courtesy

    The final USDA label approval is being celebrated in partnership with Michelin-star chefs Dominique Crenn and José Andrés whose restaurant will be the first to offer U.S. consumers cultivated chicken.

    Crenn will be sharing Upside at Bar Crenn in San Francisco; Upside is also offering consumers a chance to win a taste of its cultivated chicken via a social media campaign.

    Andrés will share Eat Just’s Good Meat at a yet-to-be-disclosed restaurant in Washington, D.C. 
     

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  • 6 Key Insights from GFI APAC’s Cultivated Meat Industry Survey

    Upside Foods' cultivated chicken
    3 Mins Read

    A recent survey conducted by the think tank GFI APAC looks at the primary challenges the cultivated meat industry is facing when it comes to acquiring commercially viable cell lines.

    The survey’s insights were extracted from responses gathered from 44 businesses across the sector. The findings paint an unprecedented picture of the sector’s evolution, tendencies, and stumbling blocks. Among the key hurdles highlighted in the report is the significant overlap in cell line development efforts across companies, with the same species and cell types being independently pursued.

    The survey underscores an urgent market demand for off-the-shelf cell lines. However, these options are either currently unavailable or lacking in the offerings that companies are looking for.

    The survey also comes on the heels of two USDA label approvals; California’s Eat Just and Upside Foods both earned the approval earlier this month, putting cultivated meat closer to commercialization in the U.S.

    Good Meat's cultivated lab meat
    Good Meat’s cultivated lab meat | Courtesy

    Addressing these gaps and optimizing cell lines’ characteristics could help to pave the way for improved quality and cost-effectiveness in cultivated meat production at scale. Companies such as the U.K.-based Extracellular are already making strides in this direction. It recently launched a license-free cell bank to facilitate cultivated meat research.

    The findings show a concerted effort from all stakeholders will be essential to push through the barriers to the commercialization of cultivated meat. The critical points of consideration from the study include:

    1. Selection of Species: The highest demand among companies is for cell lines derived from both terrestrial and marine species. The most popular species are cows, pigs, sheep, and lambs, while for aquatic species, salmon, tuna, and other fin fish are the top choices. However, many businesses have struggled to source the appropriate cells for these species.
    2. Cell Types and Accessibility: The cell types most commonly used by businesses include myoblasts, fibroblasts, and mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). The survey suggests that this could be due to the difficulty in obtaining more suitable cell types such as embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), especially for terrestrial species. Cell line providers who can supply these hard-to-source cell types are likely to be highly sought after.
    3. Sourcing of Cells: The survey revealed a heavy dependency on slaughtered animals as cell sources. However, challenges such as limited access to live animals and low proximity to cell isolation facilities slow the procurement process. But the report says this situation opens up an opportunity for livestock and seafood producers to collaborate with these businesses and create new revenue streams for access to cell lines.
    4. Cell Line Features: Companies generally expressed reluctance in using genetically engineered cell lines, as restrictions on genetic modification exist in key markets. The need for cell lines with high proliferation, genetic stability, and the ability to grow in suspension has also been highlighted.
    5. Regulatory Challenges: A majority of the surveyed companies said they lacked confidence in their understanding of the necessary documentation and safety testing for gaining regulatory approval for cell lines in high-priority markets, such as the U.S. and Singapore. This finding underscores the need for greater clarity from regulatory bodies.
    6. Religious Certifications: Companies expressed a strong inclination towards developing cell lines that comply with halal and/or kosher certifications. The lack of resources that clarify the alignment of cultivated meat production with these certification requirements is seen as a significant entry barrier.

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  • CellX, China’s Most Funded Cellular Agriculture Startup Lands $6.5M in Series A+ Round

    3 Mins Read

    China’s cultivated meat front-runner, CellX, has successfully procured $6.5M in a Series A+ funding round.

    Shanghai-based CellX’s new funding comes by way of a collection of strategic investors. The funding propels CellX toward the pilot-scale production of its cultivated meat products. To date, the company’s funding totals over $20 million — making it China’s highest-funded cellular agriculture startup.

    CellX, which launched in 2020, is focused on constructing platform technologies with a multi-species approach. The company is actively collaborating with leading global universities and companies to expedite the commercialization of cultivated meat, particularly in the APAC region.

    ”Production at low cost and at scale is key’

    “Meat is a commodity that needs to be consistently produced at a competitive cost and large scale,” Ziliang Yang, Co-founder and CEO of CellX, said in a statement. “Each year, China alone consumes 100+ million tons of meat, more than a quarter of global meat consumption. For cultivated meat to have a meaningful impact on our global food supply chain, production at low cost and at scale is key.”

    CellX cultivated meat
    CellX cultivated meat | Courtesy

    Established in 2020, CellX has constructed R&D platforms across four crucial technological sectors of lab-grown meat: cell line development, media optimization, innovative bioprocess design, and end product creativity. Earlier this year, CellX revealed its intent to construct China’s premier pilot production facility for lab-grown meat, housing several thousand-liter bioreactors.

    “We have successfully developed 10+ cell lines from various species, adapted 5+ of them into suspension culturing, and the leading cell line has now entered pilot stage,” Dr. Chen, the R&D Director at CellX, says. “Besides, we have also developed multiple serum-free media and improved the yield significantly, enabling us to drastically reduce the production cost. We are currently working on scaling up to 2,000L.”

    Partnerships for a sustainable food system

    CellX’s forthcoming pilot production facility is a joint venture between CellX and Tofflon, a public biotech and food equipment company. Apart from accommodating multiple thousand-liter bioreactors, the facility will also act as an interactive zone for customers to sample CellX’s demonstration products. This initiative will inaugurate China’s first “transparent food space” dedicated to cultivated meat R&D, pilot production, and public tasting.

    China’s First Cultivated Meat Pilot Plant. Source: CellX

    “Unfortunately, no company in our space has fully cracked the puzzle of production at low cost and scale, yet,” Yang said. “This is where CellX and China can add value. Thanks to China’s booming biopharma industry and fermentation sector, there is already a good ecosystem in place, including media and equipment at competitive pricing, as well as a large pool of talented bioprocess engineers. All of which enables companies to produce cultivated meat at a significantly lower cost in China.”

    CellX says cultivated meat companies that have pilot production facilities operating at a thousand-liter scale are becoming more important to China’s future due to the critical role they play in carbon reduction and food security.

    At the start of 2022, cultivated meat and “future foods” were included in China’s 14th 5-Year plan by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. President Xi also emphasized China’s need to adopt “a ‘Greater Food’ approach” to nutrition during his address at the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, underlining the importance of ensuring a stable supply of all staple food groups.

    Yang sees a strong future for globalization in cellular agriculture. “At the end of the day, carbon and sustainability are global issues that humanity faces together. It’s one of the few areas where there is common understanding.”

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  • A Joint Venture Between APAC-SCA and JACA Will Boost Japan’s Cellular Agriculture Industry

    3 Mins Read

    The Asia-Pacific Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA) and the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture (JACA) have solidified a partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

    The new MoU aims to boost the growth of cellular agriculture across Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific area.

    “Establishing long-lasting ties with key stakeholders and other associations regionally and globally is a key asset in the strategic development of the industry for APAC-SCA,” Peter Yu, Program Director APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture, said in a statement.

    “Through this MoU we reverberate the message and necessity of a key tenet of the industry – global collaboration,” Yu said.

    Collaborating on cell agriculture

    Through the agreement, JACA will have enhanced access to the global cell-cultured industry network. Concurrently, the APAC-SCA will increase its role in guiding regulatory progress in Japan. Both bodies are set to collaborate on endeavors like knowledge dissemination and the formulation of a risk communication strategy for their members.

    Cell-cultured meat from IntergiCulture | Courtesy

    JACA, an industry-academia-government collaboration, has been working to create rules for production and distribution of cell-based food products, such as cultivated meat, egg, and dairy throughout the country.

    Last month, it convened close to 150 stakeholders from the Japanese Parliament, government officials from Japan and abroad, industry associations, member companies, academia, and media representatives to build a consensus around the necessary measures for food safety requirements in the cultivated food sector as well as methods to protect Japanese farmers’ rights on branded-animal cells such as “Wagyu.”

    During the event, Megumi Avigail Yoshitomi, Representative Director of JACA, stressed that “Japan should leverage its global presence in food and regenerative medicine area to show its presence in cellular agriculture field.”

    Japan as a cultivated protein hub

    The MoU follows the February announcement from Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, who said the country is moving toward developing a cell-based agriculture industry focused on cultivated meat and fish to help reduce the country’s carbon footprint.

    Prime minister of japan fumio kishida

    According to the industry think tank GFI APAC, it is currently possible to sell cultivated meat in Japan, depending on the interpretation of existing laws.

    GFI APAC says that regulatory opening puts Japan in a position to become a world leader for cultivated meat and attract attention from international cultivated meat startups. The framework being developed through the recent MoU and the government’s plan will help move the sector forward.

    The cellular agriculture industry is moving closer to seeing more deregulation. Currently, only Singapore’s Food Agency has approved cultivated meat for sale. But last week, two California cultivated meat producers, Eat Just and Upside Foods, announced they had received label approval from the USDA — the final step before the agency grants full approval to begin production and distribution across the U.S.

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  • Breaking: Upside Foods Earns USDA Label Approval for Cultivated Meat: ‘A Major Step Forward’

    upside
    3 Mins Read

    California’s Upside Foods earns USDA label approval for its cultivated meat, bringing it one step closer to American plates.

    The label approval for Upside Foods’ cell-cultivated chicken came on Monday, the company said in a statement. The USDA approval follows its historic FDA approval last November, the first step toward regulatory approval.

    According to an update from Reuters, which first published the news as Upside securing the first USDA label approval for cultivated meat, it’s actually the second label approval. Although unconfirmed, the first likely went to fellow California producer Eat Just’s Good Meat.

    ‘A major step forward’

    “The USDA’s approval of our label marks a major step forward towards our goal of creating a more humane and sustainable food system,” Dr. Uma Valeti, CEO and Founder of Upside Foods said in a statement. “We’re excited to continue working with the USDA to achieve our next milestone: a Grant of Inspection (GOI) for our facility. Obtaining the USDA’s GOI will clear the way for commercial production and sales and allow us to bring our delicious Upside chicken to consumers for the first time.”

    Upside Foods’ EPIC California factory, Courtesy

    Like conventionally produced meat, cell-based meat is also required to satisfy regulatory labeling and inspection criteria in order to be sold. The USDA label approval means the company has demonstrated full pre-market requirements. The Grant of Inspection for Upside’s Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) facility in California, will be the final hurdle before it can begin production. Upside says the EPIC factory can produce 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat per year.

    Cultivated meat coming to a menu near you?

    “At this rate, consumers in the U.S. may see cultivated meat on menus by the end of 2023,” Jenny Stojkovic, founder of the Vegan Women Summit and author of The Future of Food Is Female, wrote in a LinkedIn post.

    Upside says the Dominique Crenn-helmed San Francisco bar Crenn will be the first menu stop for the cultivated meat.

    Cultivated chicken | courtesy Upside Foods

    “The release of cultivated meat will be in very, very limited restaurants across the U.S. to start,” Stojkovic says. “We are still years out from retail distribution, but things will move quicker as capacity and scale is achieved.”

    The Eat Just offshoot Good Meat also received FDA approval earlier this year. It’s currently the only company selling cultivated meat in the world; Singapore granted the company’s cell-based chicken approval in 2020.

    Both Upside and Eat Just are rumored to still be using fetal bovine serum (FBS) — a controversial growth media. “The FDA has a long history of FBS products,” Stojkovic says. She says those with the ingredient are approved faster than those made without FBS.

    According to Stojkovic, “many” other cultivated meat producers both in the U.S. and elsewhere have since applied for FDA approval and, she says, “more approval letters are expected in coming months.”

    Editor’s note, June 14, 2023: This article was edited to clarify that Upside is the second company to earn USDA label approval.

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  • Can JBS Distance Itself From the ‘Deforestation Beef’ Label With Cultivated Meat and Methane Biogas?

    cow
    4 Mins Read

    Brazilian meat processing giant JBS has announced that its first large-scale cultivated meat production plant is in development by its subsidiary, BioTech Foods, located in Spain as it adds methane biodigesters in nine Brazilian cities.

    JBS, which took a 51 percent controlling stake in BioTech Foods in 2021, says the San Sebastian facility will produce about 1,000 metric tons of cultivated meat annually, but it will have the potential to quadruple its capacity to 4,000 metric tons on a yearly basis.

    The new cultivated meat facility is set to culminate by the middle of 2024. Once completed, JBS says it will boast the title of the world’s biggest cultivated meat plant.

    Cultivated protein production

    “The new BioTech plant puts JBS in a unique position to lead the segment and ride this wave of innovation,” Eduardo Noronha, JBS USA’s head of value-added business, said in a statement.

    “With the challenges imposed on global supply chains, cultivated protein offers the potential to stabilize food security and global protein production,” said BioTech Foods co-founder and CEO Iñigo Charola.

    Cultivated meat | Courtesy BioTech Foods

    The move could signal a sea change for the protein industry. While cultivated meat has yet to receive widespread regulatory approval, a number of companies are poised for market entry when given the green light. Singapore, which first approved California-based Good Meat’s cultivated chicken in 2020, is expected to extend its approval to more companies in the near future. The U.S. has also seen two FDA protocols cleared by Upside Foods and Good Meat. They must now pass USDA inspections before approved for the market.

    That could be imminent as well as Good Meat recently hosted USDA inspectors at its U.S. headquarters. According to Eat Just, Good Meat’s parent company, the USDA Deputy Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, Sanah Baig, tasted the company’s cultivated meat.

    “We appreciate the integral work that the U.S. government and advocacy groups like The Good Food Institute are doing to ensure that we have a safe, secure, and more sustainable food system for the future,” Eat Just said in a LinkedIn post.

    Can JBS clean up its protein production?

    The cultivated meat facility news also comes as JBS has announced the installation of methane gas biodigesters in Brazil — the largest project of its kind in Brazil’s protein sector. The biodigesters produce biogas, a clean energy source made from captured methane; livestock is a leading producer of methane emissions — a heat-trapping gas more potent than C02. The project is expected to be operational this month at nine Friboi plants in São Paulo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso, Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Rondônia.

    According to JBS, the biodigesters will help the meat giant reduce its Scope 1 emissions by 65 percent, reducing its total Scope 1 emissions by nearly 25 percent across all of Brazil.

    “In line with our circular economy actions, the biodigesters will reduce our methane emissions and initiate the production of clean and renewable energy,” JBS corporate sustainability officer Maurício Bauer, said in a statement.

    “This project strengthens our view that agribusiness is part of the solution for addressing the challenges of climate change that the world is facing.”

    Photo by Mark Stebnicki at Pexels

    JBS has long come under scrutiny for its ties to deforestation. Brazil is now the leading exporter of beef, much of which comes at the cost of large swaths of the Amazon rainforest. A report late last year found 17 percent of JBS’ cattle came from “irregular” ranches linked to deforestation.

    JBS is one of more than a dozen major agriculture firms that have made pledges to remove suppliers linked to deforestation from their supply chains by 2025, but critics say there are loopholes in its commitment.

    In March, the nonprofit World Animal Protection named JBS the worst offender in a new scorecard ranking the meat industry’s climate impact.

    Lindsay Oliver, Executive Director, World Animal Protection U.S. said JBS is the “worst contributor” of factory farming emissions in the world. “This scorecard further exemplifies the corruption on which JBS is built and the exploitation of both animals and humans on which it profits,” Oliver said.

    According to World Animal Protection, the emissions from JBS-helmed factory farms produce the emissions equivalent of 14 million gas-powered vehicles per year.

    The post Can JBS Distance Itself From the ‘Deforestation Beef’ Label With Cultivated Meat and Methane Biogas? first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Can JBS Distance Itself From the ‘Deforestation Beef’ Label With Cultivated Meat and Methane Biogas? appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • ChatGPT Founder-Backed Uncommon Raises $30M In A Series A For RNA-Driven Cultivated Pork

    uncommon bacon
    3 Mins Read

    Uncommon, the Cambridge-based biotech start-up that’s turning cellular innovation into appetizing, environmentally friendly meat products, has secured $30 million in Series A funding.

    Uncommon’s Series A was led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital, with participation from Red Alpine, East Alpha, and previous investors including Max and Sam Altman, of OpenAI and ChatGPT fame, along with Miray Zaki and Sebastiano Castiglioni. The new influx of capital will drive Uncommon’s efforts to refine its offerings, scale up production, and navigate the regulatory approval process.

    RNA-based cultivated meat

    Formerly known as Higher Steaks, Uncommon is poised to transform the global pork market with its groundbreaking approach. In a world where consumers demand affordable, high-quality, and readily available food, Uncommon answers with an innovative solution. The company uses patent-pending RNA technologies to produce bacon and pork belly from a single animal cell sample, promising a more sustainable and ethical future for meat production.

    Who’s Right About the Future of Cultivated Meat? Does It Matter?
    Courtesy Uncommon

    At the heart of Uncommon’s revolutionary strategy is RNA, the molecule that instructs cells to produce protein. With this, the company can create delicious meat products that can compete with traditional meat in terms of price, scale faster, and offer safer, healthier alternatives without the need for gene editing.

    “Our unique approach to cellular agriculture drastically reduces the raw materials needed for alternative protein production and eliminates the need for antibiotics and animal products,” Benjamina Bollag, founder and CEO of Uncommon, said in a statement. “As the only cultivated meat leveraging RNA technologies, we believe we have a competitive advantage that could help us become the largest protein company in the world. I’m delighted with the progress we’ve made so far as a company and look forward to working closely with our new and existing investors to continue to build on this progress and make a difference to global health.”

    Disrupting the global pork market

    Not only is Uncommon committed to developing delectable and health-conscious products, but its mission also involves addressing the environmental impact of the meat industry. Uncommon’s cultivated meat requires only a fraction of the resources used in traditional livestock farming. As such, it can contribute significantly to the reduction of carbon emissions globally.

    Courtesy Uncommon

    Moreover, Uncommon’s goal extends beyond sustainability. By 2035, the company aims to hold a five percent share of the global pork market through its cultivated meat products. Uncommon’s strategy involves capitalizing on the growing cultivated meat industry, estimated to be worth $427 billion by 2040. With the fresh capital injection, they plan to ramp up production at their pilot manufacturing facility at Cambridge Technopark, expand their team, and bring the cost of goods down.

    Michael Sidler, Partner at Redalpine, put it bluntly: “Uncommon’s completely novel approach holds immense potential to revolutionize the cultivated meat industry and overcome the notorious scalability and pricing obstacles that companies in this field face.”

    The post ChatGPT Founder-Backed Uncommon Raises $30M In A Series A For RNA-Driven Cultivated Pork first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post ChatGPT Founder-Backed Uncommon Raises $30M In A Series A For RNA-Driven Cultivated Pork appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson Joins Aleph Farms as Investor and Culinary Advisor

    Chef Marcus Samuelsson joins Aleph Farms
    3 Mins Read

    Renowned chef Marcus Samuelsson has made an investment in Aleph Farms, Israel’s leading cellular agriculture company, and will serve as an advisor and launch partner in the United States.

    The collaboration between Samuelsson and Aleph Farms represents a significant step forward in the pursuit of sustainable and ethical food solutions. As the company continues to innovate and expand its product line, these high-profile relationships will play critical roles in accelerating the widespread adoption of sustainable protein.

    Chef-approved

    Samuelsson, known for his culinary expertise and commitment to diversity in the culinary world, will work closely with Aleph Farms as they approach the commercialization of Aleph Cuts, the world’s first cultivated steaks.

    Aleph Cuts Petit Steak
    Aleph Cuts Petit Steak, Courtesy Aleph Farms

    Didier Toubia, CEO and Co-Founder of Aleph Farms, expressed excitement about the partnership with Samuelsson. “Aleph Farms builds partnerships based on shared values. Like us, Chef Marcus believes in making a positive impact on our food systems with creativity, courage, and care.” Toubia said. He emphasized that Samuelsson’s experience and focus on creating accessible and inclusive cuisine make him an ideal collaborator in developing and promoting Aleph Cuts to a broader global audience.

    In his role with Aleph Farms, Samuelsson will provide culinary advice and contribute to product development and go-to-market strategies. He has also made a personal investment in the company. Once regulatory approvals are obtained from the FDA and USDA, Samuelsson plans to serve Aleph Cuts in his restaurants in the United States.

    ‘Bringing delicious, cultivated meat to the table’

    “It’s essential that we look for new ways to feed our planet sustainably, which is why I was attracted to the mission of Aleph Farms and being part, both as a chef and as an investor, in bringing delicious, cultivated meat to the table,” Samuelsson said. He believes that the cultivation of meat is a pioneering movement that will become increasingly important and commonplace in our lives.

    Aleph Cuts
    Aleph Cuts | Courtesy

    With a decorated career, including multiple James Beard Foundation awards and appearances on popular TV shows, Samuelsson brings his expertise and influence to the partnership with Aleph Farms. He is also a dedicated philanthropist, involved in initiatives that support underserved youth and community kitchens during the covid pandemic.

    Aleph Farms is actively working with regulatory agencies worldwide to prepare for the commercial launch of its first product, the Petit Steak. The company uses non-modified cells of a premium Black Angus cow to grow its meat products, ensuring no slaughter is involved. Aleph Farms aims to contribute to sustainable and secure food systems while prioritizing animal welfare. Its ‘Whole Animal’ approach includes plans to produce various cuts of steak and other products based on animal cells, such as cultivated collagen.

    The post Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson Joins Aleph Farms as Investor and Culinary Advisor first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Celebrity Chef Marcus Samuelsson Joins Aleph Farms as Investor and Culinary Advisor appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’

    13 Mins Read

    Sandhya Sriram is co-founder and CEO at Shiok Meats, a Singapore-headquartered cultivated meat and seafood company founded in 2018 that has raised over $30 million in funding. Below, she talks to Green Queen‘s Sonalie Figueiras about where cell-based seafood is going, her views on the future of cultivated meat, how investors should be thinking about the space, and going public with the personal.

    Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded live on Tuesday, May 30th 2023 during the City University of Hong Kong’s Webinar Series The Future of Food: Seeking Sustainable Solutions. Watch the full video interview, including a Q&A with questions from students across Asia HERE.

    This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

    I’m thrilled to be here with you,  one of the pioneers of cultivated meat and seafood. I really appreciate you doing this. You’re always so generous with your time and your expertise and your leadership. I want to start by asking you, one of the early people in the space, and definitely in Asia, one of the first faces that anyone saw, how are we doing in terms of cultivated meat and cultivated seafood in Asia and also globally? Are we where you thought that we would be when you started? 

    Sandhya Sriram: Sure, that’s a lot of complicated questions. [Laughs]. I think with any startup, any disruptive industry, any novel industry, you expect more downs than ups. And honestly, when I started in 2018, in this industry, I did not expect things to go as well as it went for specifically Shioak Meats and the way Singapore brought up the 30 by 2030 food story, and the amount of funding that went into this industry, and I’m not going to say it was easy capital raising, but definitely it was positive capital raising, with really good investors coming in, and you know, believing in this. 

    So, I did not expect it to go that positively or that well, as as, as we started the company, I was expecting more down days.

    In fact, even with the pandemic, fundraising wasn’t that bad, even with investors, you know, looking at you only on Zoom and not being able to taste your product or visit your facility. But this was the time when capital was easily available, there was plenty of capital and everybody was into food tech, right? 

    GQ: What’s your outlook in terms of the timeline for the industry over the next few years?

    Sandhya Sriram: I used to say this from day one: the world has a cycle of five years for a new technology or industry- it’s extremely sexy for five years. And then after that, it doesn’t go away, it’s still there, but something else is sexy. And when we started in 2018, around 2019, food tech became extremely sexy in Asia, be it the launch of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, then Omni Foods, and then a lot of cultivated meat companies coming up, Singapore announcing the 30 by 2030 campaign, and approving the first cultivated product, so everything was extremely “up” for this industry. And we are sort of in the tail end of that five years, as you can see. And that has come with market changes, funding issues, companies not being able to scale…Regulatory-wise, it’s going the right way, but still, not many companies have gotten approval. So I would just say I’m not surprised. I’m not surprised about where we are. I’m not surprised by the challenges we have faced. I’m not surprised that we have seen the bad days. 

    What I am very mindful of is over-promising by the industry- over-promising with the research that we’re doing or over-promising by the companies themselves. I think the market is correcting itself right now and in the industry, we are all keeping it truthful right now. 

    But that also comes with a caveat- when you’re fundraising, you can’t tell an investor that you will make money for them 20 years down the line. You have to have some sort of a projection in place for them to see their return on investment. It’s quite complex, how do you talk about timelines when you launch and as you progress. 

    I’m not surprised as to where we are. The future of alt protein is 100% there, I don’t think it’s ever going away. The next few years are all about who can make it and consolidation. Unfortunately, some companies are dying and some of that technology is dying. But all of that is part of any industry- it is what it is. You can’t expect all 100 [cultivated meat] companies to do well. It’s survival of the fittest. 

    GQ: It’s very interesting to hear you say that you didn’t think it would go as well as it did. I think it’s also fair to say that there was probably a little bit of hype, there was also probably a lot of capital and interest in a field that let’s face it, most of us didn’t really understand five years ago and didn’t really know much about. In terms of concrete predictions, and I know predictions are a fool’s business to some extent, but just to understand from someone like you who’s in the space- do you anticipate there being more companies being founded in the cultivated industry? And do think more of those companies will be in Asia? 

    Sandhya Sriram: I don’t foresee many companies starting up now, especially with the markets as they are. And I think the whole industry is going through a bit of skepticism with challenges around scaling and the issues that we’re facing in funding. So I don’t foresee too many companies starting new. But I do foresee ancillary companies starting, for example, media bioreactors infrastructure, a lot more contract manufacturing organizations being set up for scale-up, and offering infrastructure for production. And I also foresee a lot more food like traditional or established food companies coming into this space via consolidation. So that’s what I am sort of forcing for the next decade or so.

    GQ: That’s really interesting. Just building on that, one thing that I’ve noticed about cultivated seafood, is that it’s one of the few sub-sectors of alt protein where we’ve seen Big Food companies in Asia, Big Seafood, specifically, get involved. So you Vinh Hoan in Vietnam and Thai Union getting involved in cultivated, whereas you don’t see as many Big Meat companies in Asia getting involved in cultivated meat. Why is that?

    Sandhya Sriram: Actually, it’s a good question. Yes, traditional or Big Meat producers haven’t really gotten into the Asian side, but the Western meat companies have, like Tyson and Cargill, right? That’s also because if you look worldwide, seafood production is mainly in Asia, whereas meat production is not. If you look at the numbers, seafood is the most consumed protein in this part of the world and is mostly produced in Asia. So you have the big leagues like Thai Union and CP Food all getting involved here. 

    It’s interesting because these companies, when they approached us or when we approached them, they said they understand that technology is the only way that they can keep their business long term, [it’s the only way] the way they can live up to the demand and the supply chain issues, that they can make sure that their businesses are still alive in 100 years to come. These companies know that disruption and technology is what’s going to happen. 

    One of the companies that we were working with, and they are invested as well, they initially used to do proper traditional fishing and everything was done by hand, manually. They realized 10-20 years down the line, okay, this is not going to work because we are producing a lot more, we have larger fish farms, everything has to be automated now. So they set up automated lines for everything from de-heading the fish to scaling them to processing them to the packaging. And I’ve gone to their production facilities and they are extremely impressive- fully automated, much less manpower, very clean, and very well done. But they also know that may not be enough to supply the growing global population [and service] the growing demand in the future. 

    Given that there are only so many fish farms you can set up, there are only so many animals in the ocean, they realized, okay, plant-based is one way to go, cultivated is another way to go. So why not explore these technologies? But they are not able to innovate internally, so they started investing in companies like ours. 

    Eventually the idea is for them to use us as a production hub. They will do the distribution and the sales, which is exactly what we are looking for. We are technology people, we are not looking to sell our products large scale, at least I can speak for Shiok means our idea is to license out the technology so that food companies like Thai Union, CP and any other seafood company can use it in the future to actually produce seafood the way we do.

    GQ: They get to do what they’re good at, which is logistics, sales, marketing, and you get to do what you’re good at. They are essentially, and you see this in a lot of industries, outsourcing the R&D, to some extent. 

    You wrote a LinkedIn post a couple of weeks ago that was very moving and very transparent about the challenges that you have faced as a South Asian woman founder in Asia in a deep-tech space, and more specifically, in the cultivated meat and seafood space. I wanted to ask you about writing the post and some of the challenges that you’ve faced on your journey. What’s been the hardest part? What were you thinking about when you wrote that post?

    Sandhya Sriram: So I have a rule. I don’t post anything when I’m emotional, when I’m angry when I’m bitter. All those emotions pass through and it’s very easy to get on social media to just express everything at that given point. But you’re not thinking straight when you’re extremely emotional. So I have a rule that I will always think, I will rest, I will take a few weeks, and then I will post something. And anything that I post is well thought-out, it’s not done in a hurry. 

    I write it, I read it, I go through it, I go back and edit it. I don’t want to hurt anybody. That’s my ultimate aim at the end of the day. But I also want to be sure that I can tell what is my opinion, and I don’t think everybody needs to have the same opinion or agree with me. I think most of them will disagree with a lot of things that I say. But it’s my point of view. And I want to make sure that I’m able to voice it. Because I also realize there are 500 people that are not voicing it. And they’re struggling with the fact that they have to keep it within themselves. So I’m thinking about the 500 people that are probably going through the same thing that I’m going through. Over time, I’ve realized that people actually appreciate my candidness and openness. It’s not very easy as an Asian to do that. Actually in Asia, it’s not very well appreciated. 

    GQ: Yes…as Asians and Asian women in particular, we are taught not to share our feelings in a public forum. 

    Sandhya Sriram: I’ve been told by a lot of people in Asia: don’t share your troubles, share only the good things. And I think, well, that doesn’t inspire anybody. On Instagram or social media, we show only the good part of our lives. And we don’t show the bad part. I think, let’s share everything, right? Especially as an entrepreneur, when people are inspired by you, they should know what you’re going through all the things, the bad, the good, the ugly, the best, the better, and everything. And as I said, I don’t post when I’m bitter, angry or emotional. So that post took me three hours to write. And it took me a lot of editing, it took me a lot of back and forth, thinking should I do it? Should I not do it? What will that person think? What will this person think? What will my investors think? What will the media think? And then I said, you know what? I need to listen to myself for once. Let’s just do it because I have things to say. And it is honest things that I’ve been going through. And I personally put it there, it’s my opinion, it’s my experience, it’s personal. And it doesn’t have to essentially agree with all of you. But certain parts of it can agree with you, certain parts can not agree with you, it’s fine. That is what it is.

    I would be happy to read somebody else’s thoughts as well about running a company. It’s not easy, running a company of 60 people, then letting go of 30 people. It’s not easy raising $30 million. It’s not easy being a pioneer.

    You know, pioneer is used as a positive word, and actually, for me, it’s got a negative connotation. It’s like, oh, my God, you’re the first! And that means you have to break a lot more barriers and a lot more glass ceilings and face a lot more issues. 

    Essentially, I’m a very resilient and very strong person, I can tolerate a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m not human. So that post was about being human and being vulnerable. And also telling the world that I may look extremely strong, but I’m human and I have emotions also. And these are my thoughts, from my point of view. It is what it is, if you don’t like it, don’t read it. 

    GQ: In the post, one thing that really came out was that for the past few years, Shiok has been working on scaling cell lines for the three crustaceans you are addressing, so lobster, shrimp and crab. And in the post, you talk about how it has been very, very challenging to scale those lines. Can you share more about this?

    Sandhya Sriram: So I think around last year, we realized, okay, seafood is gonna take longer than [what we thought]. And by then we had already acquired the red meat company Gaia Foods. And honestly, when we acquired them, it was strategic, it was opportunistic, but it was also Plan B for us from day one. We knew that seafood is going to take time. 

    To give a background to everybody listening here, seafood in general doesn’t have any background research. If you go to PubMed, or you go to Google, you can’t really find any research on stem cells for seafood, because stem cell research was done on animals that are closer to humans, like mammals, so that you understand human biology for human diseases and cancer treatment and all of that. So nobody really looked at stem cells from shrimps. 

    So when we started Shiok, it was a blank whiteboard. As a scientist, that’s super exciting, because that means you can make new discoveries, new IP, new patents, all of that. But that’s also not the best start for a startup or a company, which needs to make money in three years, five years, ten years- whatever it is. 

    So I think we went into it, we went into it knowing that it’s going to take time, but we thought it would be about four or five years until we figured it out. But last year, our fourth year, we said, okay, let’s take a pause here. We have tried as much as we can with the scale, and it’s not working, we are facing some issues that we could not have predicted that we would face because unless you scale up to a certain extent, you will not know. Only when you reach that destination, you realize, okay, there’s something wrong there. And then you have to figure out a different path to go for. So we said okay, we went two steps forward, but we also went six steps backwards. So let’s put a pause there. Let’s figure out that first step or second step again. 

    But in the meantime, we are a startup, and we have raised cash. We are answerable to our investors, let’s try to see what else can be accelerated. We thought of many other things that we could do with our technology. But then we said, well, we have red meat. Red meat is a more established and studied technology. There are many companies that are doing red meat and are closer to commercialization. So why not push that, even though it’s not the most competitive, or the most unique technology? Let’s do that first. 

    In the meantime, let’s figure out seafood. Nobody’s stopping seafood, we’re not stopping working on seafood, we just need more time. And so that was a conscious decision that we made in the company, to see what can be our first product. The survival of the company is very important. 

    For me, it came to a point where as a CEO and a founder, I asked myself: should I run a company for X amount of time with 60 people? Or Should I run it for 10x the amount of time with only 10 people? I’m going to choose the latter, right?  I want the company to survive, the business to survive, the technology to survive. 

    So it’s been hard, it’s been extremely hard, as you know from my LinkedIn post, but I think at the end of the day, my fiduciary duty is to the company and the business. So I will make the decision that I make for the company, not for me, not for individuals, it’s for the whole company.

    Listen to the rest of the interview here.

    The post Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’ first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Shiok Meat’s Sandhya Sriram Gets Personal: ‘As A Pioneer, You Have To Break A Lot More Barriers And A Lot More Glass Ceilings’ appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Upstream Foods Says Cultivated Fat Will Help Plant-Based Seafood Market Surge

    salmon
    3 Mins Read

    When it comes to seafood alternatives, the choices are limited. Dutch start-up Upstream Foods aims to change that by cultivating fat from salmon cells for the plant-based seafood market.

    The alternative seafood sector has seen significant growth in the U.S., with both dollar and unit sales experiencing a 53 percent increase last year, according to the Good Food Institute (GFI). This upward trend is expected to continue. But to truly appeal to mainstream consumers, alternative seafood needs to elevate its quality.

    As consumer demand for sustainable alternatives continues to grow, companies like Upstream Foods are striving to meet the challenge and provide high-quality options. Upstream Foods’ innovative approach to cultivating salmon cell fat for use in plant-based seafood aims to revolutionize the industry.

    ‘Next level fat’

    Kianti Figler, founder and CEO of Upstream Foods, emphasized the need for improved product quality during her speech at F&A Next, an event hosted by Rabobank, Wageningen University & Research, Anterra Capital, and StartLife. She acknowledged that the current offerings do not yet match the taste and quality expected by consumers, Food Navigator reports.

    Plantish vegan salmon | Courtesy

    “When we’re talking about taste, we’re talking about fat,” she said at the event. “To take plant-based seafood to the next level, we need next level fat.”

    According to recent TURF analyses, the main reasons consumers would choose plant-based seafood are flavor (78 percent), the potential to reduce overfishing (7 percent), omega-3 content (3 percent), lack of bones (1 percent), and contribution to reducing plastic waste (1 percent). GFI suggests that once consumers have a positive impression of alternative seafood flavors, messaging focused on these additional benefits can make the products more appealing.

    Figler agrees with this approach and believes that taste and fat are closely linked. Upstream Foods’ solution involves cultivating fish fat from salmon cells through cellular agriculture. The company develops a proprietary cell line from salmon cells, cultivates them in a bioreactor, and then combines the fat with a plant-based matrix.

    Scaling up

    Upstream Foods is currently optimizing its salmon cell line and establishing its process at a lab-scale. The company foresees the main challenge in scaling up will be reducing production costs.

    Figler acknowledges that cost efficiency is a significant hurdle faced by the entire industry, as the infrastructure has primarily been designed for the pharmaceutical sector, lacking incentives for ingredient cost reduction.

    fish
    Courtesy Martin Widenka via Unsplash

    “Making this entire process cost efficient is, I think, the biggest challenge we’re all facing,” Figler said.

    While Figler expressed a desire to enter the European market first, she noted that the time-consuming process of submitting a Novel Foods application to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) might not be feasible for a start-up. Instead, Upstream Foods plans to focus on the U.S. market, aiming to scale its process and file for regulatory approval within four years.

    The road to market entry involves developing a proof of concept with global plant-based seafood players, followed by raising €3 million in seed funding. Upstream Foods plans to scale its process to 30L and then 100L, with further increases in scale before seeking regulatory approval in the U.S.

    While Europe may not be the initial market for Upstream Foods due to the challenges associated with EFSA approval, the company remains optimistic about the future of plant-based seafood and the potential to offer quality products that satisfy consumers’ taste preferences while delivering health benefits and affordability.

    The post Upstream Foods Says Cultivated Fat Will Help Plant-Based Seafood Market Surge first appeared on Green Queen.

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    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • These 8 UK Agri-Tech Startups Want To Future Proof South East Asia’s Food System

    4 Mins Read

    From improvements to yield, cost savings, and increasing climate resilience, there is much to change about the way we make food, especially given how much impact climate change will have on global supply chains, particularly in Southeast Asia.

    I found it fascinating to watch eight innovative agri-tech start-ups from the United Kingdom give their grand pitch in Singapore, a country that has little agricultural activity, at the Gateway to Asia Technology Showcase as part of Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme, and each of them left me feeling inspired and hopeful about the future of food. Here’s everything you need to know about each company and its mission.

    OlaTek

    Did you know that approximately 30% of all fish does not end up on our plates, but rather in our ocean, as waste? Further, this waste results in the contamination of marine ecosystems. Given how much we fish (and how much fish we consume), that’s a significant waste stream that can be upcycled. This is why start-ups like OlaTek are turning fish waste into something valuable- the team is currently working on a proof-of-concept whereby no fish waste gets sent back into the ocean. Even though they’re only just starting with lubricants for the F&B industry, they are expanding to other use cases. 

    Koolmill

    If you’ve heard about Software-as-a-Service, meet Machinery-as-a-Service. Koolmill aims to develop rice harvesting technologies that reduce grain loss and improve efficiency during production by creating a gentler way to process rice. The company’s mission is to help us use what we have more effectively and their motto, which left me giggling, is “be nice to rice”.

    Straw Innovations

    Southeast Asians love their rice, and like Koolmil, this company also wants to transform the industry. When rice gets harvested, its stems and leaves (also known as the straw) get left behind because it’s tricky to collect them, and they end up rotting or burning. This process releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas (and a key reason for rice’s hefty environmental footprint). Straw Innovations is developing a rice AND straw harvester, allowing you to leave less of a stubble (!), a cleaner way to shave the world (excuse the pun).

    Fotenix

    This company says it wants to create the metaverse of agriculture. With a slew of cool videos showing how they use small cameras to take pictures of plants growing in high-tech farming environments, this company uses these pictures to develop digital twins that can give you an amazing array of insights. Imagine being able to see when a plant gets diseased, the presence of pests and so much more without actually going to see the plant. Turning these images into assets, this company brings the real world into the digital one to help you better grow food.

    Intelligent Growth Solutions

    A vertical farm technology company founded by an actual farmer (fairly rare, believe it or not!), this startup has its own patented solutions of vertically-stacked growing systems to create ideal conditions to grow your plants. In a country with highly competitive uses for land, innovations in this space would allow us to maximise food production using far less space than conventional land-based agriculture.

    uFraction8

    As the cultivated meat market gains traction, key challenges around scaling remain, mostly tied to production capacity. The industry needs more efficient, resilient solutions in order to both lower costs of production and achieve economies of scale. This start-up is innovating new ways to build what it describes as the most efficient and scalable filtration solutions that have ever existed to solve the problems with harvesting and processing microbial cell cultures. The company’s enabling technology could remove major barriers as their product could be an important enabling technology that could make meat from cellular agriculture more accessible.

    Bright Biotech

    Bright Biotech is part of the relatively new sector of molecular farming, a type of food production technology that makes use of plants as production houses. The company uses chloroplasts to obtain large amounts of high-value proteins from plants using light, which results in scalable and low-cost proteins that can help cultivated meat players overcome their protein supply challenges.

    Higher Steaks

    Last but not least, is Higher Steaks, the startup with the punniest name by far. The company specialises in cultivated fatty meat and unveiled the world’s first cultivated pork belly and bacon without the use of genetic engineering last year. In fact, the company shared that they are working on “dong po rou” (braised pork belly) specifically for the Asian market. It’ll be interesting to see how they replicate the texture and melty characteristics of such a dish. High stakes indeed.

    Mounting challenges means a host of opportunities for innovative startups to truly revolutionise the way we produce and consume food. It was empowering to witness the passion of the founders of these companies as they take on the opportunity of a lifetime: securing a stable, nutritious, and climate-friendly future of food.

    The post These 8 UK Agri-Tech Startups Want To Future Proof South East Asia’s Food System first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post These 8 UK Agri-Tech Startups Want To Future Proof South East Asia’s Food System appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Overlooked and Underfunded: Are Climate Tech Investors Missing Out On Precision Fermentation?

    cowabunga milk

    9 Mins Read

    By: Beatriz Franco, Managing Partner at Vita Vera Ventures, and Maya Benami, PhD, Advisor to Vita Vera Ventures & Technical/R&D Consultant.

    Climate tech investors are missing out on a food technology solution with major GHG emissions-lowering potential, argue food tech experts Beatriz Franco and Maya Benami.

    Current food production is not only a driver of climate change, but it is also a victim of climate change.

    This means that, unfortunately, we cannot expect our food supply to continue at current levels. Combined with the added pressure of population growth, it is clear we will need to integrate emerging food technologies into our food supply system in order to support the demands of humanity, as well as the latter’s sustainability and resiliency.

    Climate tech investing has significantly increased in the last few years, based both on the urgency for solutions as well as the clear business opportunities it offers. However, we continue to see that investors are not appropriately targeting technologies with the highest potential for reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and in the process, overlooking opportunities for both impact and returns.

    PWC’s State of Climate Tech report notes that the food and agriculture sectors are tied to nearly a quarter of all global GHG emissions (some say up to 1/3 of emissions) but they received only 12% of global climate tech venture funding. Meanwhile, the mobility sector received almost 50% of global climate tech venture funding in 2022, yet is responsible for only 15% of global GHG emissions.

    This is why we are shining a light on one fast-growing food technology sector that is still largely misunderstood, despite its immense potential: precision fermentation.

    What is Precision Fermentation?

    Fermentation itself is not new. Humans have been consuming fermented foods, such as cheese and alcohol, for centuries. They are made through traditional fermentation methods, where microorganisms, such as yeasts, transform sugars into an ingredient, new food, or beverage in order to remove toxins, increase shelf life, and/or improve taste and digestibility.

    Precision fermentation is a more advanced form of fermentation. It turns microorganisms, like yeast and bacteria into ‘factories’ to produce specific end-products such as proteins, enzymes, fats, vitamins, flavors, or pigments. Those microorganisms are fed carbon-based compounds, such as sugars, and are engineered and optimized to produce replicas of an organic molecule, such as protein. Precision fermentation is already used in pharma for the production of compounds such as vaccines and insulin, and it is now being applied to food production as well.

    In the past, insulin was harvested from cattle and pig organs. This process was highly inefficient at best, requiring tons of pig parts in order to obtain just a few ounces of purified insulin, not to mention that this non-human insulin ofte caused allergic reactions in many patients. Today, insulin is produced through precision fermentation by inserting the human insulin gene into a microbe and prompting it to produce human insulin.

    As far as new food applications go, examples of exciting products in development or in production through precision fermentation include whey protein, casein to make cheese, palm oil alternatives, animal fat, collagen, and even breast milk proteins for infant formulas.

    Seizing the Opportunity, Why the Disconnect?

    With so many opportunities for impact and returns, why aren’t we seeing more generalist investors looking into food tech?

    We believe one big challenge comes from the fact that it is becoming more complex to assess the opportunity given the evolution of new processing tech and biotech methods. Also, given its nascency, many companies are still in R&D and lab-scale phases, thus too early in their journey to offer revenue and customer metrics to analyze traction during investor diligence.

    Can investors leverage the biomedical sector as a proxy during diligence?

    Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. While some scientific aspects of pharmaceutical and biomedical diligence can offer comparative insight, other aspects can be quite different, especially when considering that the goal of food production is to make much larger quantities at much lower price points. Accordingly, business strategy as well as processing and equipment requirements can differ significantly.

    Drugs created via precision fermentation for the pharmaceutical industry are grown in expensive highly controlled bioreactors that are suitable for the production of high-value, low-volume products.

    The food industry, on the other hand, needs to create affordable, high-volume food compounds produced in food-grade conditions. This is why we are seeing so many new startups focused on building the infrastructure and enabling technologies around alternative foods, including built-for-purpose fermenters and bioreactors.

    One other difference to highlight is on the regulatory side. The regulatory process for novel foods can be perceived as easier and faster when the primary goal is to demonstrate that the new food is substantially equivalent to an existing food. Biopharma, on the other hand, needs to go through the rigorous testing required for new medicines that are often administered to immune-compromised patients.

    It is interesting to note that there are differences in the way scientists in these two industries approach their products. A cell biologist that works in the pharmaceutical industry will not be concerned (or necessarily understand) the nuances of what is needed to make a successful food product, which includes specific consideration of each sensory property, such as flavor, texture, and color, and using only food-grade reagents.

    Starting from the ground up?

    You might be thinking: is this new (old) tech a black box? Well, yes and no. Precision fermentation relies on living organisms and cells as part of its process. While biology is the oldest ‘technology’ in the world, so much is still not well understood, such as the mechanisms of cell communication and the complexities of cell organization.

    That being said, humans have been successfully using biology for advancement long before understanding the science behind it. See: the birth of agriculture- we’ve grown crops and bred livestock for over 12,000 years.

    These days, genetic screening, cell manipulation technologies, artificial intelligence, and machine learning greatly enhance our understanding of cell processes by pinpointing genetic sequences that are responsible for protein production pathways in a cell, just to take one example. So now scientists can use what we do know and build upon it to harness natural processes.

    Using precision fermentation, we can leverage microorganisms to sustainably create a vast array of known and novel foods and ingredients, from meat, dairy, seafood, eggs and honey to specific flavors such as new sweeteners, taste enhancers, and much more.

    The investors’ journey: important aspects to unpack during diligence

    So what should an investor look for during diligence? While there are many angles to be evaluated such as market opportunity, team, competitive landscape, IP, and moat, among others, commercial traction is most likely not going to be available at this stage.

    In order to address the intricacies of this nascent industry and its specific requirements, we unpack the key points that investors should take into consideration when performing diligence on a precision fermentation company.

    Customer Validation

    While it’s true that early-stage companies will have little to show in terms of revenues and customer traction, the next best thing to review is customer validation. Investors can and should talk to potential customers and validate that the product is actually solving a real need.

    Some companies will have LOIs, initial partnerships and customer trials; they may even have surveys that can provide an indication of what a potential customer is thinking. That being said, a phone call with a potential customer in your network is still advisable, not only to understand how important that solution really is but also to evaluate their willingness to pay for such a solution.

    Proof of Concept and Scalability Mindset

    As mentioned, many companies in the precision fermentation space are currently at lab-scale/ R&D phase. In the very earliest stages (lab-scale, where most companies are), they will be creating prototypes and proofs-of-concept and producing a few grams to a few kilograms per batch and using fermenters under 20L and likely between 1L and 5L.

    As they progress and move to pilot, demo, and commercial scale, quantities produced, and size of fermenters increase accordingly but one important thing that some investors forget, is that not all products are created equal. If a precision fermentation company is targeting products that represent a small percentage of the final food formulation, such a company will be able to go to market with a higher price point than one whose product makes up the bulk of the final food formulation, and therefore their path to a viable commercial scale is shorter. Investors should be aware that a viable commercial scale can vary in size significantly depending on the target product.

    In all cases, investors should always look for founders with a “scalability mindset”. In other words, no matter how early a company is in its journey, founders should be thinking about scalability from the start. This is shown through each of their decisions during technology & process development. For example: Are they frontloading their cost analysis while building their process? Did decisions around inputs take into consideration availability and supply chain resiliency? Are they already planning for their equipment needs and establishing partnerships?

    Scaling is one of the trickiest parts of the success of this industry. In addition to scaling up the technology itself and accurately forecasting budgeting needs, companies face an additional challenge: the bottleneck of little-to-no-fermenter availability, both from a co-manufacturing standpoint or direct purchase. Many fermenters available today are currently prioritized to produce high-value, lower volume pharmaceutical grade vaccines and drug compounds. Companies are purchasing biomedical infrastructure or fermenters from biofuel facilities or other industries and attempting to repurpose them, which is far from ideal.

    However, we expect and hope to see a positive change in this space in the near future given not only the surge of new companies tackling this problem but also the increasing interest shown by governments around the world through regulation and potential investments targeting the development of the industry.

    Process Feasibility, Efficiency & Optimization

    This is an important part of diligence: investors need to dig in and understand where the company’s process is at and how efficient both the upstream and downstream processes are. A critical aspect here is to ascertain how much final product you get at the end of the process and how long that takes from start to finish. This involves getting at how much product the microorganism secretes, how fast, and how much product is recovered after purification.

    Investors should not only be clear about where a company is today, but also where it’s going tomorrow and when it will be profitable, which is why reviewing its optimization plans and efficiency targets is vital, much like they would financial projections. All assumptions embedded in these plans should be checked to ensure they are realistic and reasonable.

    It’s Time to Seize the Opportunity

    Not a day goes by without media headlines reminding us of the consequences of the climate crisis. Now is the time to focus on technologies that can solve for these, particularly as they affect our global food system, and investors should be prioritizing solutions that can reduce the most GHG emissions.

    We have no doubt that precision fermentation will, together with other emerging food technologies, be a much-needed part of the answer to building a more resilient food system.

    And here is the proverbial cherry on top: there is real money to be made by investors. Climate tech is not only our biggest hope in the fight against climate change, but it is also simply good business. As it stands, the global food market represents a not insignificant 10% of the world’s GDP, and with a growing population to feed, demand will only increase.

    Startups that can offer good substitutes for foods whose current emissions costs is too high for our future world to bear (i.e. meat, dairy, eggs) at the right price and with a lower carbon footprint will undoubtedly find success- and those companies who can do so at a higher quality and a lower price will knock it out of the park. It’s time to invest in the future of food.

    Beatriz Franco is a Managing Partner at Vita Vera Ventures, a Climate Tech fund investing in vital innovations advancing the resiliency, efficiency and sustainability of the food industry.

    Maya Benami, PhD is an author and R&D consultant specializing in cellular agriculture, fermentation, microbiology, plant biochemistry, and environmental sustainability. She advises venture capitalists, start-ups, and global food and beverage firms on R&D, due diligence, and product development.

    An earlier version of this article was previously published on Medium.

    The post Overlooked and Underfunded: Are Climate Tech Investors Missing Out On Precision Fermentation? appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Vow Founder On That Mammoth Meatball: “We Needed To Do Something So Outrageous That It Would Break Through Into Mainstream Media.

    6 Mins Read

    Green Queen‘s Sonalie Figueiras shares her reservations about Vow’s global headline-grabbing cultivated mammoth meatball event with company founder and CEO George Peppou in this exclusive interview.

    “We created the mammoth meatball to serve as a starting point for this conversation.” So writes George Peppou, the founder and CEO of Australian cultivated meat company Vow, in a Medium post about the startup’s unveiling of a cultivated meatball made with DNA cells from the extinct wooly mammoth.

    It’s safe to say that the company achieved this goal and more. In fact, chapeau to the entire Vow comms team, who did a phenomenal job and deserve a raise! (Or at least a bonus!). The mammoth meatball unveiling is likely the most talked-about cultivated meat event ever. As someone who covers the alt protein space closely, I can safely say I have never seen more earned media for such an industry announcement. Not only was the news broken by The Guardian, the story was also picked up by almost every major global news outlet: Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Business Insider, ABC, the Washington Post, the BBC to The Times all covered it. It made US television, with a bit on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which attracts an audience of over 2.3 million viewers. Even that altar of prestige journalism, The Atlantic, weighed in. We at Green Queen published the story too, nach.

    While the vast majority of the coverage has been positive, a select few have questioned. Gizmodo‘s Isaac Schulz wrote about his take in a piece titled: I Hate The Mammoth Meatball. Truth be told, I share many of Schulz’s reservations.

    Last year, a London-based startup called sent us a press release about their mission to produce cultivated lion and tiger meat and we chose not to cover the story. It seemed gratuitous, arrogant and entirely beside the point of the alternative protein industry’s raison d’être. The mission of this sector is to solve for food security and usher in an era of global food production that is safe, ethical, sustainable and nutritious. Why on earth would we want to do anything to glorify the consumption (and killing) of majestic, endangered creatures like lions and tigers? God forbid that this type of stunt would justify and embolden the already too numerous trophy hunters of today.

    Still, Vow is a well-established, mission-driven cultivated meat player who last year raised the largest Series A in the sector ever. Peppou, who is seen by many as a true and fearless visionary when it comes to the future of food, has spoken many times about the company’s goal to “invent entirely new meats” and has hinted at a future of cultivated zebra and kangaroo meat. I wanted to get more context from him about how the team decided to go ahead with the meatball and he kindly obliged – our interview below.

    A mashup of the Vow mammoth meatball media coverage – Courtesy Vow Product Manager Sarah Ellis’ Linkedin post.

    Sonalie Figueiras: You have said you did this to bring cultivated meat into mainstream conversation. Is this the right conversation? It could be argued that promoting extinct species consumption does not address climate change or food security, or health, ie the main motivators to disrupt food with cultivated meat? 

    George Peppou: Two key points here: (1) We needed to do something so outrageous that it would break through into mainstream media. The original cultured meat hamburger was produced 10 years ago, and yet the mainstream media still rarely covers any large advancement in cultured meat. The mammoth meatball project has been covered extensively, and has a whole new cohort of people talking about whether or not they would eat cultured meat. (2) While the mammoth meatball is a product concept (and not something we currently plan to bring to market), it is still produced using cultured meat technology, so all of the sustainability benefits that apply to cultured chicken, still apply to cultured mammoth. 

    Stephen Colbert showcases Vow’s mammoth meatball – via Twitter.

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you worry that this could risk weaponizing the narrative of cultivated meat in the vein of the dangers of ‘bringing Jurassic Park to life’ narrative? 

    George Peppou: No. We are not bringing whole animals to life. That is definitely a criticism aimed at others but isn’t relevant here. For every one person who says “ew” there seems to be another two saying “yes, please!”.

    Sonalie Figueiras: On the conservation front, Gizmodo journalist Isaac Schultz writes: “When you think of the woolly mammoth, do you think “the future of food?” I don’t. What’s next—polar bear patties? Sea turtle stew? I don’t think a product designed to be salivated over and consumed is the best way to bring attention to climate change and conservation issues, even if the meat is lab-cultivated.” How would you reply to that?

    George Peppou: I think the very fact that Isaac has written an article about cultured meat, the future of food and sustainability indicates that this project has had its desired effect. We are having conversations today that we simply weren’t having yesterday. Cultured meat is (hopefully) only a few months away from being sold in the US, and yet still, very few consumers are familiar with what it is. 

    Courtesy George Peppou

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you worry it may put off regulators, particularly in geographies where they are already skeptical of the technology, and that they may see this as a distraction / gimmicky?

    George Peppou: No, every regulator and country we have worked with has been incredible. The reactions from regulators have been the same as the public, entertained by the spectacle and aware that mammoth is a stunt, not a product. There is real support from within the regulatory bodies we have spoken to, to ensure that cultured meat can be brought to market in a safe manner. If it is not safe, it is not food. 

    Sonalie Figueiras: Do you wonder about the political ramifications of such a tasting, with the pro-meat lobby weaponizing the news to further push their anti-innovation, anti-food-tech agenda by saying that if funds were to be allocated to the space, they would be used for non-essential purposes rather than to sustainably feed the world? 

    George Peppou: To be clear, there was no tasting of the mammoth meatball. This was a concept used to start a discussion and bring cultured meat into the mainstream discussion. Throughout the press around the meatball project we have been very clear about our belief that traditional agriculture and cultured meat will need to co-exist. Cultured meat is not going to replace traditional agriculture in the near future, but it does provide an important source of high-quality protein in a sustainable manner.  

    Sonalie Figueiras: Lastly, and this was my biggest concern personally with the other startup that says it’s working on cultivated lion and tiger, do you worry that this kind of event will serve to glorify the consumption of endangered animals? 
    George Peppou: This is a valid question and something that we have spent a lot of time thinking and talking about internally. In the case of this particular project, we don’t believe that this is a concern (as the mammoth is already extinct).

    The post Vow Founder On That Mammoth Meatball: “We Needed To Do Something So Outrageous That It Would Break Through Into Mainstream Media. appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • OpEd: What The Anti-Cultivated Meat Brigade Aren’t Telling You About Italian Pork & Beef Production

    4 Mins Read

    “You can literally smell the pig and cow sh*t all around you”: A food technologist and Italian transplant living in one of Italy’s main pork production regions shares her feelings about the government’s push to ban cultivated meat.

    Yesterday, the Italian government endorsed legislation that would prohibit the production of laboratory-made meat, feed and other “synthetic” foods. The country’s agriculture minister emphasized that the bill was aimed at protecting Italy’s agri-food heritage and health protection. In recent months, agricultural organizations including Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers’ association, have amassed half a million signatures demanding protection for “natural” food against “synthetic” food. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, part of the right-wing Brothers of Italy political party, is among those who have signed it.

    If the bill passes, Italian food producers will be prevented from producing food or feed from animal cell cultures or tissues; violators would face up to €60,000 in penalties.

    Here’s what they’re not telling you about Italy’s so-called “protection of food culture and tradition” in relation to heavy fines for cultured meat: You can literally smell the pig and cow sh*t all around you in the main regions of Italy that specialize in producing the country’s traditional meat and animal-based products. One of those regions is Emilia-Romagna, where I live with my family. 

    I’ve been living in the aptly-named “Italian food valley” for the last few years, the land of world-famous foods like prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano. The food here is incredible. Even fruits and vegetables are some of the best on the planet.  Living here, I re-learned an important lesson: food is best enjoyed outside the “fast-food” culture.

    Imagine yourself inside a car driving by fields and factories where animals are reared. You see all these beautiful sights: lush vineyards and bright green fields. But oh, the smell!  The car’s windows are closed but you can still smell the stink from the animals. The cows and pigs in their pens. The odor permeates everywhere; it’s inescapable. The air quality is bad. So, so bad! This is a reality of life for people like me who live in these areas.

    And it’s the price we pay for all those delicious meat- and dairy products the region produces. It makes sense that people want to protect it- it’s a very successful industry. Meat accounts for a whopping 57.7% of total exports from the region. The whole world craves our Parma ham. 

    You love your polpette, ragú, gnocco fritto and all the many types of salumi? Fill your lungs with this air. It has become so normal it is a part of the food culture and heritage.

    And the stench is only one (awful) part of it. There are also all the resources that producing meat the “natural” and “traditional” way requires. The water. The feed. The workers. Remember the drought last year? This year doesn’t seem to be any better after a winter of little rain and snowfall.

    If this rebranding by Italy’s Ministero delle Politiche Agricole, Alimentari e Forestali (MiPAAF) is about food sovereignty, then this move counters that.

    Because people should have freedom. And that means choices. Choices around the foods we eat and how they are produced. But also, the freedom to choose a future where people’s health, food tradition, and the planet’s future are not compromised.

    I feel so conflicted about all of this, particularly because Italy is where I first came across the idea of cellular agriculture. I moved here to get my master’s in food innovation and Dr. Mark Post (the Dutch scientist who first created cultivated meat and the founder of OG cultivated meat company Mosa Meat)  was our visiting professor. We attended his lectures and worked on related experiments in a lab right here in Italy. A few months later, my team was researching solutions for the future of meat, and cultivated meat emerged as one of our biggest findings. 

    I’ve had many a discussion with my Italian partner during which I’ve shared how much the sight of a basic steel tank and the centuries-old fermentation tradition it represents excites me. Italians have mastered the microscopic world and I can easily picture Italy as a leader in cultivated and fermentation-based protein technologies, after all, Italians are masters of flavour, fermentation and great stewards of culinary tradition, traditions, that were born out of innovation many centuries ago.

    If the country’s meat and dairy industry feels threatened, this new regulatory move doesn’t sound like a bold move. It feels desperate. And if history is our teacher, we know that we don’t achieve greatness when we operate from fear.

    When I talk to my Singaporean friends, they have a totally different mental model. The Lion City state’s government has understood what’s at stake: nothing short of their national food security. Singapore’s 30 by 2030 plan, which involves ensuring that the country achieves 30% domestic food production by the year 2030, has enabled the city-state to become Asia’s food tech capital. In 2020, it became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat, a bold move that made headlines around the globe. China has recently pledged its support to alternative proteins too. These countries see the (climate crisis) writing on the wall. 

    Italy has all the elements in place to be a future food leader: knowledge (both modern and traditional), resources, and one of the best climates for growing food on the planet (if you have ever tasted a fresh, ripe Italian tomato, then you know.

    My hope for Italy? That tradition and technology can co-exist so my Filipina-Italian daughter gets a chance at a safe, ethical and sustainable future. 

    An early version of this article was first published on social media.

    Disclaimer: Jennibeth does work for Green Queen. This had no effect on the publishing of this editorial.

    The post OpEd: What The Anti-Cultivated Meat Brigade Aren’t Telling You About Italian Pork & Beef Production appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center Opens With a Bang: The World’s Largest Piece of Cultivated Meat

    TissenBioFarm shows off its cultivated meat
    4 Mins Read

    TissenBioFarm debuted a giant piece of cultivated meat at the opening of South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center in the North Gyeongsang Province.

    This story has been updated at 13.00 on 31 March 2023 with additional information about the company’s 10kg cultivated meat prototype.

    South Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province has announced the opening of the North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center. This 2,309㎡ facility was built over six years with a total investment of KRW 9 billion (approx. USD$7 million), and it aims to develop biomaterials and support companies in the cultivated meat sector.

    South Korean startup TiessenBio Farm, which raised more than $1.6 million in a Pre-Series A funding round last September, unveiled a 10-kilogram piece of cultivated meat on the occasion.

    The North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center

    The four-story building houses laboratories, analysis rooms, and quality control rooms. The second floor will host five companies and Yeungnam University Cell Culture Research Center, while the third floor will feature research and analysis rooms with 55 types of corporate equipment to be installed by 2024 with a budget of KRW 3 billion.

    The North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center opening ceremony launch. | Courtesy

    “The Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center opened in Uiseong, where a new airport will be built, is expected to play a pivotal role in advancing a high-tech industry,” Cheol-Woo Lee, Governor of North Gyeongsang Province, said at the launch. “We will continue our support and investment in promising new industries.”

    The opening ceremony was attended by about 200 people, including government officials, university representatives, research institutes, and private companies. The site tour showcased five companies, including TissenBioFarm, which unveiled a 10kg cultured meat prototype to the public for the first time. The company claims it is the world’s largest piece of cultivated meat to date.

    Green Queen contacted the company for further information to clarify the percentage of cultivated cells and tissue, scaffolds used and what other ingredients the piece contains. We also asked the company to specify what type of animal meat this is. So far, the company has not replied.

    Update: Tiessen’s Chief Strategy Officer La Yeonjoo told Green Queen the following via email: “This prototype is a hybrid cultivated meat, consisting of cells and bioink. We have developed original technologies that can make cultured meat of this size while keeping nearly all the cells alive.”

    The prototype’s ingredients are as follows: animal cells, bioink, food coloring, palm oil and food adhesive.

    La says the company has not yet publicly disclosed the % of cells of this prototype publicly because “it doesn’t appropriately represent the company’s capabilities”, adding that the event organizers at Cellular Agriculture Support Center asked them to make a prototype on very short notice. TiessenBio made it in their small lab in just a few weeks and La said they didn’t have enough time to grow the cells “as much as we wanted to and could have.”

    “By the end of this year, we will scale up our cell culture infrastructure, and will showcase 100% cultivated meat (that would translate into approx. 80% cells + 20% bioink and other biomaterials),” she added.

    North Gyeongsang Province has also announced its Cellular Agriculture Industry Promotion Strategy, which plans to link with the vaccine, drug, cosmetics, and green bio industries. Uiseong-gun is creating the Uiseong Bio Valley General Industrial Complex for the integration of the cellular agriculture industry.

    South Korea’s cultivated meat sector

    The opening of the North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center marks a milestone in South Korea’s efforts to develop the cellular agriculture industry. With this center, the country hopes to become a leader in this emerging field.

    The center launch comes after 28 key industry stakeholders in South Korea signed a memo of understanding in February to advance the country’s cultivated meat industry.

    TissenBioFarm's giant piece of cultivated meat
    TissenBioFarm’s giant piece of cultivated meat | Courtesy

    The North Gyeongsang Province led the MOU. Other signatories include city governments (Pohang-si, Gyeongsan-si, Gumi-si, Uiseong-gun), universities (POSTECH, Yeungnam University), research and technology institutions (Korea Food Research Institute, Gyeongbuk Technopark, Pohang Technopark), and corporations including cultivated meat startup TissenBioFarm, health food manufacturer Ildong Foodis, and functional food ingredients developer Neo-Cremar. 

    “We are working on groundbreaking technologies to overcome key challenges in the cultivated meat field,” TissenBioFarm CEO Wonil Han said in a statement at the time. “Once it is done, South Korea will be a global game changer in the field.”

    The post South Korea’s Cellular Agriculture Support Center Opens With a Bang: The World’s Largest Piece of Cultivated Meat appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Australia’s Magic Valley Debuts Cultivated Pork Meat

    Magic Valley pork wontons

    5 Mins Read

    Cultivated pork meat is Magic Valley’s latest achievement, following the launch of its lamb meat last year.

    Melbourne-based Magic Valley says its cultivated pork meat comes from skin cells retrieved humanely from a living pig. The cells are then grown using the company’s breakthrough technology that replaces fetal bovine serum.

    ‘An ethical and sustainable solution’

    According to Magic Valley, its tech allows the cells to replicate infinitely, turning into both muscle and fat — all from a singular skin scraping. The startup says this makes it a more stable and faster tech than those achieved by other cultivated meat producers. It says its tech is scalable for all types of meat, not just pork and lamb.

    “The global need for alternative proteins to meet the demands of the growing population is imperative as we take that journey to achieve net-zero, steering clear of traditional ways of consuming meat for ethical and environmental reasons,” Magic Valley founder and CEO Paul Bevan said in a statement.

    Unlike other players, Magic Valley does not rely on fetal bovine serum (FBS) as a growth media for its products. “We don’t need a replacement for Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS) in our process, as we have never used it! Instead, we have developed our own proprietary growth media that is completely animal-origin-free, setting us apart from many of our competitors,” Bevan told Green Queen over email.

    “By eliminating the need for FBS, we are able to align our production process more closely with our core mission of promoting a more sustainable and ethical food system, and maintaining a strong commitment to sustainability and animal welfare,” he added.

    Pork format, cost per kg and cultivated material percentage

    The company is starting with pork meat in a minced/ground format to address “the growing concerns about the ethical and humane treatment of pigs in traditional meat production”. Pork is a widely popular protein source enjoyed by millions of people globally. In many parts of Asia, including China, it is the most consumed animal meat per capita.

    Bevan told us that its initial minced pork products are designed to contain approximately 20% cultivated material. “This percentage has been carefully selected as it allows us to effectively replicate the taste, flavour, and aroma characteristics of a traditional minced meat product, ensuring a satisfying eating experience for consumers.”

    He says that by incorporating 20% cultivated material in their product, they can “balance the benefits of our innovative cell-cultured technology with the practical aspects of production and consumer preferences.”

    Currently, production costs for Magic Valley’s minced pork product stand at $33/kg. Bevan recognizes this may seem high compared to conventional pork prices but is careful to underline that the company is in its very earliest stages and has significant potential for improvement. He says he is targeting a cost of $3.30/kg in the future to ensure competitiveness in the market.

    “As we move forward with our plans to establish a pilot plant facility and scale up production, we anticipate benefiting from economies of scale.”

    Actively fundraising and working with Australian regulators

    The news amidst active fundraising efforts for the company. Bevan told us that the company is aiming to raise $3 million to “support the next phase of growth and development”. The goal is to use the funding to work on regulatory approval for Magic Valley’s lamb and pork products, scale up production capacity and develop its first pilot plant facility.

    Bevan told us that he and his team are “actively engaged” with Australian regulators, particularly Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), which he says is known for its proactive approach towards novel food technologies. The agency recognizes “the potential benefits it can bring in terms of sustainability, animal welfare, and food security” and has established a clear and comprehensive framework for companies like Magic Valley to follow.

    He described the process as “consultative” in nature and the communication flow as very “open and transparent”, with a great deal of collaboration with the regulators, with regulator meetings and discussion around Magic Valley’s technology and processes in order to address any concerns or questions raised.

    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan
    Magic Valley founder Paul Bevan | Courtesy

    The global cultivated meat market is set to reach $630 billion by 2040 — representing what Bevan says is an enormous opportunity for Australia to benefit from and contribute to the industry that is aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

    “So, with both the need and desire for new forms of protein, and the global economic opportunity growing exponentially, our newest cultivated pork milestone puts Magic Valley in good stead to capture a sizable market share to feed future generations,” Bevan said. He says the company’s cultivated pork products provide the exact same flavor experience for consumers that enjoy conventional pork. “It is an ethical and sustainable solution and at scale, our products will be much cheaper than traditional alternatives,” he said.

    Next up, the company will dive into cultivated beef, angling toward a full range of meat options as regulatory approval is expected in 2024.

    Food tech in Australia

    The news follows a string of announcements out of Australia this month. Earlier this week the precision fermentation company Cauldron announced a AU$10.5 million raise to build Asia-Pacific’s largest network of precision fermentation facilities. And in the cultivated meat category, Vow says it has created a meatball using cells from the extinct wooly mammoth as part of a project to showcase the potential of cellular agriculture. 

    Vow Cultivated Meat Factory
    Vow’s Factory 1 was announced last year | Courtesy

    Bianca Lê, Honorary Fellow at The University of Melbourne; Technical Strategy and Growth Manager at Mission Barns; and Board Director, Cellular Agriculture Australia, recently called for Australia to develop standards for biotechnology, including cultivated meat, as the nation is particularly vulnerable to climate change and needs food solutions.

    “Australia has been one of the world’s top three beef exporters for more than 70 years. We’re also a biotech leader. Two decades ago, Australia’s biotech sector was tiny. Now it’s amongst the top five in the world,” she wrote.

    “As we face an increasingly uncertain future, it might be a smart move to secure our food supply while protecting ourselves against climate change – and reducing environmental damage.”

    The post Australia’s Magic Valley Debuts Cultivated Pork Meat appeared first on Green Queen.