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Category: Cell-Based News

  • Jellatech Debuts Cell-Based Human Collagen As Investigation Links Industry to Deforestation

    Jellatech collagen
    3 Mins Read

    The jury’s still out on whether or not collagen supplements have any real benefits, but as an investigation links the industry to deforestation, an achievement from Jellatech may bring new opportunities to the booming category.

    In a post shared on LinkedIn, the North Carolina-based biotech startup Jellatech announced it has created a fully functional human collagen made from a proprietary cell line.

    ‘An important step’

    The announcement comes just eight months after the company debuted its cell-based bovine collagen. Human collagen is used in biomedical and clinical applications including tissue engineering, arthritis treatment, regenerative medicine, 3D bioprinting, and dermal fillers, among other applications.

    Courtesy, Jellatech

    “This milestone further demonstrates that our platform technology for efficiently producing high quality collagen is translatable across multiple cell types, which allows us to address a broad market need for collagen,” Rob Schutte, Jellatech’s head of science, said in the post.

    Stephanie Michelsen, Jellatech’s founder and CEO, praised the achievement, calling it “an important step” in the company’s commitment to making a positive impact.

    Collagen and deforestation

    The announcement comes as a new investigation links the demand for collagen, a popular supplement purported to have wellness and beauty benefits, to deforestation in Brazil. Collagen is typically sourced from cows, but can also come from pigs and fish.

    According to findings from the Guardian, Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), ITV and O Joio e O Trigo, collagen traced to the popular Jenifer Anniston-backed Vital Proteins brand owned by food giant Nestlé, is connected to Amazonian deforestation.

    CJulian Peter via Pexels

    The investigation found tens of thousands of cattle raised for collagen production are on farms linked to tropical deforestation — an ongoing crisis contributing to climate change and biodiversity loss. Eighty percent of the Amazon’s deforestation is connected to the livestock industry.

    The Guardian reports that, unlike beef, soy, and palm, among other food commodities bound to due diligence legislation over deforestation links, the collagen industry sits outside of these regulations and has no obligation to disclose connections.

    Nestlé told the Guardian the allegations don’t align with its responsible sourcing commitments and it has taken steps to ensure its products are “deforestation-free” by 2025.

    Despite the demand for animal collagen, research into its benefits is lacking. The Guardian reported that Harvard School of Public Health cautioned consumers over study findings as most “if not all” of the research has been funded by industry members or scientists affiliated with stakeholder brands.

    Unbiased research, however, has pointed to the benefits of consuming collagen-building foods, rather than consuming collagen itself. Foods such as those rich in vitamin C, zinc, copper, silicon, and the amino acids lysine and proline, have all been linked to healthy collagen production.

    The post Jellatech Debuts Cell-Based Human Collagen As Investigation Links Industry to Deforestation appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Expectations vs. Reality: It’s Time To Change The Investor Conversation Around Sustainable Food

    12 Mins Read

    No single approach will offer a silver bullet solution to all problems within the food system — no matter how large the opportunity or dire the need.

    When expectations exceed reality, outcomes that may normally be considered successes are seen as failures. I’ve been witnessing the disconnect between expectations and reality in sustainable food for a while now.

    On one side, there’s the pitch that individual startups will save the planet and take over the multi-trillion dollar industrial animal agriculture industry along the way. This side pitches the idea of food companies growing in ways only seen in the tech space, since the need is so dire and the opportunity for disruption is so massive. This has inevitably led to food startups being valued like tech startups, with expectations that the size and rate of growth will be immense.

    On the other side, there’s the reality that regardless of the amount of R&D, IP, or clever marketing tactics, all of these companies are simply producing food for people to eat. They take different amounts of time and money to scale, and they should be valued like….food companies. Maybe a premium can be applied to some with exceptional solutions to certain problems, but they are still food companies.

    Recently Beyond Meat has been painted to have lost $13 billion dollars of value; however, I would argue that it never should have been valued that highly in the first place. Historically, CPG food companies are valued between 2–5x revenues. There are outliers to that, but generally, 2–5x is the norm. Knowing this, it’s clear that at a $14 billion market cap, which was over 35x revenues, Beyond Meat was highly overvalued.

    Public market investors had expectations that were not based on reality. The reality is that Beyond Meat is a CPG food company generating ~$450M a year in revenue and selling food for consumers to eat. With 2–5x revenue being the norm, it is reasonable to expect Beyond Meat to trade at a market cap between $900M and $2.3B. If some want to price in rapid growth, then going a bit above $2.3B could make sense, but it’s hard to argue a 35x+ revenue multiple being grounded in reality.

    Now imagine the perception of Beyond if the story went like this: Beyond Meat IPOs at $800M and steadily grows its market cap to $1 billion. Retail investors who bought in early are now up 25%+, and the decisions by the company to focus on profitability are welcomed in the difficult broader macro-economic environment that’s affecting all industries worldwide. Investors now feel quite positive about Beyond Meat as it goes from being a startup to a larger, more established CPG company.

    The Reality

    Today, Beyond Meat sits at ~$1 billion in market cap, representing an ~2.2x revenue multiple — right in the range of historical norms for CPG companies.

    Despite this valuation being more appropriate, the story of Beyond Meat is one of failure and loss for those with greater expectations. To them, it doesn’t matter that this small food startup became a billion-dollar organization. Instead, it is a major letdown.

    Now, when looking at other areas within the sustainable food ecosystem, the goal should be to set realistic expectations, so companies progressing our food system are not portrayed as meaningless failures.

    So how do current expectations in cultivated meat mesh with reality? Let’s talk about it.

    Big Things are Happening in Cultivated Meat

    After many years of splashy headlines and big promises, the cultivated meat space has recently seen some major progress. In 2022 alone, there seemed to be a new major event happening worldwide on a continual basis.

    Some developments to note are:

    1. January: San Diego-based cultivated seafood company BlueNalu collaborated with sushi restaurant operator Food & Life Companies to develop bluefin tuna for Food & Life Companies’ 1,000+ restaurants across Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and mainland China.
    2. February: One of Asia’s largest food and biotech companies, CJ CheilJedang, is entering the cultivated meat industry in partnership with KCell Biosciences, a startup focused on cell culture media. The companies will construct a cell culture media facility in Busan, South Korea.
    3. March: Israel-based SuperMeat announced a strategic partnership with large Japanese food manufacturing company Ajinomoto to pool R&D capabilities for the development of cultivated meat products.
    4. April: Mogale Meat and Mzanzi Meat develop Africa’s first cultivated chicken breast and beef burger, respectively.
    5. May: Israel-based cultivated meat company MeaTech 3D announced that its subsidiary Peace of Meat signed a strategic agreement with mycoprotein company ENOUGH to develop hybrid cultivated and fermentation-based products.
    6. June: China-based cultivated meat startup Joes Future Foods debuted China’s first cultivated pork belly at the New Technology Conference.
    7. July: Shiok Meats signs a partnership with Minh Phu Seafood, Vietnam’s largest conventional shrimp company, to develop a combined R&D facility focused on cultivated meat.
    8. August: Singapore-based Gaia Foods (a subsidiary of cultivated seafood company Shiok Meats) and Switzerland-based Mirai Foods have entered a strategic partnership to develop cultivated beef. The companies will collaborate on ingredients manufacturing and distribution, with plans to launch cultivated beef in Singapore and Switzerland.
    9. October: Vow Foods opened the largest cultivated meat facility in the southern hemisphere.
    10. November: APAC Cellular Agriculture signs MOU solidifying “cultivated” nomenclature.
    11. November: Tasting of GOOD Meat at COP27.
    12. December: GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken becomes the first cultivated meat to be sold in a butchery.

    *Thanks to our friends at The Good Food Institute for this list!*

    With all of this buzz, it feels as if this potentially game-changing solution may be in the mouths of US consumers soon. This felt even more feasible after the US FDA gave the green light to UPSIDE Foods’ cultivated chicken, showing signs of major regulatory progress required for the sale of cultivated meat.

    One additional announcement that caught major attention, including my own, was the move by Believer Meats to build the world’s largest cultivated meat plant in Wilson, North Carolina. This 200k square foot facility is expected to cost ~$124M to build (a fraction of the company’s most recent $347M Series B) and produce 10,000 metric tons of cultivated meat.

    This Feels like a Big Deal

    On an absolute basis, this is a big deal. Ten thousand metric tons of meat is a lot.

    To put this into perspective, consider the following:

    • 10k metric tons is equal to 11,023 US tons (because in the US, it’s always fun to make things make slightly less sense), or roughly 22M pounds (that’s a lot of chicken).
    • How many chickens exactly? Since the average broiler chicken is 6.46 lbs and accounts for 20% loss during processing, the average amount of meat per chicken is roughly 5.17 lbs. Therefore, Believer Meats would be saving the lives of 4.27M chickens annually with this one facility. To put that into perspective, if all of those chickens were their own city in the US, they’d make up the second-largest city in the country, only behind New York City.
    • As for feeding people, chicken consumption per capita in the US was at 100.6 lbs, meaning this facility could satisfy chicken demand for 219,147 people. That’s the same as feeding the entire city of Tacoma, Washington.

    Saving over 4M lives and feeding over 200k people would be quite the achievement.

    But What About the Financials?

    Believer Meats is far from a charity, and there have been many question marks around the economics of cultivated meat companies, especially given the large amounts of investment dollars they’ve raised.

    To understand what potential revenue from this plant could look like, we can apply a basic approach:

    • Start with current chicken prices, which sit at $2.72 per pound for chicken breast
    • Apply a premium to account for Believer Meats being one of the first companies in history to offer cultivated chicken to consumers. Picking this premium isn’t easy, but I’m making the assumption that much of the first chicken products created from this facility will be sold in high-end restaurants (or to consumers who can afford a major premium). If we apply a 5x premium, then we can assume Believer Meats is selling products for $13.60/pound. Maybe it will be higher, maybe it will be lower. I have no clue.
    • At $13.60/pound, and 22M pounds, that represents annual revenues of ~$300M

    That topline number of $300M from one facility can vary widely depending on the assumptions and the approach used by Believer. Pricing assumptions can be changed, and even slight changes in the expected inclusion rate of cultivated cells versus plant-based ingredients can drastically change the amount of product available for sale (i.e., 100% cultivated vs 50/50 cultivated/plant-based).

    $300M may be both a high or low estimate, but either way, the path to real dollar creation is much more tangible. Considering Believer Meats mentioned an ability to create chicken breast for $1.70, as well as ~$6M of annual salaries for plant employees, it also seems positive unit economics are not out of the question (though I am a bit skeptical on the $1.70 number).

    Additionally, while the company may have had to foot the bill for this first major facility, this will allow them to prove out the operations and economics of a cultivated meat facility, thus allowing them to tap into traditional capital market mechanisms for CAPEX financing needs for future builds (i.e., project finance/debt).

    So it looks like the end of industrial animal agriculture is here, and that the economics are on the side of cultivated meat, right?!

    Time to Reel In Those Expectations

    As amazing as these achievements are for an individual company, it’s just the very beginning for the space in terms of true impact on the food system.

    In terms of overall consumption, the Believer Meats production of 10k metric tons of chicken represents just 0.02% of the ~49M metric tons of meat produced in the US annually, and 0.008% of the ~133M metric tons of poultry produced globally.

    And that’s just the US meat and global poultry market for comparison. When we look at the overall meat space, that number jumps up to almost 350M metric tons plus another ~200M metric tons of seafood.

    Now if we assumed any cultivated meat facility could produce 10k metric tons of meat or seafood annually, then to fill the demand for the ~500M metric tons currently produced would require 50,000 facilities. At $100M per facility (~20% lower than the Believer Meats facility cost), that implies ~$5 trillion (with a “T”) of CAPEX costs for the facilities alone.

    Let’s also not forget that meat consumption is not static and is expected to rise dramatically over the next few decades to 555M metric tons (from the ~350M today). This 205M metric ton increase, alone, would require ~$2 trillion of CAPEX costs for the facilities (this doesn’t account for increased seafood consumption).

    To date, total investments in alt proteins over a 12-year time frame are sitting around $15B. At this rate of investment, it will take about 3,000 years to fund the CAPEX needed to create enough cultivated meat facilities that would replace industrial animal ag in its entirety.

    Yes, in reality, cultivated meat companies will be able to tap into traditional capital markets (i.e., project finance) once operations are more proven, so larger dollars will flow into the space faster.

    And yes, these are all projections with major assumptions, and “garbage in, garbage out.” So just for the sake of it, let’s say I’m off wildly on the $7+ trillion CAPEX need and cut it by 85%. That’s still $1 trillion of CAPEX needed.

    No matter how you look at it, the reality is that cultivated meat is not on the cusp of completely upending the traditional animal ag market.

    Industry Insiders Know This

    Every person I know in the cultivated meat industry is well aware this is only the beginning. There is not some false understanding from the sustainable food community thinking otherwise.

    So What’s the Issue?

    If industry insiders (i) know about the massive hurdles to be overcome in cultivated meat, AND (ii) that knowledge is widely shared with the public, expectations should be based on reality. This would also mean that no one will be disappointed with the progress of the cultivated meat space. Right?

    Wrong.

    The real problem that exists, resulting in widespread unrealistic expectations, is the portrayal of each sustainable food innovation as if it were the single, silver bullet solution to all issues facing the food system.

    This means each time any new potential solution is presented, it is examined in a silo. This silo shows what it will take for that single solution to solve all of the problems that exist, which unsurprisingly results in the new solution facing impossibly large hurdles.

    This first occurred with plant-based meat alternatives being portrayed as a silver bullet solution. When realism set in, it left the market viewing startups that turned into $1B+ organizations as failures.

    This framing can be applied to any form of sustainable food solutions with the same outcome. Whether it’s plant-based meat, precision fermentation, biomass fermentation, molecular farming, vertical farming, etc. — there is an endless list of sustainable food innovations that will all be presented with impossibly high hurdles to overcome if they are expected to be the one, silver bullet solution to the food system’s problems.

    The reality is that whether it’s plant-based meat or cultivated meat or precisions fermentation dairy, each of them is one of the many solutions needed to shift to a sustainable food system and it will serve its intended purpose — to reduce the reliance on industrial animal agriculture as the sole source of real, animal-based meat and seafood for those (i) not willing to give it up and (ii) open to eating products produced in this manner.

    The New Expectation

    Going forward, expectations for any sustainable food solution should be based on the reality that it will be one of many solutions filling a need in the food system. No single solution will take over the entire market, address every need, or attract every consumer. Instead, all solutions will collectively work together to take a bite out of the currently unsustainable multi-trillion-dollar global food system with the hope that they all help us reach a symbiotic relationship with the planet.

    Additionally, continual innovation will occur within each industry, allowing them to become better, more efficient, and more desirable to consumers. There will also be new innovations that emerge, unlocking entirely novel opportunities that could improve our food system further. Maybe these new innovations will address major hurdles in existing segments (i.e., growth media costs, bioreactor scalability, downstream processing costs, etc.) or create new categories entirely.

    As investors in the sustainable food space, we have seen first-hand how new innovations emerge over time, opening up entirely new opportunities. The types of companies and technologies in which we invest today are noticeably different than what we invested in back when the industry was first emerging. And, we fully expect to see opportunities five years from now being different from what we see today.

    The one timeless consistency is that each new innovation has the potential to help catalyze a shift to a more sustainable food system.

    Where Do We Go From Here?

    For cultivated meat, for example, the new expectation should be that it will likely be a smaller fraction of the overall animal agriculture market. How small? — That’s not clear. Maybe it becomes 1% by 2050 (5M+ metric tons) and there are only a handful of successful companies in the space owning a share of the $50B+ cultivated meat industry. Or, maybe It’s 10% (50M+ metric tons) and there are many successful companies owning a share of a $500B+ industry.

    A lot of that depends on continued innovation, cost reductions, and scale, but either way, the cultivated meat industry has a chance to be one of the many food system solutions our planet needs, while also creating a multi-billion dollar industry that does not currently exist.

    The same can be said about the myriad of potential solutions — they may all have a chance to be one of the many food system innovations we need with the potential to create meaningful impact and value. And none offer a silver bullet solution.

    Without question, hyperbolic statements will continue to be made making us think otherwise:

    • Startups will continue to make grand claims to attract investors
    • Investors will continue to hype up their portfolio companies
    • Activists and non-profits will continue to emphasize the urgency
    • And, reporters will continue to create clickbait headlines that are overly optimistic or pessimistic, because expectations based on reality are boring

    Despite this, reality will sit somewhere within all of this noise, so we must constantly remind ourselves that (i) many solutions are needed and (ii) the opportunity is so large that all solutions have the chance to create meaningful impact and value.

    A failure to shift our expectations will result in widespread disappointment and possibly lead to an underinvestment in innovations with legitimate potential for positive change.

    Set expectations, accordingly.

    A version of this article was previously published on Medium. 

    The post Expectations vs. Reality: It’s Time To Change The Investor Conversation Around Sustainable Food appeared first on Green Queen.

  • Mosa Meat’s New Cell Feed Supply Chain Will Bring Cultivated Meat Prices Closer to Conventional

    3 Mins Read

    Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat has announced a partnership with its investor Nutreco to develop a cell feed supply chain.

    The Letter of Intent signed with Nutreco will support the development of a cell feed supply chain that can expedite production and scalability, Mosa Meat announced. Nutreco is an expert in developing sustainable feed solutions for animal agriculture.

    Food-grade cell feed

    The company’s scientists say they have successfully substituted more than 99 percent of the base cell feed by weight with food-grade ingredients marking an industry milestone for cultivated meat development. According to Mosa, it’s proof that producing high-quality cultivated meat with food-grade ingredients can be done at a lower price point.

    A burger made from Cultured Beef, which has been developed by Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Monday August 5, 2013. Cultured Beef could help solve the coming food crisis and combat climate change. Commercial production of Cultured Beef could begin within ten to 20 years. Photo credit should read: David Parry/PA

    “Our partnership with Nutreco represents our commitment to further develop the cellular agriculture supply chain and bring down costs,” Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said in a statement. “Our scientific results are an industry first, proving that food-grade ingredients perform equivalent to pharma-grade in cell feed. This will represent a significant cost savings as we scale up production.”

    “At Nutreco, we innovate to produce feed ingredients more sustainably and create feed formulations optimised to deliver the highest yields for protein producers. Through our collaboration with Mosa Meat, we mastered a crucial step in creating affordable, food-safe and scalable nutritional solutions for the cultivated meat industry,” said Susanne Wiegel, head of the Alternative Protein Programme at Nutreco. 

    The announcement builds on a REACT-EU grant Mosa Meat and Nutreco received in 2021 for their collaborative Feed the Meat project aimed at reducing cultivated meat costs while also filling out the supply chain for scalability.

    Reducing media costs

    One of the main challenges of cultivated meat is the high cost of producing the cell feed — the nutrient-rich broth that cells are grown in. Mosa Meat says recent experiments saw fully maturing beef cells that were fed solely with food-grade substitutes — delivering similar cell density to cells fed with more costly pharma-grade material.

    Photo by Louis Reed at Unsplash.

    Mosa Meat is a pioneer in the cultivated meat category; in 2013, it unveiled the world’s first hamburger made from lab-grown meat, which cost €250,000 to produce. Since then, the company has been working on reducing the cost of producing cultivated meat to make it more affordable and accessible. In 2022, it published its technique for replacing the controversial growth medium, fetal bovine serum, in the journal Nature Food. It achieved that milestone without genetically altering cells.

    The post Mosa Meat’s New Cell Feed Supply Chain Will Bring Cultivated Meat Prices Closer to Conventional appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Higher Well-Being Consumers Are More Willing To Consume Cultivated Meat, Shows New Research

    Meatiply's cultivated duck meat
    3 Mins Read

    A new study suggests that there is a positive correlation between consumers’ psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat.

    Researchers at Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences surveyed 948 Singaporean adults in June and July 2022 using an online questionnaire with the goal of examining the relationship between psychological well-being and their willingness to eat animal meat derived from cellular agriculture. The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Direct.

    This marks the first time that research has shown there is a positive relationship between a person’s psychological well-being and their willingness to consume cultivated meat. The results reveal that the increased willingness of the participants to eat cultivated meat can be further explained by a better understanding of the benefits of cultivated meat including its safety and its societal benefits.

    Higher well-being and willingness to eat cultivated meat are linked

    Professor Dr. Angela KY Leung, Ph.D., who co-led the study, told Green Queen that the general hypothesis they had when conducting the study was a positive correlation between psychological well-being and acceptance of cultivated meat. 

    Leung said well-being was defined as a positive mental state. “This has to do with people’s cognitive and affective evaluations of their life. The cognitive component concerns people’s appraisal or perception of life satisfaction, and the affective component concerns their emotional experiences (i.e., the experience of higher levels of positive emotions or lower levels of negative emotions).”

    Sample questions included: “In the past month, how often did you feel…(never to everyday)?” with participants able to choose between the following answers: Happy; Interested in life; Satisfied with life; That you liked most parts of your personality; That your life has a sense of direction or meaning to it.

    The researchers told Green Queen that while they were not very surprised by the findings, it was encouraging to see the research providing empirical evidence to support a positive relationship between people’s psychological well-being and their receptivity to the novel food of cultivated meat for the first time.

    Leung said: “It is also very insightful to find out why higher well-being people tend to have a more accepting attitude towards cultivated meat – their higher willingness is driven by the perception that cultivated meat is as healthy and nutritious, as safe as, and has the same sensory quality as conventional meat, and is beneficial to the society.”

    Marketing takeaways for cultivated meat companies

    When asked what cultivated meat companies and ecosystem players could take away from this research, Leung said that startups should focus on the well-being profile of their future consumers, target higher well-being individuals, and make use of information related to health and safety issues and societal benefits afforded by cultivated meat in their information campaigns and company materials.

    She added that they should also look at country happiness and well-being indices to focus their marketing efforts on geographies with a higher happiness index. “They can seek to first promote greater awareness of cultivated meat in these societies, and over time higher public acceptance can be picked up by other countries to make advocacy efforts more effective.”

    Leung said that cultivated meat companies should consider leveraging search advertising in their go-to-market strategies, targeting higher well-being consumers in ads and other digital marketing campaigns who are likely to perform online searches using keywords such as ‘healthy meat’, ‘safe meat’ and ‘environmentally friendly meat’.

    Asian consumers open to cultivated meat

    There is still very little research on consumer attitudes towards cultivated meat though separate studies conducted in Singapore and Hong Kong suggest Asians have a positive initial view of such products compared to Australians, with one study showing that Indian and Chinese people have a more favorable view of the technology than participants in the US. According to findings published last year, “food neophobia and uncertainties about safety and health seem to be important barriers to uptake of this technology.”

    The post Higher Well-Being Consumers Are More Willing To Consume Cultivated Meat, Shows New Research appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Aleph Farms Increases Its Cultivated Meat Capabilities With 2 Key Moves

    3 Mins Read

    Israeli cultivated meat manufacturer Aleph Farms has announced the acquisition of a manufacturing facility in Modi’in, Israel, and related assets from biotechnology firm VBL Therapeutics, along with a new manufacturing agreement with ESCO Aster in Singapore.

    Aleph Farms says it’s moving closer to increasing its production capabilities with its two new arrangements in key markets. Israel ranks second globally in cultivated meat investments, and Singapore is currently the only country that has approved cultivated meat for sale and distribution.

    Aleph says it plans to bring its thin-cut steak grown from cells to market in both Israel and Singapore.

    A clear roadmap to scalability

    “Building up production capacity quickly in those locations while keeping capital investment lean provides a clear roadmap to scalability,” Didier Toubia, CEO, and co-founder of Aleph Farms, said in a statement. “Beyond Israel and Singapore, we plan on building additional strategic assets worldwide as part of our effort to bring more security and resilience to food systems.”

    aleph farms facility
    Aleph Farms’ 65,000-square-foot facility in Rehovot, Israel. Photography: Amit Goren

    Aleph Farms’ acquisition of VBL Therapeutics’ assets and technology transfer from its pilot production facility in Rehovot, Israel, will increase local output in response to the rising demand for quality protein, the company says. Dror Harats, MD, Chief Executive Officer of VBL, said its state-of-the-art facility will enable Aleph Farms to “unlock value and ramp up local production.”

    ESCO Aster is the world’s first and only company with full regulatory approval from a government authority to produce cultivated meat for commercial sales and consumption. It works with California’s Eat Just to produce its cultivated Good Meat, the only approved cultivated meat for sale in the world.

    Aleph Farms aims to be the second; it will work with ESCO Aster to expand production in Singapore. The partnership will enable the company to work towards its goal of establishing agri-food capabilities that can satisfy 30 percent of Singapore’s nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030.

    “We are proud to be working with Aleph Farms to bring its cultivated steak to Singapore,” said Xiangliang (XL) Lin, CEO of ESCO Aster and Deputy CEO of ESCO Lifesciences Group. “As part of our contract manufacturing MOU, we will work together with religious authorities on obtaining a halal certificate for our facility, enabling our collaboration with Aleph to expand to even more of the broader region.”

    Cultivated meat in Israel

    The demand for sustainable protein such as cultivated meat is on the rise globally as concerns about the food system continue to point to necessary shifts in the agricultural sector.

    Aleph Farms Cultivated Beef Steak
    Aleph Farms’ aims to bring its kosher-certified cultivated steak to market this year. | Courtesy

    According to a recent report by Meticulous Research, the cultivated meat market is expected to grow from $12.9 million in 2020 to $572.5 million by 2030. The report also notes that the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR due to the increasing demand for meat alternatives.

    Israel continues to be a leader in the cultivated meat category, according to a recent report from the Good Food Institute. The report notes a 130 percent increase in early-stage Israeli-alt protein companies between 2021 and 2022, and last year, Israeli-based cultivated meat companies raised more than $450 million — second only to the U.S.

    The post Aleph Farms Increases Its Cultivated Meat Capabilities With 2 Key Moves appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Japan’s Prime Minister Embraces Cultivated Meat As Part of the Country’s Sustainable Future

    Prime minister of japan fumio kishida
    3 Mins Read

    Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida says the country will move forward with a plan to develop an industry of “cell agriculture” bringing a focus to cultivated meat and fish as a means to reduce the country’s carbon footprint.

    Prime Minister Kishida is looking forward to creating a new agriculture sector that will increase the country’s sustainability he said in a statement.

    ‘A new market’

    “We will develop the environment to create a new market, such as efforts to ensure safety and the establishment of labeling rules, and foster a food tech business originating in Japan,” Kishida said.

    In his statement, Kishida emphasized the importance of supporting a sustainable food supply and contributing to solving the world’s food problems. He highlighted the potential of food tech, including cultivated meat, to create a new market and foster a food tech business sector in Japan.

    Cellular agriculture is currently seeing a boom in investments and developments despite lagging regulations outside of Singapore — currently the only country that has approved cultivated meat for sale and consumption. The U.S. recently granted its first GRAS status to cultivated chicken developed by California-based Upside Foods. But it must still clear USDA regulations before it can be approved for sale.

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    Available in Singapore, GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken is currently the only approved cell-based meat for sale. | courtesy Eat Just

    The regulatory framework around cultivated meat is also still evolving globally and Japan specifically has not yet approved cultivated meat or safety standards for raw materials and manufacturing processes have not yet been established.

    According to Japan’s Minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare Katsunobu Kato, “While paying close attention to the state of research and development, scientific findings on safety, and international trends, we will further consider what measures are necessary in terms of safety.”

    Food labeling on cultivated meat is another issue that needs to be addressed. Consumer Minister Taro Kono expressed his support for cultivated meat, saying, “I think cultured meat has a lot of potential. When the safety is confirmed and it hits the market, I’d like to make an effort to properly label it.”

    Cultivated meat’s global impact

    The development of cultivated red meat has the potential to significantly reduce the environmental impact of animal agriculture.

    Upside Foods has built a massive cultivated meat factory in California despite lagging regulations. Courtesy

    According to a study by the University of Michigan, lab-grown meat could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 96 percent, land use by up to 99 percent, and water use by up to 96 percent, compared to traditional animal agriculture.

    At a House of Representatives Budget Committee Prime Minister Kishida told Nobuhiro Nakayama of the Liberal Democratic Party that food tech, including cellular foods, “is an important technology from the perspective of realizing a sustainable food supply. We have to support efforts that contribute to solving the world’s food problems.”

    Last year, Japanese cellular agriculture startup IntegriCuture closed a $ 7 million Series B funding round to develop affordable growth mediums and other tech solutions for the cultivated meat sector, with the aim of making its work open source so as to accelerate the sector’s commercialization. 

    The post Japan’s Prime Minister Embraces Cultivated Meat As Part of the Country’s Sustainable Future appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Investments In Early-Stage Israeli Alt Protein Companies Grew 130% Between 2021-2022: Report

    4 Mins Read

    Good Food Institute Israel details the strength of the alternative protein market in Israel in a new ‘State of The Industry’ report.

    The new Good Food Institute Israel (GFI) report, entitled Israel – State of Alternative Proteins, showed that in 2022, Israeli startups raised more than $450 million in investments for alternative proteins, making it the second-largest country for alternative protein investments after the U.S.

    The findings

    Israeli companies accounted for approximately 15 percent of the total capital raised for the sector and 60 percent of all investments in Israeli food tech firms went to alternative protein startups. While the amount of investment in the industry decreased in 2022 from $623 million in 2021 to $454 million, GFI says Israel is still a key player in the global food tech market. Seed investments in alternative protein startups grew 130 percent in 2022, according to the report.

    The alternative protein sector in Israel includes plant-based substitutes for meat, dairy, and egg, cultivated dairy, meat, and seafood made from cells, and various fermentation processes and products using techniques.

    GFI Israel CEO Nir Goldstein said the global trend in 2022 was moving toward an “arms race” for alternative proteins, with countries such as China, France, the U.K., and Denmark making significant investments in the field. Goldstein said that while Israel could become a center for both R&D and industrial manufacturing, there’s every reason to emphasize regional manufacturing of food in order to further drive down the sector’s carbon footprint.

    Aleph Farms Cultivated Beef Steak
    Aleph Farms’ aims to bring its kosher-certified cultivated steak to market this year. | Courtesy

    “We have seen large countries follow along with President Biden in the U.S., who ordered to put together a strategy to bolster biotech, including alternative proteins,” Goldstein told The Times of Israel. “China has a five-year strategy, and smaller countries like the U.K. and Denmark have made significant investments, and this raises the question of what is the future of Israel after we got an edge now as a startup nation? Can we become a scale-up nation?

    “We believe that food needs to be manufactured as close as possible to where it is consumed for sustainability and economic reasons but Israel can definitely become a center for both R&D and industrial manufacturing,” Goldstein said.

    Israel ranks second to the U.S. in fermented proteins, attracting 18 percent of global investments with $147 million secured in 2022. In the cultivated meat subsector, Israeli companies drew more than $105 million in investments, accounting for approximately 12 percent of the total investment in the sector worldwide. In the plant-based alternative proteins sector, Israeli startups attracted $200 million in capital, or 16 percent of the global sector investment.

    Funding local startups

    According to GFI, local startups entered the alternative protein space last year, with four in the cultivated area, four in plant-based, and four in fermentation-derived products. Over the past two years, alternative protein startups raised more than $1 billion in funds from venture capital firms.

    GFI Israel noted that food tech investments in Israel were impacted the least by the market slowdown compared to other tech sectors, with private investments in the tech sector dropping by 42 percent YoY, while investments by venture capital firms in alternative protein startups declined by 20 percent, from $553 million in 2021 to $445 million in 2022.

    Remilk
    Israel’s Remilk is producing dairy via precision fermentation | Courtesy

    Goldstein said that the issue of national food security became more dominant in the food tech industry due to crises in Ukraine, the pandemic, and increasing cases of swine flu. Governments and investors are looking for more resilient and efficient ways to produce proteins, he said. Notable deals in the Israeli plant-based protein sector in 2022 included a $135 million investment in Redefine Meat, a maker of 3D-printed plant-based meat products, and a $124 million investment in Remilk, a developer of animal-free milk and dairy.

    “In order to stay competitive as large global governments invest a lot of money to try to get Israeli startups to open manufacturing sites overseas, we need to move quickly and make sure that we have plans for the academic and startup sector that is experiencing difficulties given macroeconomic conditions, and that we have a plan for industrial incentives and regulation,” Goldstein said. “Those are the four pillars that the government must address in the coming months.”

    Goldstein says the Israeli government could offer state-backed loans to get startups in the sector up and running. “That would allow the startups to overcome the relative shortage in venture capital-backed investments in today’s market conditions,” he said.

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  • Investments into Asia-Pacific Alt Protein Startups Up 43% Says New Report

    4 Mins Read

    According to new data, year-on-year funding for alternative proteins across Asia Pacific has increased by 43% and shows strong growth across all sector verticals from cultivated to plant-based to fermentation.

    Encouraging growth across the APAC alt protein sector

    The Good Food Institute Asia Pacific (GFI APAC), a leading regional alternative protein non-profit think tank based in Singapore, has crunched the 2022 funding numbers from Pitchbook Data and has found that total investments into the alternative protein sector in the region went up by 43 percent, from $392 million to $562 million. 

    Plant-based food funding rose by 30 percent, from $287 million to $372 million, in large part due to Singaporean startup TiNDLE’s record-breaking Series A round. Precision fermentation and other fermentation investments went up by 67 percent, from $57 million to $95 million with Chinese company Changing Biotech coming out of stealth last August. Cultivated meat, dairy and seafood tech companies saw the biggest growth: 96 percent, from $48 million to $95 million, with Australia-based Vow breaking records with its Series A. One notable change is the classification of Singapore startup TurtleTree, which was considered cultivated in 2021 and is now being treated as a fermentation company.

    On the deal count front, numbers are slightly up since 2021 for fermentation (from 9 to 14) and cultivated food (19 to 20), while plant-based saw a small dip (from 38 to 33). Overall, GFI APAC notes that the funding growth is “broad and deep, not isolated to a single country or company.”

    According to Mirte Gosker, GFI APAC managing director, “building a more secure, sustainable, and just food system is not merely a choice in Asia—it’s a necessity. Conventional animal agriculture is ill-equipped to handle the escalating pressures of skyrocketing protein demand, increased climate disruption, land and water scarcity, and threats of viral outbreaks.”

    Source: GFI APAC

    China and Singapore are alt protein funding hotspots

    GFI APAC highlights two countries in particular where funding growth is strongest: Singapore and China.

    Singapore, which the report calls out as “the only country on Earth where products from all three pillars of alternative proteins are approved for commercial sale”, saw total investments in alternative protein double, from $85 million in 2021 to $170 million in 2022.

    2022 was a big year for alternative proteins in China too. In January, cultivated meat was included in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs five-year agricultural plan for the first time, and President Xi Jinping referred to alternative proteins as key for national food security in a March speech. Perhaps as a result of this, alt protein investments showcased significant growth, funding between 2021 and 2022 rose 6x, from $24 million to $152 million.

    GFI APAC underscores the link between public government support towards future food technologies and funding in the space.

    According to Matthew Spence, managing director and global head of venture capital banking at Barclays, “Deep institutional investments from sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and creative capital sources are key to propelling the global alternative protein sector forward and sustaining a building boom big enough to meet this moment.”

    Source: GFI APAC

    APAC funding is outpacing the global industry

    Globally, venture funding is down across all sectors and food is no different. Rising inflation, supply chain disruptions, an energy crunch, and the Russia-Ukraine war have affected the food sector, both regionally and across the globe. Raw material and ingredients prices are up, as are the costs of production, transportation and distribution.

    Investors are understandably cautious and increasingly conservative, and much of the food tech funding froth of 2020 and 2021 has dissipated in terms of deal count, deal size and valuations. According to GFI APAC, worldwide alternative protein investments are down 76%, from $5.1 billion in 2021 to $2.9 billion in 2022.

    Notwithstanding all this, GFI APAC says investors see the bigger picture, citing a survey showing that 99 percent of participants are optimistic about the long-term potential of the alternative protein industry with 87 percent planning to make investments in the sector in 2023.

    Source: GFI APAC

    The data also shows that APAC is growing in importance comparatively. 2022 marked the first time that alternative protein investments from outside North America accounted for the majority share of the global total with Asia exhibiting the most growth at 43 percent, compared to 24 percent for Europe and a 63 percent decrease in North America.

    As I wrote about Green Queen‘s APAC Alternative Protein Industry Report 2022, regional startups “have been going from strength to strength, hitting major milestones, attracting significant government support and raising record funding rounds.” I further called out the need for diversity and broader representation in media. “Our report illustrates the importance of reporting and media representation. Western-centric media would have you believe that alternative protein is an industry in trouble. In reality, the sector is headed for boom times in Asia and beyond.”

    As Gosker says, “with the global economic downturn starting to make deals more affordable, there is a huge opportunity for forward-thinking investors to reap rewards as Asia’s food future evolves.”

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  • Swiss Start-Up Mirai Foods Debuts the World’s First Cultivated Tenderloin Steak

    Mirai Foods' cultivated tenderloin | Courtesy
    3 Mins Read

    Mirai Foods, the Switzerland-based food tech startup working on cultivated meat, says it has achieved a breakthrough with the first tenderloin steak grown from cells.

    Mirai Food’s achievement comes by way of a natural cell process that allows for tissue cultivation that can mimic conventional meat. It’s dubbed the tech, which it’s filed three patents on, “Fibration Technology.”

    Cultivated filet

    “Other types of meat can already be produced in the lab,” Christoph Mayr, CEO and co-founder of Mirai Foods, said in a statement. “A fillet steak is the ultimate challenge: it consists of different cell types, which — if combined correctly — result in a complex meat structure,” Mayr says.

    “This structuring process is technologically challenging, making steaks extremely difficult to produce. That’s why Mirai Foods is taking an important step towards sustainable meat with the first cultivated beef tenderloin steak.”

    The Mirai Foods ‘Rocket’ bioreactor. | Courtesy

    The steak was made in Mirai Foods’ in-house developed bioreactor, dubbed “The Rocket”. Mirai says the steak is made with long, fully mature cultivated muscle fibers, which are then combined by enzymes and supplemented with cultivated fat tissue. The process requires five days in a bioreactor, Mirai says, and then “a tenderloin centerpiece is complete, from which steaks of almost any thickness can be cut.”

    “We have filed three international patents for this key technology,” Suman Das, CSO and co-founder of Mirai Foods, said. “We can deliver a real alternative to conventional meat: Using our technology, one can prepare and eat a real steak — and know that no animal had to die for it and the climate is not harmed. Nutrition is a huge lever for greater climate protection and animal welfare: demand for meat is expected to double by 2050; conventional methods of meat production cannot meet this demand at all, and certainly not in a sustainable way.”

    Whole-cut cultivated meat

    Mirai is building on the industry’s increasing efforts to produce whole cuts of meat through cultivation; the majority of products thus far have more resembled mince for use in burgers and nuggets. But in 2023 alone, U.K.-based BSF Enterprises debuted a whole-cultivated pork loin, and researchers in Japan say they’ve also developed a whole-cut steak from cultured cells.

    Mirai Foods; Founder Christoph Mayr and Suman Das with Cows
    Mirai Foods; Founder Christoph Mayr and Suman Das with Cows | Courtesy

    According to Mirai, it’s also one of just a few cultivated meat companies in the world capable of making the meat without the use of genetic engineering — a controversial tech most known for its link with seeds engineered to withstand heavy applications of herbicides. GMOs are heavily restricted in the E.U., and Mirai says the absence of the tech in its meat is geared toward the preferences of European consumers “while maintaining the highest standards of taste, quality, and health.”

    Mirai Foods’ tenderloin debut comes as Zürich-based food and meat producer Angst AG has joined the company along with several other investors. Angst AG is expected to bring Mirai’s cultivated meat into its range of offerings once the tech has earned regulatory approval. Mirai, which launched in 2019, has raised more than $5 million in funding in a 2021 Seed round.

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  • 28 of South Korea’s Cultivated Meat Stakeholders Sign MOU to Advance the Industry

    tissen bio farm meat
    3 Mins Read

    Cultivated meat industry stakeholders in South Korea, including manufacturers, academia, and several city and provincial governments are working to advance cellular agriculture.

    The memo of understanding (MOU) was led by South Korea’s North Gyeongsang Province (Gyeongsangbuk-do) and 28 signatories including 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. 

    Cellular ag hubs across South Korea

    The MOU signals the formation of a cellular agriculture cluster across the country with the goal of addressing climate and food crises, the groups said.

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

    TissenBioFarm has closely worked with POSTECH, North Gyeongsang Province, the city of Pohang, and the country of Uiseong in efforts to make the region a leader in cellular agriculture.

    TissenBioFarm is developing cultivated meat in South Korea | Courtesy

    The new cluster will focus on cellular agriculture research efforts in South Korea’s southern region. the MOU points to the development of a regulation-free zone to be formed in Uiseong where companies can showcase proof-of-concept. Uiseong will build an industrial complex with facilities ideal for cultivated meat research and production, it says.

    At Yeungnum University in the city of Gyeongsan, an international cell culture research facility will explore culture media, equipment, and systems for developing cultivated meat.

    In Pohang, which already has an established biotech infrastructure, the city will make a test region for research and development, prototyping, and production certification that can support the commercialization of both cultivated meat and artificial organs.

    Gumi will also develop a strategic base to support the advancement of cultivated meat. The city says it will build a branch of the Korea Food Research Institute to support food industrialization.

    Cultivated meat advancements

    Last September, TissenBioFarm raised $1.6 million in a pre-Series A funding round. The company has developed three bio-based inks it says are capable of being mass-produced for about $0.33 per 100 grams. The company says the inks can be used in both cultivated meat and plant-based meat.

    Han says that the technologies will provide high-quality cultured meat that is “competitive in taste, nutrition, sensory, and price in the near future.” 

    Cellmeat’s Cultivated Dokdo Shrimp

    Last April, the South Korean startup CellMEAT, secured $8.1 million in a Series A for its cell-based shrimp. The company also developed its own alternative to the controversial media, fetal bovine serum.

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  • Japan Researchers Create Cultivated ‘Whole’ Steak Cube

    3 Mins Read

    University of Tokyo professor Shoji Takeuchi and his colleagues say they have succeeded in producing the world’s first cultivated cubed steak.

    The diced steak was first produced in 2019, when Takeuchi and his team produced a three-dimensional muscle tissue measuring about a cubic centimeter, which the team says can grow to larger cuts. Currently, most cultivated meat is minced, but the majority of animal meat sales are whole cuts.

    Cultivated whole cuts

    “Most startup companies are thinking of ways to commercialize lab-grown meat quickly,” Takeuchi told Japan Times in a recent interview. Much of that meat is being produced as chicken nuggets or hamburgers.

    “What we are trying to create, on the other hand, is a beefsteak, a chunk of beef, where muscle fibers are neatly aligned in parallel position. They can twitch like real muscles when stimulated by electricity. Few people in the world are thinking of creating such meat,” he said.

    cow
    Courtesy Flash Dantz via Pexels

    But the tech is still a long way off from marketable, Takeuchi said.

    “Although we extracted cells from cattle, cultured them and recreated cattle tissues, what we got in the end didn’t taste like beef, unfortunately,” he said. “Something was lost in the process. If we could find out what that is by reviewing the process and fixing it so (cultured meat) tastes like real beef, then we can determine from which point it starts tasting like beef. That would allow us to quantify taste.

    “In the future, we may be able to design the meat we consume, to create meat that perhaps tastes better than real meat. We don’t know if we can do that at this point, but we may be able to.”

    Cultivated meat demand

    The food industry is ready for the tech, even if not yet perfected. Japan’s Nissin Foods Group, the parent company to the leading Cup Noodle ramen brand, began supporting Takeuchi’s research in 2017.

    The cultivated meat sector has raised nearly $2 billion in investments globally, according to data collected by the industry think tank, the Good Food Institute. That’s with Singapore currently the only country to have approved the tech for sale and consumption.

    But other approvals are expected soon. Late last year, the U.S. granted GRAS status to Upside Foods for its cultivated chicken. It must now earn approval from the USDA before it can be sold in the U.S.

    3D Bio-Tissues steak
    3D Bio-Tissues has created the world’s first cultivated pork steak | Courtesy Kenn Reay Photography

    The steak announcement comes just days after U.K.-based BSF Enterprise, a biotech-focused investment company, said its subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues produced the first cultivated steak in the U.K. made from pork cells. 

    Whole cuts are the holy grail for cultivated meat as well as plant-based meat. Toronto’s New School Foods recently debuted its whole-cut plant-based salmon.

    “The next frontier of meat alternatives is whole cuts,” Chris Bryson, CEO and founder of New School Foods, said in a statement. He says whole cuts represent the majority of animal meat sales, a challenge with two heavily connected issues: “the quality of the meat alternatives in-market and the limited toolkit our industry uses to produce them,” he said.

    “What’s generally available for consumers now are rubbery, ground, pre-cooked products that will not convince the average customer to change their lifelong habits.”

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  • The First Cultivated Pork Filet Debuts In the U.K.

    3D Bio-Tissues steak

    2 Mins Read

    BSF Enterprise, a biotech-focused investment company, says its subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues has produced the first cultivated steak in the U.K. made from pork cells.

    The first cultivated pork cutlet was made with 3D Bio-Tissues’ (3DBT) serum-free and animal-free cell booster, named City-mix. The result “exceeded expectations in appearance, taste and texture,” the company said. The 3DBT team cooked and ate the filet.

    Cultivated pork filet

    The company says the pork filet is a world’s first for cultivated meat; while a number of companies have developed cultivated pork, much of that has been mince.

    “This is a significant scientific breakthrough which has very positive implications not just for BSF and 3DBT but also for the U.K. and the cultivated meat industry as a whole,” 3DBT CEO Che Connon said in a statement.

    “We are absolutely delighted with the look, taste and texture of our cultivated pork, which is the first time we have fully sampled our product,” Connon said. “Our cruelty-free fillet has exceeded our expectations in all respects, and we are extremely excited about the technological progress we are making and the impact this could have upon our industry.”

    3DBT used pork cells to produce the 3.5-inch by 1.5-inch steak, similar to a typical cut of meat.

    City-mix growth serum

    The company is using City-mix, a lower-cost growth factor that can increase yield without the need for animal-based fetal bovine serum. 3DBT says City-mix is a critical IP component, “providing clear competitive differentiation and world-leading technology.”

    “City-mix, our serum free media in which we cultivated the fillet, is helping to greatly reduce the cost of cultivated meat such that it may become economically viable in the near future,” Connon said.

    3D Bio-Tissues cultivated pork
    Left to right: Dr Craig Stamp, Dr Che Connon and Dr Ricardo Gouveia of 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) taste the cultivated pork | Courtesy Kenn Reay Photography

    “At the same time our ‘structure without scaffold’ technology is helping to make cultivated meat that more closely resembles traditional meat in every respect, without the need for plant-based additives,” Connon said. “We look forward to taking the findings through to the next stage of development, focused on producing a chef-ready product for public consumption.”

    According to the testers, the raw steak showed visible meat fibers and structural integrity similar to conventional meat in consistency, elasticity, color, and texture. The cooking process mimicked conventional meat as well: shrinkage, searing, browning, charring, and crisping, with aromas identical to conventional pork. 3DBT says the taste and texture of the final product were indistinguishable from pork.

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  • Eastern Europe’s First Cultivated Meat Makes the Case for Microalgae Cells

    3 Mins Read

    Czech food tech startup Mewery has debuted what it says is the world’s first cultivated meat made to use microalgae cells.

    Made from a mix of pork cells and microalgae cells, Mewery has released its first cultivated meat prototype and the first for central and Eastern Europe.

    The prototype comes after the company launched in 2020; it was included in Big Idea Ventures’ New Protein Fund accelerator and landed investment funds from Credo Ventures and Purple Ventures last year.

    Microalgae cells

    Using novel tech, the meat is 100 percent cell-based, something Mewery says is an unusual feat in the industry as many other cultivated meat producers rely on inputs including soy and pea mixed with 30 to 50 percent cultivated animal cells.

    Mewery’s cultivated meat is made from 75 percent pork cells and 25 percent microalgae cells – growing to a marketable cut in just ten weeks to produce.

    Mewery’s pork meatballs are made with microalgae | Courtesy

    Mewery says microalgae plays a key role in its cultivated meat development by saving money and replacing controversial ingredients including fetal bovine serum (FBS). Mewery says it also offers a nutritional advantage, enriching the products with additional vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, fiber, and antioxidants.

    Microalgae is being hailed as a sustainable food solution with companies exploring its potential in mimicking dairy, seafood, and palm oil, among other applications. Mewery says its use of microalgae in cultivated meat “has great potential to disrupt the whole field.” The company has submitted a patent for its process of production, including the development of its own cultivating medium.

    “We already have several variants of media that work for us without animal products and which we continue to work with. It is like a cookbook,” Roman Lauš, Mewery’s founder, said in a statement.

    “You have to add somewhere, take away somewhere else, and you will only find out if it was successful when you bake the cake. We have typed specific parameters that we track and compare their dependencies. It’s bioinformatics in practice,” he says.

    Market timeline

    Mewery is aiming to bring its cultivated meat to market within two years. That timeline could line up with regulatory approvals. Cultivated meat is currently only approved for sale in Singapore, but a recent FDA GRAS status in the U.S. for cultivated meat producer Upside Foods means U.S. approval is likely within the next year.

    Impossible Foods patties
    Impossible Foods

    Europe, however, has been notoriously more stringent on approval processes for novel food ingredients. The E.U. and U.K. have still not approved heme, a key ingredient in Impossible Foods’ burgers that give them their meaty taste and texture.

    But for Mewery, the time until approval is valuable.

    “Now we are working intensively on establishing our own biobank, which is basically a repository of cells from which we can cultivate more meat,” Lauš says. “In this way, we want to ensure a more or less unlimited source of pig cells, which will move us closer to large-scale production. The increase in the volume of cultivation in large-capacity cultivators is directly related to this and should happen already this year.”

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  • New Project Explores Decentralizing Cultivated Meat By Supporting Farmers

    cow
    3 Mins Read

    A new research project from Respect Farms aims to bring cultivated meat production to conventional agricultural operations.

    The 18-month feasibility research project is underway with €900,000 in support funding from European governments, NGOs, and industry partners, including Rügenwalder Mühle, the Swiss farmers’ union, fenaco Genossenschaft, the cooperative bank Rabobank, and the Belgium animal rights organization GAIA (Global Action in the Interest of Animals).

    The research

    The group’s goal is to develop the world’s first cultivated meat farm where meat is grown directly from animal cells. Respect Farms, founded by Ira van Eelen, Ralf Becks, Florentine Zieglowski and Ruud Zanders, is active in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, working to develop new business models for conventional agriculture, and leveraging cellular agriculture as a key factor.

    Mosa Meat FBS
    Cultivated meatball | Courtesy Mosa Meat

    A mass shift to cultivated animal protein could help to decentralize cultivated meat production, allowing any farmer or rancher to produce it similar to other crops and animal products.

    Respect Farms will look at three key areas: animal-friendly cell selection, circular cell feeding, and bioreactors suited for farm environments.

    “We are excited to help develop a vision on how farmers will be included in the future cellular agriculture ecosystem. It is important for our nascent field to explore business models and value chains that maximize the benefits for everyone. We are quite proud to be a scientific and technical partner for this project,” Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said in a statement.

    “Cultivated meat offers a solution to the significant issues we are facing as a global community: feeding the fast-growing population in a safe and sustainable way while reducing environmental damage and conserving our planet”, said Jan Westra, Strategic Business Developer at consortium partner Priva.

    The group calls the research essential, saying it plays a vital role in evaluating the potential future role conventional agriculture will play for cellular agriculture.

    New business models for Swiss farmers

    “Once the project is completed, we will be able to assess the extent to which cellular agriculture and the production of cultivated meat on farms represent a new business field for Swiss farmers. Our involvement is thus oriented towards the purpose of the fenaco cooperative: to support farmers in the economic development of their businesses” says Christian Consoni, Head of the Food Industry Division at the fenaco Cooperative.

    “We believe that this proposition responds well to the demand for necessary new sustainable earning models for the existing agricultural sector,” says Aernout van der Does, Directeur Banking for Food, Kringdirectie Oost-Brabant, Rabobank.

    Methane emissions
    Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash

    GAIA’s president Michel Vandenbosch praised the project as a win for animal rights advocates.

    “For animal welfare, we want the food transition towards cultured meat production to happen as soon as possible, without doubt,” Vandenbosch said.

    “For a 100 percent animal-friendly and slaughter-free transition, we aim [sic] a beneficial transition also for farmers,” he said. “With the upcoming feasibility studies, we will assess opportunities for farmers, how they can best use these opportunities and what role they can play. In this way, the transition to cultured meat fits into the broader picture of making the economy ethically sustainable.”

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  • Aleph Farms Is the First Cultivated Meat Company to Earn Kosher Status

    Aleph Farms Cultivated Beef Steak
    3 Mins Read

    Israel’s Chief Rabbi, Yisrael Meir Lau, says cultivated steak from Israel-based Aleph Farms is kosher.

    Cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms has achieved an industry first. Jewish people who observe kosher rules — only eating food blessed by a rabbi — can consume steak produced from cultivated animal cells, says the chief rabbi of Israel.

    Kosher cultivated steak

    While the steak is not yet approved for sale or consumption, regulatory approval is expected later this year. The kosher certification opens the door to a large percentage of the country’s population once the meat achieves approval.

    Israel’s Aleph Farms has earned kosher status. | Courtesy

    “This ruling is meaningful not only for Aleph Farms as a company but also for the entire cultivated meat industry. It sets a foundation for an inclusive public discourse about the intersection of tradition and innovation in our society. At Aleph, we innovate in order to provide quality nutrition to anyone, anytime, anywhere in service of people and the planet, and that includes people with different culinary traditions,” Didier Toubia, Co-Founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, said in a statement.

    “We’re excited that more groups of diners can enjoy our products regardless of their religion, helping us to advance our inclusive vision for food security and tap into different food cultures around the world,” Toubia said.

    Kosher beef demand

    Demand for kosher meat is on the rise globally, according to Aleph. It’s expected to reach more than $100 billion globally by 2030, with demand increasing in the U.S., France, and Israel, which combined make up more than 86 percent of the global Jewish population. Nearly 74 percent of Israel’s population is Jewish.

    Aleph Farms is producing cultivated meat from a single cell source. | Courtesy

    Aleph Farms says it’s working closely with regulatory agencies around the world in preparation for commercial launch. Its first product to market will be a cultivated thin-cut beef steak. It’s also developing different steak cuts as well as collagen made from cultivated cells.

    Lucy, a Black Angus cow who lives on a breeding farm in California, produced the fertilized egg that has served as the base for all of Aleph Farms’ products. The company says it can grow “thousands of tons” of cultivated meat from that single cell source for a more sustainable and ethical protein source.

    Aleph Farms says it is also in contact with Muslim, Hindu, and other religious authorities in order to certify its products as a viable dietary option for groups that have different religious practices.

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  • On Its Quest to Make Cultivated Meat Cheaper, Multus Biotechnology Secures a $9.5 Million Series A

    3 Mins Read

    London-based Multus Biotechnology has closed a $9 million Series A funding round to help accelerate its technology aimed at reducing cultivated meat costs.

    The funding was led by Mandi Ventures with participation from SOSV, Big Idea Ventures, and SynBioVen, alongside sustainable materials-focused company, Asahi Kasei. Multus also secured a $2.5 million grant from Innovate U.K. through the EIC Accelerator — Europe’s most competitive start-up grant.

    Building the world’s first growth media facility

    “Multus’ technology has the potential to revolutionize the cultivated meat industry by significantly reducing production costs and accelerating the commercial scale-up of the sector, benefiting cultivated meat producers, consumers and the environment,” Julio Benetti, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Mandi Ventures, said in a statement.

    Proliferum M is Multus Biotechnology’s first product

    The fresh funding follows a $2.2 million raise in 2021 and the launch of its first product, Proliferum M — an all-in-one media that eliminates the controversial fetal bovine serum still widely used in cultivated meat development.

    Multus says the new funding will go to support the development of the world’s first growth media facility for cultivated meat development. Growth media are historically the most expensive component to producing cultivated meat.

    “We are excited to use this funding to drive innovation in novel ingredient discovery, intelligent formulation design and food-safe growth media production for the affordable scale-up of the cellular agriculture industry,” said Multus CEO Cai Linton. “We are confident that our unique approach to growth media will play a key role in making cultivated meat a sustainable and affordable choice for all.”

    The funding comes as the cultivated meat industry is poised for commercial production as regulatory approval in key markets could come within the year. Late last year, California-based cultivated meat producer Upside Foods cleared the first hurdle toward U.S. regulatory approval by earning the FDA’s GRAS status.

    Earlier this week, California’s Eat Just Good Meat division earned the first regulatory approval for serum-free media. The approval was granted by the Singapore Food Agency, which also approved the company’s cultivated chicken in 2020. It’s currently the only cultivated meat approved for sale in the world.

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

    Multus says its growth media formulations and ingredients will enable the industry to reach affordable at-scale production of animal products. It’s working beyond the cultivated meat scope to other animal-based products as well including dairy and leather.

    The company says its tech enables a “genuinely sustainable alternative to intensive animal farming which continues to erode biodiversity, monopolize arable land, and emit high levels of greenhouse gasses.”

    The post On Its Quest to Make Cultivated Meat Cheaper, Multus Biotechnology Secures a $9.5 Million Series A appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Singapore Approves Good Meat’s Serum-Free Media In a Cultivated Meat First

    good meat chicken
    3 Mins Read

    Good Meat, the cultivated meat division of San Francisco’s Eat Just, has secured the world’s first regulatory approval for a serum-free media.

    The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has granted Eat Just approval for its new media used for its cultivated meat. Eat Just’s Good Meat cultivated chicken was the first in the world to receive regulatory approval for sale and distribution by SFA in 2020.

    Serum-free media

    Eat Just says the approval of the new serum-free media will lead to greater scalability while lowering its manufacturing costs. The company says it will also make its cultivated meat more sustainable.

    “Not too long ago, observers thought removing serum was a major limiting step to scaling cultivated meat. I could not be prouder of our team for doing just that and receiving approval to commercialize it this week. It’s yet another step forward for our company, the cultivated meat industry and the health of our planet,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, said in a statement.

    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat
    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat | Courtesy

    Cultivated meat has historically relied on fetal bovine serum (FBS), a controversial growth media that kept livestock tied to the meat’s production. A growing number of cultivated meat manufacturers have been working to develop viable alternatives in anticipation of widespread regulatory approval. Upside Foods, another Bay Area cultivated meat producer, earned FDA GRAS status late last year — the first step toward U.S. approval.

    According to recent findings published in the journal Communications Biology cultivated meat holds the potential to reduce land use by 90 percent, reduce water use 75 percent, while producing 75 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions.

    The research also found that FBS, the most common growth media, is responsible for 99 percent of the cost of current cultivated meat production systems. FBS is a “notoriously expensive, unsustainable, and inconsistent component, which is inherently antithetical to the aims of cultured meat,” the researchers noted.

    Eat Just’s approval comes on the heels of its expanded production efforts in Singapore. The company is adding bioreactors, including the largest one in the cultivated meat industry, to its Singapore production center that will allow it to scale up to “tens of thousands of pounds” of cultivated meat per year.

    ‘A milestone in scaling’

    “We congratulate Good Meat on achieving this milestone in scaling up cultivated meat production. This complements the company’s work in Singapore to build and operate its bioreactor facility where over 50 research scientists and engineers will develop innovative capabilities in the cultivated meat space such as media optimisation, process development, and texturization of cultivated meat products,” said Damian Chan, Executive Vice President of the Singapore Economic Development Board.

    “GOOD Meat is a key member of our growing ecosystem of more than 70 alternative protein companies and we look forward to their continued contributions in driving agrifood innovation from Singapore for the region and beyond,” Chan said.

    Cultivated meat comes to the butcher shop
    Cultivated meat comes to its first butcher shop in Singapore | Courtesy Eat Just

    “Today’s announcement is yet another significant step for this cutting-edge industry. AMPS Innovation members continue to advance the food landscape with new methods of producing high-quality, safe products to support commercialization of cultivated meat, poultry, and seafood,” said Robert Rankin, Executive Director, Association For Meat, Poultry And Seafood Innovation.

    Mirte Gosker, Managing Director of the Good Food Institute APAC, the industry’s leading think tank, says removing serum from cultivated meat production can drive down costs and “set the stage for expanded commercialization of sustainable protein.”

    “Given Singapore’s reputation as a global launchpad for scalable food security solutions, we’re hopeful that other nations will also soon embrace this smarter way of making meat,” Gosker said.

    The post Singapore Approves Good Meat’s Serum-Free Media In a Cultivated Meat First appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Chinese Cultivated Meat Startup Jimi Biotech Closes a ¥20 Million Angel Funding Round

    jimi
    3 Mins Read

    China-based cultivated meat company Jimi Biotech has closed an angel funding round of ¥20 million ($3 million USD) led by Plum Ventures and Fanqie Capital with funding from Green Leaf Ventures and Joyvio Capital.

    Jimi Biotech, which launched in 2021, says the new funding will assist with key talent hires and its ongoing R&D efforts. The funding follows its cultivated beef launch just over a year ago.

    The fast-moving cultivated meat industry

    “Plum Ventures’ investment focus has always included both consumer goods and cutting-edge technology, and cultivated meat is at the intersection of the two; Fanqie Capital has a great portfolio of food and beverage companies, as well as extensive supply chain investment in the food sector, which will help us better enter the market in the future; Green Leaf Ventures has always focused on ESG, which is exactly what we are seeking for in terms of social welfare. Joyvio Capital, a firm believer in cultivated meat, and is committed to continued investment in the field,” Zhehou Cao, the founder of Jimi Biotech, said in a statement. According to Cao, Jimi’s investors share the value and goals of the brand, bringing along resources as well.

    jimi
    Jimi’s cultivated meat | Courtesy

    “In the fast-moving cultivated meat industry, we highly value Jimi’s in-depth and unique thinking on the technical path and future product forms of cultivated meat,” said Shichun Wu, founding partner of Plum Ventures.

    “Jimi has established its leadership position in cultivated meat technologies, and with its strong capabilities in both R&D and commercialization, we believe that Jimi will become a unicorn company in cultivated meat in the future. Plum Ventures hopes to leverage its rich resources to help Jimi achieve this great cause,” Wu said.

    Yong Qing, founder of food-focused Fanqie Capital says the Jimi Biotech team has strong backgrounds in both engineering and biology, which plays a role in its tech-forward platform.

    “Its strategy focuses on independent research and development and is not in a hurry to launch products in the short term,” Qing said, calling Jimi an “excellent early entrepreneurial team.”

    Qing says Fanqie Capital is optimistic about the cultivated meat market in the long run, “and also believes in the ability of Jimi Biotech to become a market leader. In the future, Fanqie will bring its own resources in the food sector to continue to empower Jimi.”

    ‘New forms of meat’

    The company is working to develop “new forms” of meat through its new technology. It says its goal is to reduce public health risks, and address food safety, environmental pollution, and animal welfare problems caused by industrial animal farming, while also working toward a sustainable and slaughter-free protein production chain.

    jimi's team
    Jimi’s team is developing cultivated meat | Courtesy

    The last year has seen Jimi develop a serum-free and animal-component-free culture media for cultivated meat. It says the media works better than fetal bovine serum. The company has also reduced media costs by 20 times and implemented a media recycling system that sees microorganisms replace expensive media components and use waste media as their culture. The company has made other advancements across myoblasts, feeder cell systems, and scaffolding.

    “Cultivated meat requires expertise from many fields, so it is crucial for the team to have innovative thinking and multi-disciplinary discussions,” Cao said.

    “[T]o fully convince consumers, we ultimately need to have an outstanding product.”

    The post Chinese Cultivated Meat Startup Jimi Biotech Closes a ¥20 Million Angel Funding Round appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • 2023 Food Trends: 12 Predictions For The Future of Alt Protein

    11 Mins Read

    What does the alt protein industry have in store for us amidst a very turbulent 2023 ahead? A lot, actually. Below, I share my 12 crystal ball takes (in no particular order). 

    I sat down to write these trends and ended up writing a whole piece about where plant-based meat is going. Amidst predictions, I wanted to share my views on the sector as a whole, given all the brouhaha out there, and I think it’s worth a read. 

    Author’s Note: This is my third year making alt-protein-specific trend predictions. You can see my 2021 ones and how I did (pretty well, actually!), and here’s last year’s list, as well as my performance (less well, 2022 was rough folks, but still in the running). 

    Photo by New Age Meats.

    1) Blended Products: Cultivated Fat, Meet Plant-Based Meat

    This one may seem obvious for industry insiders and has been coming for a while. While affordable and scalable cultivated meat flesh on supermarket shelves is likely years away, cultivated fat is achievable and startups are already collaborating to create sausages, meatballs and more. So much more to come here, because fat is an integral part of animal meat’s mouthfeel so a cultivated fat add-on could help win over those sitting on the plant-based meat fence.  

    2) Affordable Flexitarianism

    Food shoppers are watching their budgets more than ever. They are chasing value and that means brands need to be creative on the pricing front. I foresee a slew of more affordable plant-based products, perhaps reformulated to be cheaper to manufacture. In this vein, my crystal ball suggests a lot more vegan-ready meals (same as I predicted last year) and more plant-based brands venturing into this space à la Impossible Bowls. Also, lots more value packs coming your way, such as Quorn’s Costco Value Packs and Beyond Meat’s pandemic value pack iterations. 

    Courtesy The Better Meat Co

    3) Fungi Forward Fun

    I once hosted a Clubhouse chat during which participants told me that many Americans are scared of mushrooms and don’t buy them. I am not sure if that is still true (this was 2020) but as someone who lives in Asia, it’s really hard to believe. Here in Hong Kong, we regularly eat at least 5 kinds of mushrooms every week. Mushrooms are delicious, versatile, budget-friendly, and ideal as replacements for animal meat in so many dishes because of their terrific textures and minimal processing. I’m thinking in 2023 we will see more in this space. And in various formats too, from mycoprotein to mycelium and beyond. 

    4) More Culinary Diversity, Please

    One of the reasons alt protein is still such a niche sector is that it remains far too Western-centric. A majority of the products that have been launched are burgers, nuggets and mince, most with European-derived cuisines in mind. Folks, the proverbial “West” is basically less than a billion people. The 7-billion-plus-strong ROW (rest of world) is who we need to be serving (especially since animal protein demand is growing fastest there) and there are hundreds of cuisines begging for smarter protein product drops. I predict a lot more action on this front, particularly in Asia, where the alt-protein revolution is only just beginning. This prediction dovetails well with general food trend reports that are forecasting mega growth in ROW culinary heritages including Cambodian, Filipino, Nigerian, Dominican and many more. Alt protein should serve wider food trends and meet consumers where they are, which is a much more diverse and authentic gastronomic place. 

    Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels.

    5) Canteen Impact 

    A lot of the data around plant-based meat sales being flat is based on SPINS data, a company that tracks retailer sales, ie grocery stores. What’s missing from this is food service data- ie how much plant-based meat/dairy/seafood/eggs large-scale food catering companies like Sodexo and Compass Group are cooking up. These companies have two main audiences: students (schools and universities) and employees (corporate cafeterias) and collectively serve hundreds of millions of people a day (Sodexo: 100+ million, Compass: 150+ million). When they adjust their menus/feature plant-based options, they can have a ginormous impact in terms of lowering our food emissions. And these companies are committed to plant-based meat in a big way. And not just out of good-heartedness, but also because they have their own Net Zero goals, and decreasing the volume of high-emission animal protein products on their menus is a big part of achieving those goals. Further, in a Gen Z-forward world, catering to diversity is KEY. That means offering up menu items to suit all kinds of dietary preferences. Both education and corporate institutions are under increasing pressure to do so, which means the food service operators have to adapt. 

    Note: SPINS data doesn’t include fast food/QSR chain data either. And there’s plenty to be excited about on that front too. Moral of the story: plant-based meat is going nowhere. 

    6) Nostalgia Branding Reigns Supreme

    I can’t say this is a Sonalie original, but after having read over a dozen Gen Z trend reports, I feel low-key confident in telling you: expect a lot more nostalgia-induced packaging across all food sectors (currently dominating snacks and beverage aisles), including meat, dairy and seafood analogues. When the economy sucks, we all crave comfort, and that’s what nostalgia branding offers our loud and proud inner child. This trend goes beyond packaging- it extends to product selection too. Think animal-free dairy mac and cheese boxes, vegan fish fingers, plant-based instant ramen, “chickn” pot pie, and more. 

    cowabunga milk
    Nestlé and Perfect Day’s Cowabunga milk is now available in select locations | Courtesy

    7) Big Food x Animal-Free Dairy Go Steady

    This is a continuation of my 2022 prediction around precision fermentation- I had a feeling the space was going to take off in a big way and it did. But what I foresee for this year is Big Dairy going full-steam ahead on animal-free dairy formulations, from cheese to yogurt to milk to ice cream. The headlines have already started from the likes of giants such as Fonterra, Bel Group, Unilever and Nestle among others. One of the biggest drivers of these collaborations is the industry’s need to account for their GHG emissions profile. For years, meat took most of the climate activist heat. But in the past couple of years, dairy has come under the spotlight, and rightly so. Expect to see a slew of announcements on this front.

    8) Healthy Plus Formulations 

    In an age of inflation and recessionary pressures, companies must give their consumers every reason to choose their brands over others. And for alt protein brands, who are already perceived to be more expensive and “less than”, health is where they should be investing when it comes to product formulation. We need to give consumers more than just meat replacements and I think some brands get it and are going to jump on this. While I have predicted cleaner-label products before (to muted success, I still think plant-based brands need to do better in this area), this is more than that. Gen Z consumers in particular are hungry for food products that are both delicious AND good for you. Study: the phenomenon that is Mid Day Squares, aka functional organic chocolate energy bars. Also look at Athletic Greens’ unicorn valuation and Olipop fiber-rich prebiotic soda (because soda can’t just be soda anymore). Plant-based meat/seafood brandings should be experimenting with super nutrients and functional ingredients to give consumers that healthy plus bang for their buck (plus with the new US FDA healthy food guidelines, they may not have a choice). 

    Because, Animals cultivated mouse meat

    9) Alt Protein Pet Food FTW

    As much as millennials delayed having kids, millennials are choosing to forage the experience altogether. And they are replacing babies with pets. Pet ownership is on the rise and we can’t help but want to spoil our fur babies. That means best-in-class nutrition and food. Pair that with social media ensuring that more pet owners than ever grasp the environmental cost of their furry friends, and this is a massive area of opportunity. There’s already some decent action on the plant-based side of things. But I’m thinking the cultivated pet food opportunity is going to grow. My prediction? Not only will you see more alt-protein pet companies burst onto the scene, but you will also see some existing human-focused players diversify into the pet world, especially seeing as Big Food is jumping into this 112+ billion dollar opportunity. 

    10) The Quiet Quitting of PB Founders

    Word on the VC street is that funding has dried up for plant-based meat. Not only for economic reasons (inflation, looming recession, freefalling public markets), but also for category reasons (plant-based meat is over, or haven’t you heard?)- too many brands, lackluster products, non-recurring customers. Less funding doesn’t just mean fewer new startups, it also means more existing startups will have to close shop because they will run out of money. I predict that over the next year, we will lose 10-20% of the plant-based meat landscape. Unlike with other industries, you won’t hear about it in your Linkedin feed. Why? Well because the majority of these companies (and their investors) are impact-driven. And it’s not good for the mission to talk about failure too much. It just feeds the (Big Meat Lobby) haters. And when you are talking about the future of the planet, the stakes (steaks!) are just too high. Hence…the quiet quitting of plant-based founders. 

    An example of an anti alt dairy tweet, part of the pro dairy campaign Februdairy

    11) The Politicisation of Alt Protein

    Folks it’s been fun. But our time in the “new and innovative sector” sun has ended. For the first few years, Big Food (and Big Meat, Big Dairy, Big Seafood) was happy to let us grow and prosper in our tiny little market share corner. But we’ve made enough of a scene to get their attention and they aren’t too happy about how we’ve managed to get a decent chunk of their customers to question their product’s ethics/health/eco credentials. In my 2021 edition I predicted the revenge of Big Meat. And that’s more than come true. But it’s about to get a lot more sinister. As the industry continues to mature, Big Food is coming for us with its big guns (think Big Oil tactics), and that means politics. We are headed for an Alt Protein = Woke Liberal, Red Meat = Healthy Conservative world. It’s going to get ugly. Examples given: The Nebraska governor’s raging against plant-based meat ahead of the US midterm elections. Big Dairy infiltrating TikTok with anti-oat milk content. Farmers across the world are rebelling against climate action. More to come. 

    12a) Cultivated Meat Regulatory Approval Continues – US

    Last year I predicted that we would see regulatory approval in the US or Israel. I was semi-right. Cultivated chicken meat maker Upside Foods made history to be the first US company to earn GRAS status by the FDA (aka their chicken was deemed safe for human consumption). But that’s only half the battle. To sell their product commercially, they need approval from the USDA. I predict that at least 1 US company gets USDA approval by the end of the year. Upside is strongly positioned to be the chosen one, but cultivated sashimi startup Wildtype could just as likely achieve the milestone. As could BlueNalu.

    Meatable’s cultivated pork is coming to Asia soon | Courtesy

    12b) Cultivated Meat Regulatory Approval Continues – Global Outlook

    I predict the Singaporean government will grant commercial approval to at least 1 local cultivated meat player (I vote for MVP Shiok Meats, which focuses on cultivated seafood), and at least 1 more foreign player (likely Dutch cultivated pork player Meatable or Mosa Meat, given recent announcements).

    Despite what remains an optimistic outlook for cultivated meat in China and some recent notable discussions, I don’t believe we will see commercial approval there in 2023. And I have changed my mind about Israel. While I do believe the country is home to some of the most exciting alt protein startups in the world (I do predict the country will continue to produce incredible cultivated meat innovation) and the government is very supportive with funding and talent, commercial approval is unlikely in 2023, thanks to a new ultra-conservative government and domestic geopolitics. 

    Over in Europe: again, lots of innovation and industry support, but Brussels is well known for being ultra-careful when it comes to approving novel food technologies (see: GMOs) so while I do think the Continent will eventually say yes to cultivated meat, it’s going to take a while. As for the UK, well, while some folks believe it will lead in this area, I remain skeptical. Firstly, their domestic political landscape is a mess (ref: every political headline for the past 4 months!) and secondly, UK farmers have a powerful voice. The government is not going to rock that boat. 

    For an overview of the ten most supportive countries when it comes to cultivated meat, see here. 

    Other stuff I am watching:

    • Seaweed as a super ingredient > we’ve barely scratched the surface of this wonder group of sea vegetables and we will be seeing more seaweed-fortified foods across the board as companies scramble to make their products more sustainable and more healthy (seaweed serves both). 
    • More upstream supply chain biotech funding > (machinery, serums, scaffolding, cell lines) > as VCs get increasingly gun-shy around backing new cultivated meat and precision fermentation end-product teams, they will turn to upstream technology plays, which is very good for the space. The sector can’t scale with sorting out the fundamentals. 
    • Alt food growth > we need to rethink how we produce more than just meat, seafood, eggs and dairy. Coffee, chocolate, palm oil, and sugar- all have problematic ethical and environmental footprints, from child labor to exploitative working conditions to deforestation. So many more companies will come to market to (try to) wrong the rights!

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  • China and U.S. Discuss Best Regulatory Processes for Cultivated Meat

    Upside Foods chicken
    3 Mins Read

    In a sign that widespread regulatory approval for cultivated meat is imminent, regulatory experts from the U.S. and China met to discuss the next steps.

    A recent virtual event organized by the AgFood Future Center of Excellence (AGF) and the Agriculture Food Partnership (AFP), saw the meeting between China and the U.S. regulators come just after Upside Foods became the first cultivated meat producer to earn U.S. FDA GRAS status (generally recognized as safe).

    The event saw Jeremiah Fasano, senior policy advisor at the FDA’s Regulatory Review Office, deliver a keynote address. Fasano encouraged the industry to connect “early and often” to keep the sector moving forward.

    ‘Preparing public guidelines for the industry’

    “FDA is communicating with different companies, and we are preparing public guidelines for the industry,” Fasano said. “As companies engage with more regulators, more reviews and approvals get completed, adding to the global body of knowledge to jointly promote food technology innovation and food safety.”

    Meatable’s cultivated pork is coming to Asia soon | Courtesy

    Ryan Xue, chairman of Agfood Future, says the meetings provide vital opportunities for “all players involved” in the protein innovation sector including the start-ups producing the meat and their financiers. “This in-depth sharing between the U.S. and China will have far-reaching significance for governments and industries interested in seeing the adoption of food innovation that will help shape food innovation and the future of food in the U.S., China and the world,” Xue said.

    China says it will focus on safety assessments of cultivated meat this year. “In addition, 2023 plans include setting up expert working groups to ensure innovation, industry development, and food safety move forward together,” said Yan Song, director of Division III Risk Assessment at CFSA.

    Regulatory approval for cultivated meat

    Currently, Singapore is the only country in the world that’s approved the sale and consumption of cultivated meat. It granted Bay Area food tech company Eat Just regulatory approval for its cultivated chicken in 2020.

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken | courtesy Eat Just

    The GRAS status granted to Upside Foods, another Bay Area cultivated meat producer, is the first step in the U.S. toward receiving approval. The meat must also receive USDA approval.

    According to Wired, the GRAS status came through a “premarket consultation process,” during which “food manufacturers provide the FDA with details of their production process and the product it creates, and once the FDA is satisfied that the process is safe, it then issues a ‘no further questions’ letter.”

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  • Op-Ed: Public Policy Is Key to Mainstreaming Sustainable Proteins in India

    Good Dot India
    6 Mins Read

    Climate change will affect hundreds of millions of Indians and bring about widespread food insecurity- government support of alternative proteins is essential to achieving national food security and independence.

    By: Ambika Hiranandani of the Good Food Institute India, MPhil., Public Policy, University of Cambridge and Shyam Mehta, Vice President at CREAEGIS India, Consumer, Retail and Consumer Technology Sector

    Implementing strategic sustainable food policies today will be the foundation that will help bridge nutritional gaps and feed India in the future. This month, a report from the World Bank jolted the billion-strong nation by forecasting that India will be one of the first countries to face heat waves that break the human survivability limit. According to the report, over 160-200 million people in India will be vulnerable to heat waves by 2030 and 34 million people will lose their jobs because of heat stress associated with productivity decline. 

    Climate change-induced crippling heat waves irreparably impact agriculture

    Climate scientists have long cautioned that heat waves caused by global warming will create obstacles in India’s quest for food security. This March was the hottest on record and shrunk wheat production in key producing states, increased the price of the crop by 20%, and led to an export prohibition. Other crops that will bear the brunt of these heat waves will be soya, barley, and mustard. Faced with weather-related uncertainty and other challenges, India’s farming communities are forced into debt which they can often never return. In the Marathwada district of Maharashtra alone, 600 farmers have committed suicide because of their inability to pay back debt and make their operations profitable. Over 70% of rural Indian households depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute, by 2030 73.9 million Indians will be at risk from hunger; if one were to factor in the effects of climate change this figure increases to 90.6 million.  

    Flaws with the government’s response to food security concerns

    To meet food security needs, the government is investing heavily in the livestock sector which is yielding tremendous financial results. Over a six-year period that ended in 2021, the livestock sector registered a compound annual growth rate of 8%. India is currently home to over 35% of the world’s livestock and India is one of the top 5 methane emitting countries. We are aware that 14.5% of the total GHG emissions come from livestock and 44% of these emissions are composed of methane. Over 20 years, methane’s global warming impact is 80 times that of carbon dioxide. India has not signed the Global Methane Pledge. The Global Methane Pledge was signed by over 100 countries at COP 26 who have committed to reducing their methane emissions by 30% by 2030. Professor Partha Dasgupta in his report on the Economics of Biodiversity emphasized the need for us to understand the hidden costs of environmental destruction and for us to quantify this in economic terms. If we were to analyze India’s livestock growth with this lens, it would perhaps tell a very different story. 

    Alternative proteins: sustainable hero foods

    This is where alternative proteins come in as a sustainable hero food to provide nutritious, tasty and inexpensive food to the nation and help strengthen the economy. India’s sherpa to the G20, Mr. Amitabh Kant, in his speech at the Good Food Institute’s Future of Protein Summit referred to this sector as a “sunrise sector” which is filled with potential to help mitigate problems ranging from malnutrition to climate change. By 2030, according to Bloomberg Intelligence, the plant-based food market is expected to be worth USD 162 billion and account for 7.7% of the global protein market. In a high growth scenario India’s local market will be worth approximately USD 713 million and, in a low growth scenario, will be  USG 217 million. So far there are start-ups that have brought plant-based mince, kebabs, and patties. These companies have created high-end products which are gaining popularity in an urban environment; however, the rural consumer has not been catered to. The potential for plant-based meats to meet the nutritional needs of those at the margins remains largely unexplored. The global CM economy is expected to be worth USD 450 billion by 2040. There are a couple of CM start-ups in India, Clear Meat has developed and tasted its first cultivated chicken mince product in early 2020 and is planning to launch its first market-ready product by 2023. Sutapa Sikdar of Clear Meat explains that as there is no specific regulatory framework for cultivated meat in India, they have not been able to apply for regulatory approval. However, they are in touch with the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and are hopeful that structures will be put into place. MyoWorks, an early-stage start-up, is looking to manufacture a range of ingredients and scaffolds for the cultivated-meat industry globally. MyoWorks has received USD 50,000 from the Department of Biotechnology to demonstrate preliminary proof of concept.

    India has the foundation needed to develop alternative proteins; its agricultural biodiversity lends itself to developing plant-based meats from a diverse range of crops. It produces 25% of the world’s pulses and is of the world’s largest producers and exporters of millet. Startups are working with indigenous farming communities to grow Pongamia seeds which are a rich protein source and creating livelihoods for otherwise disenfranchised people. Its biopharma sector has the potential to pioneer innovation in cultivated meat. 

    The Food Safety Standards (Approval of Non-Specified Foods and Food Ingredients) Regulation, 2017 details the procedure for the pre-market authorization of ‘novel’ foods. Novel foods, according to the regulations, are new additives; processing aids; food ingredients consisting of or isolated from bacteria, yeast, fungus, or algae. However, the definition of ‘novel’ food stops short of making a direct reference to ‘animal cell culture’. Regarding plant-based products, the usage of the terms ‘milk’, ‘butter’ and ‘cheese’ for plant-based products was prohibited by the FSSAI through an executive order dated 15th July 2021. The reasoning behind this order was that the ‘General Standard for Milk and Milk Products’ under the Food Safety and Standards (Food Products and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 did not permit the usage of a dairy term for a plant-based product. The order also directed that action be taken against companies flouting this rule and that e-commerce sites delist plant-based products using such terms. However, coconut milk and peanut butter were spared from the application of this order due to the international usage of these terms. This was challenged in the Delhi High Court by plant-based product manufacturing companies. As the issue currently stands, the court has temporarily permitted plant-based product manufacturers to use dairy terms pending their final decision on the issue. 

    The critical importance of government support 

    The government sets the public policy agenda which determines where research funding goes, details enterprises that will receive fiscal benefits and that those at the margins benefit from novel innovation. So far, India has not set the public policy agenda in favour of the growth of alternative protein companies. Food security is a major theme of India’s G20 presidency and India advocated for 2023 to be declared as the International Year of Millets by the United Nations. The building blocks for an alternative protein-positive policy are there and can be built on with tangible targets which also ties into India’s net zero commitment. 

    Policy options to mainstream these hero foods 

    Policy options such as creating a favourable regulatory framework, providing economic incentives to companies that leverage plant-based proteins to meet the rural needs of those at the margins, and creating structures within the government that focus exclusively on the development of alternative proteins need to be explored. The Swachh Bharat Mission focused on sanitation was the world’s largest nudge campaign and changed the habits of millions of Indians. Similar nudges can be employed to change India’s eating habits to nutritionally rich sustainable food. 

    Alternative proteins have the potential to ameliorate previously unsolvable wicked problems ranging from food insecurity to GHG emissions from food to malnutrition. Innovation can only go so far with limited government support to achieve its potential. India can get ahead of the curve by changing its local landscape and becoming a global player; however, the time to act is now. 

    Lead photo courtesy of Good Dot India.

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  • The First Cultivated Chicken In Ohio Is Made With Matrix F.T.’s Edible Microcarriers

    Matrix F.T. chicken
    3 Mins Read

    Ohio-based Matrix F.T., a leading developer of plant-based scaffolds and microcarriers for the alternative protein industry, says it has developed the first cultivated chicken made in Ohio.

    The team at Matrix F.T. says it has created a proof of concept cultivated chicken nugget to showcase its technology — edible microcarriers and scaffolds that function as key ingredients in cultivated meat products that look, cook, and taste like conventional.

    Currently, the most common types of microcarriers used to provide a scaffold for cells are inedible and must be removed from cultivated meat before consumption. A number of companies and researchers are working to develop edible microcarriers. Last summer, UCLA researchers announced they had created an edible particle that produces a more natural muscle-like texture for cultivated meat. The researchers say they’re using a process that could be scaled up for mass production.

    Ohio’s first cultivated nugget

    Matrix F.T.’s headquarters include engineering labs and biological testing facilities where cell culture experiments are conducted to test performance, food safety, and sterility on its scaffolds and microcarriers. The company also conducts contracted research in its wet lab for cultivated meat companies.

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken | courtesy Eat Just

    Microcarriers work by growing and proliferating cells in bioreactors. Scaffolding helps to mature and differentiate cells, signal gene and protein expressions, and turn cells into complex tissue structures, which become cultivated meat. It works with 3D extracellular matrices for cell growth and proliferation.

    The company says its first chicken myoblasts — muscle cells — came from a University partner. The cells were cultivated by Heidi Coia, PhD., the Director of Product Development and Innovation at Matrix F.T. The harvested cells were combined with a proprietary mixture of plant-based proteins to create the hybrid chicken nugget.

    “It had a great flavor, texture, and we were delighted to give a small example of how our customizable products can contribute to each of our customers’ unique cell-based foods that they are going to take to market,” Coia said.

    Plant-based scaffolds and microcarriers

    Matrix F.T. opened its new wet lab last April, aiming to expand its work in growing cultivated protein made with edible, plant-based nanofiber scaffolds and microcarriers.

    The company said the new facility is instrumental in shortening the gap between engineering custom plant-based, nanofiber scaffolds and quickly delivering a final product for cultivated meat companies’ go-to-market timelines.

    Upside Foods’ EPIC California factory, Courtesy

    “Before opening the wet lab, Matrix F.T. relied heavily on customer feedback to learn if the scaffolds we custom-engineered for their applications were working,” Teryn Wolfe, Matrix F.T.’s VP of Corporate Development, said in a statement. “Now that we can provide partners with a more robust suite of R&D offerings, we’re able to have greater control and deliver results at the speed needed to help our customers scale. This is another important step in our ability to fuel innovation across the board, and we’re proud to continue to lead in the cultivated protein space, right here from Ohio.”

    The new nugget launch is the latest in the quickly crowding cultivated chicken category. Late last year, California-based Upside Foods was the first U.S. company to receive the FDA’s GRAS status for its cultivated chicken. The company says it can produce 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat per year at its factory.

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  • Cultivated Meat Regulation: The 10 Most Supportive Countries, From Funding To Policy

    8 Mins Read

    When it comes to cultivated meat, these ten governments are the most active in terms of funding, regulatory frameworks and research resources.

    Cultivated meat is one of the key food solutions in our climate crisis-fighting arsenal. There are now over 100 startups globally working on this technology and 2022 saw some huge strides in the sector, from the largest funding round ever recorded to key product firsts.

    As pundits continue to debate the topic of whether cultivated meat will become a common reality (It can’t scale! It definitely will scale!), one major issue that needs more attention is government support. From policy to subsidies, more needs to be done to boost the industry. Certain forward-thinking governments are making moves in terms of regulation and government funding, both of which are largely seen as the crucial next step to finally getting sustainable protein grown using cellular agriculture to diners’ plates. From regulatory updates in the US to more greenlights from Singapore authorities, we take a look at the ten most active governments across the globe that are helping to make cultivated meat a reality.

    Editor’s Note: While this list focuses on countries that have allocated the most funds and/or made the biggest regulatory moves, this list is not exhaustive. There are a handful of other countries that are pushing ahead with regulatory frameworks and economic support- a few to watch include South Korea, India, Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

    Source: Emerging Proteins NZ – September 2022 Report

    1) Singapore

    Singapore famously became the world’s first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat in December 2020 when it gave the go-ahead for Eat Just’s chicken nuggets. It has since approved a slew of the food tech’s products, including chicken breast, as well as a food processing license to Esco to manufacture foods using cell-ag tech. Aussie firm Vow says it is also expecting Singapore regulators to give the go-ahead for its cultivated quail soon. Cultivated meat products are approved by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) on a case-by-case basis, with producers submitting safety assessments to grant pre-market approval. 

    Aside from setting up its regulatory framework, which has been continually revised (four times and counting) to include new feedback from industry stakeholders, Singapore’s government has also poured money into the sector as part of its ‘30% by 2030’ local food production goal. Now housing an entire batch of homegrown startups like Shiok Meats, and foreign startups like Eat Just and Hong Kong’s Avant who have chosen the city as its Asia base, Singapore is likely to continue its lead in paving the way for global cultivated meat adoption. 

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    Good Meat chicken.

    2) Israel 

    Israel is another global leader in the cultivated industry, with its Innovation Authority demonstrating clear support with its latest $18M injection into a nationwide cultivated meat consortium. The group is made up of 14 companies and 10 universities and research bodies in the country. Aside from research funding, the government has also poured public funds into the sector, contributing over $13M to early-stage startups and infrastructure to the overall alt-protein industry. 

    Aleph Farms’ thin-cut beef steak.

    3) United States

    The US is making moves towards approving the sale and consumption of cultivated meat, which will likely come in 2023. Industry watchers are eyeing the milestone after California’s Upside Foods got through the first hurdle. In November, the startup received FDA GRAS status for its cultivated chicken, becoming the first American company to have its products deemed safe to eat. This is the initial pre-market step of the country’s joint framework to regulate cultivated meat products, with the USDA then in charge of the processing, packaging and labeling steps for certain products which fall under its oversight. 

    In terms of funding, the US government has backed the sector in several different ways. Most notably, the USDA awarded a $10M grant in 2021 to Tufts University for the creation of a new National Institute for Cellular Agriculture, which was the first-ever government-funded research project. The Biden administration doubled down on its promise to support alt-proteins in September 2022: the biotech program includes funding for “foods made with cultured animal cells”. More assistance came in the way of the administration’s Global Food Security Research Strategy released in October, as part of Biden’s plan to end hunger and foster food resilience. 

    Upside Foods chicken.

    4) European Union

    For cultivated meat products to be sold in the EU, regulators at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will have to test the products as with any other novel foods. In addition to a pre-market safety evaluation, cultivated meat products that may use genetically modified ingredients will need to comply with the region’s GM foods regulations. 

    While the EU’s food safety rules are among the world’s most stringent, which may mean a slower pace for cultivated products to reach the market, the region is investing in the sector as part of its climate plan. In 2020, the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy included alternative proteins as a “key area of research” for a “fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system”, a sentiment lawmakers doubled down on within its 2021 Strategic Foresight Report. The EU’s core innovation and research funding program Horizon Europe also mentioned cultivated meat and seafood as one out of three of its core pillars, with around €7M set aside specifically for the sector. This means more money going into projects that will help make cultivated meats more cost-efficient, such as the necessary infrastructure and materials or ingredients, and scale-up efforts. 

    Mosa Meat burger.

    5) EU powerhouses: The Netherlands and Norway

    Within the EU, some of the leading governments accelerating cultivated meat includes the Netherlands, which has injected €60M into the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands consortium, and Norway, where authorities have set up a five-year research project into cellular agriculture with €2M in annual public funding.

    Government funding into the overall alt-protein sector (includes plant-based, precision fermentation). Source: Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Newsletter

    6) United Kingdom

    Right now, the UK will require any cultivated meat products to go through pre-market authorization from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) as with any other “novel foods” in order to be sold on the market. There have been some signs that a novel regulatory framework “distinct” for cultivated foods could be on the horizon, with one government policy paper suggesting that adopting these changes would be a part of the country’s successful post-Brexit economic plan. 

    Ivy Farm sausages.

    Some public funding has been injected into the industry, with the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) awarding £14M to nearly a dozen projects in May this year, one of which is the Royal Agricultural University’s research into transitioning livestock farmers towards cultivated meat. Previously, the UKRI has backed London-based Multus Biotech, a startup focused on developing cost-effective animal-free growth media to help scale cultivated meat production. 

    7) Australia and 8) New Zealand

    In Australia and New Zealand, regulators say their existing Novel Foods Standard will already be able to accommodate foods made through cell-ag tech. This will include cultivated foods that may have used genetic modification technology, which will have to comply with additional regulations. Companies will have to submit their application to the FSANZ for pre-market approval. The capability of the existing standards and labeling requirements to cope with new cultivated meat products was accepted at the Food Ministers Meeting (FMM) in November 2022. 

    Vow Foods quail meat.

    Read: 10 reasons why cultivated meat is the future of protein

    9) Japan

    Japan is poised to see a new regulatory framework for cultivated meat, with its government stating it has already put together an expert team to begin assessing the safety of these products in June 2022. This will be spearheaded by the country’s Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry, whose panel is tasked with deciding the necessary safety precautions for the sector. These moves came after the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries launched a forum in 2020 made up of industry stakeholders, including companies and government agencies, to compile a strategy for building Japan’s alt-protein ecosystem. 

    In terms of funding, the Japanese government has supported homegrown startup IntegriCulture, awarding it a ¥240M (US$2.2M) grant in 2020 to build its first commercial bioreactor.

    IntegriCulture meat.

    10) China  

    China recently hinted that it will ramp up its investment in cultivated meats. Its latest five-year agricultural plan specifically included cultivated meat and “artificial protein” for the first time. Under the plan, the Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Affairs outlined the development of “synthetic biology technology” as key to its goal of “upgrading of the food industry, and reduc[ing] the pressure on environmental resources brought about by traditional aquaculture”. According to state media Xinhua News, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the need to develop new sources of protein. He commented that “developing biological science and technology” to supplement traditional livestock would be key to the country’s food resilience. 

    Lead image courtesy of Upside Foods.

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  • New Institute of Cellular Agriculture to Support Startups in the Cultivated Meat Industry

    3 Mins Read

    A new strategic partnership between investment platform Cult Food Science, the University of Alberta, and New Harvest Canada, aims to provide support for startups in the cellular agriculture industry.

    Based at the University of Alberta’s Agri-Food Discovery Place, the Institute of Cellular Agriculture’s goal is to provide space and support for “new startups, researchers, students, entrepreneurs, and product development” in the emergent sector.

    “We are at the horizon of an explosion of new ideas and ventures that will accelerate the global cellular agriculture industry,” Lejjy Gafour, CEO of Cult Food Science, said in a statement. “We are excited to be able to accelerate the launch and development of new ventures and ideas from individual founders, to supporting classic enterprises who want to adopt cellular agriculture as part of their strategy with our support.”

    Cult Food announced another strategic partnership last year, joining forces with Singapore’s Umami Meats as part of a Seed funding round.

    A ‘pivotal stage’

    Isha Datar, Executive Director of New Harvest, says cellular agriculture is at “a pivotal stage” and needs the proper infrastructure to allow the co-creation of innovation to deliver on its promises.

    The range of cultivated fish from Umami Meats
    The range of cultivated fish from Umami Meats | Courtesy

    “Canada, and Edmonton, Alberta in particular, can provide the optimal environment to support cross-disciplinary collaboration, and advance our research in areas like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning,” Datar said. “This new partnership will leverage the University of Alberta’s legacy in bioprocess engineering to bring novel technologies and innovations to the Canadian agri-food sector.”

    Positioning the Institute at the University of Alberta allows companies working on cellular agriculture products, such as cultivated meat, access to research and innovation through the university’s broad network. It also helps to accelerate the advancement of experts in the space, providing opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.

    “This partnership with New Harvest Canada and its innovation partners will be pivotal in how our research and teaching addresses climate change, industry sustainability, and food security issues” said Dr. Heather Bruce, Chair of the Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta. “New Harvest Canada and Cult Food Science will join a nexus of startup companies at the U of A’s Agri-Food Discovery Place that is launching agriculture and food production into the 21st century.” 

    Prepping for approval

    The move comes as the industry is poised to enter the mainstream. Cultivated meat in the U.S. got its first victory in November when Upside Foods earned GRAS status from the FDA for its cultivated chicken.

    Upside Foods’ EPIC factory, Courtesy

    Upside is also one of a growing number of cultivated meat producers with large-scale factories ready to go live once they receive regulatory approval. Upside operates a 53,000 square-foot California factory that it says can produce 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat a year.

    The industry is also formalizing efforts around the naming convention for cultivated meat in order to smooth regulatory processes and appeal to consumers. A recent study found some cultivated meat terms including ‘lab-grown’ and ‘artificial’ to be off-putting.

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  • What Should We Call Cultivated Meat? New Study Provides Insight

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    3 Mins Read

    New research takes a look at the terminology surrounding cultivated protein — meat and seafood grown from animal cell samples in bioreactors.

    It’s been called a lot of things — from “clean” meat to lab-grown, cell-based, and cultured meat. Its critics have labeled it Frankemeat. The industry has settled on “cultivated meat”. But what do consumers prefer? A new study took a look.

    The research, published in the journal Nature Portfolio looked at U.S. consumers and their terminology preferences.

    The findings

    “We surveyed U.S. consumers to compare nine different labels for cultivated meat and seafood products in terms of appeal, purchase intent, perceived safety, perceived allergenicity, and clarity,” Chris Bryant of the University of Bath, said of the research. “We tested terms that were suggested by stakeholders in recent USDA and FDA calls for comments, as well as some additional terms.”

    Cultivated meat comes to the butcher shop
    Cultivated meat comes to its first butcher shop | Courtesy Eat Just

    “Some had proposed that these products be labelled ‘artificial’ meat or seafood, but we found that this terminology was not a good representation of the nature of the products, and led to many people mistakenly thinking they would be safe for allergy sufferers. On the other hand, we also tested a completely new term, ‘Novari’, but we found that this had very low levels of consumer understanding,” Bryant said.

    The terms earning the most favor were “cell-cultured” and “cell-cultivated.” “Artificial” and “lab-grown” were least favorable.

    What the industry says

    Ryan Huling, who leads communications and programs for the Good Food Institute’s Asia-Pacific region, says the researchers reiterate several important points that GFI has also made. GFI is the leading industry think tank. According to Huling, he’s not surprised that the nomenclature that invokes science and technology tends to have lower measures of appeal and purchase intent. “Put simply, consumers want to eat food, not tech,” he told Green Queen.

    “It is also worth noting that this research was conducted in the U.S., where cultivated meat is not yet approved for commercial sale,” Huling said. U.S.-based Good Meat is the only company selling cultivated meat to consumers, currently; its cultivated chicken is available in Singapore. But the FDA recently GRAS status to U.S.-based Upside Foods, which is the first step in its path toward U.S. regulatory approval, bringing the country one step closer to the widespread availability of cultivated meat.

    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat
    An ABEC bioreactor that produces Good Meat | Courtesy

    “GFI conducted a consumer study in 2019 with Mattson which helped determine our initial decision to use ‘cultivated’ terminology, while a more recent 2021 GFI survey of the cultivated meat industry demonstrated that ‘“’cultivated’”’ is also increasingly the preferred industry term,” Huling said.

    He says adding “cell” before “cultivated” is redundant because even conventional animal meat is composed of cells.

    “Describing animal products as ‘cultivated’ has been broadly shown to be most effective at fostering positive responses from consumers, while also being both scientifically accurate and a clear differentiator from conventional animal products,” Huling said. “That’s why more than 30 industry stakeholders — including nearly every cultivated food startup in Asia Pacific, as well as multinational companies Cargill and Thai Union and regional coalition groups from China, Australia, Japan, and Korea—have unified behind the term.”

    Huling says that from a narrative standpoint, “cultivated” also facilitates increased consumer awareness by “drawing clear parallels with the familiar process of plant cultivation.”

    “Just as growing plants in a greenhouse involves snipping off a small cutting from a plant and allowing it to grow in a nutrient-rich environment before harvest, we can now make meat by putting a small sample of animal cells into a nutrient-rich environment — known as a cultivator — and then harvesting them. This is a comparison that consumers around the world can easily wrap their heads around,” he said. 

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  • Mosa Meat Calls on Governments to Fund Cultivated Meat: ‘Beef Needs a Solution’

    Mark Post
    3 Mins Read

    Cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat is urging governments to support the growth of the category to fight climate change.

    A new white paper released by Dutch cultivated meat producer Mosa Meat is urging global leaders to redirect funds from conventional beef production toward cell-based meat cultivation as a viable tool in the fight against climate change.

    ‘Beef needs a solution’

    “Beef needs a solution. Industrial meat production continues to accelerate the climate crisis, while the world’s demand for beef is steadily growing,” Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, said in a statement. Animal agriculture accounts for nearly 60 percent of agriculture’s total global emissions. The sector is the second-largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions.

    “We are creating an alternative approach to producing real beef. With Mosa Meat’s rapid recent growth, creating the biggest scientific team in the industry and the largest cultivated meat campus in the world, I am very excited for what lies ahead as we help reshape the global food system,” Bosch said.

    Mosa Meat wants to see widespread support for cultivated meat | Courtesy

    The new review, entitled Cultivating Meat: The Mosa Approach, describes the recent accomplishments made by the cultivated meat sector and how it can play a positive role in not only mitigating global warming but also food security, preservation of natural resources, and public health.

    Mosa Meat was founded after its co-founders, Dr. Mark Post and Peter Verstrate, were the first to unveil cultivated meat in 2013, setting the wheels in motion for a sector that experts say could be worth $25 billion by 2030 following widespread regulatory approval.

    “We unveiled the first cultivated beef burger to the world in 2013 and a whole new cultivated meat sector has been developed, creating new value chains and collaborations,” said Bosch. “The next step for our field is to develop industrial and commercial-sized production facilities to maximize the potential impact. We call upon a range of financial, societal, governmental, and scientific institutions to collaborate and further invest into the development of cultivated meat.”

    Advancing cultivated meat

    Mosa Meat’s report says price parity with conventional meat is critical in the success of the category as is nutritional value and culinary experience. When Mosa unveiled the first cultivated burger in 2013, its production cost was about $330,000. Costs have dropped considerably, with companies saying they can reach price parity with more expensive cuts of conventional meat.

    Mosa Meat FBS
    Cultivated meatball | Courtesy Mosa Meat

    Last January, Mosa Meat announced it had successfully removed the controversial cultivated meat growth medium, fetal bovine serum, without genetically altering cells. It made its science public in the journal Nature Food in an effort to further advance the category.

    “For real progress in the protein transition, new solutions are needed to give consumers exactly what they expect from meat,” Mosa Meat says in its review. “The true potential of cultivated meat is that consumers can keep eating the products they love, exactly as they are doing now — and we don’t need to bet on massive global consumer behavioural change to reduce the current negative externalities of meat consumption. This is the primary reason Mosa Meat was founded.”

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  • Future Food Technology Could Give Nature Back Up To 80% of The World’s Farmland

    5 Mins Read

    By: Chris D Thomas, Jack Hatfield and Katie Noble

    Here’s the basic problem for conservation at a global level: food production, biodiversity and carbon storage in ecosystems are competing for the same land. As humans demand more food, so more forests and other natural ecosystems are cleared, and farms intensify and become less hospitable to many wild animals and plants. Therefore global conservation, currently focused on the COP15 summit in Montreal, will fail unless it addresses the underlying issue of food production.

    Fortunately, a whole raft of new technologies is being developed that make a system-wide revolution in food production feasible. According to recent research by one of us (Chris), this transformation could meet increased global food demands by a growing human population on less than 20% of the world’s existing farmland. Or in other words, these technologies could release at least 80% of existing farmland from agriculture in about a century.

    Around four-fifths of the land used for human food production is allocated to meat and dairy, including both range lands and crops specifically grown to feed livestock. Add up the whole of India, South Africa, France and Spain and you have the amount of land devoted to crops that are then fed to livestock.

    Tractors in a large field
    Brazil’s enormous soy farms mostly produce food for animals, not humans. lourencolf / shutterstock

    Despite growing numbers of vegetarians and vegans in some countries, global meat consumption has increased by more than 50% in the past 20 years and is set to double this century. As things stand, producing all that extra meat will mean either converting even more land into farms, or cramming even more cows, chickens and pigs into existing land. Neither option is good for biodiversity.

    Chart of land use per 100g of protein for different foods
    Beef and lamb might contain plenty of protein but they use vast amounts of land. OurWorldInData (data: Poore & Nemecek (2018)), CC BY-SA

    Meat and dairy production is already an unpleasant business. For instance, most chickens are grown in high-density feeding operations, and pork, beef and especially dairy farming is going the same way. Current technologies are cruel, polluting and harmful to biodiversity and the climate – don’t be misled by cartoons of happy cows with daisies protruding from their lips.

    Unless food production is tackled head-on, we are left resisting inevitable change, often with no hope of long-term success. We need to tackle the cause of biodiversity change. The principal global approach to climate change is to focus on the cause and minimise greenhouse gas emissions, not to manufacture billions of parasols (though we may need these too). The same is required for biodiversity.

    So, how can we do this?

    Cellular agriculture provides an alternative, and could be one of this century’s most promising technological advancements. Sometimes called “lab-grown food”, the process involves growing animal products from real animal cells, rather than growing actual animals.

    If growing meat or milk from animal cells sounds strange or icky to you, let’s put this into perspective. Imagine a brewery or cheese factory: a sterile facility filled with metal vats, producing large volumes of beer or cheese, and using a variety of technologies to mix, ferment, clean and monitor the process. Swap the barley or milk for animal cells and this same facility becomes a sustainable and efficient producer of dairy or meat products.

    Animal cruelty would be eliminated and, with no need for cows wandering around in fields, the factory would take up far less space to produce the same amount of meat or milk.

    Industrial machinery
    The cultivation room at California-based Upside Foods which uses cellular agriculture to produce meat. David Kay / Upside Foods

    Other emerging technologies include microbial protein production, where bacteria use energy derived from solar panels to convert carbon dioxide and nitrogen and other nutrients into carbohydrates and proteins. This could generate as much protein as soybeans but in just 7% of the area. These could then be used as protein food additives (a major use of soy) and animal feed (including for pets).

    It is even possible to generate sugars and carbohydrates using desalination or through extracting CO₂ from the atmosphere, all without ever passing through a living plant or animal. The resulting sugars are chemically the same as those derived from plants but would be generated in a tiny fraction of the area required by conventional crops.

    What to do with old farmland

    These new technologies can have a huge impact even if demand keeps growing. Even though Chris’s research is based on the assumption that global meat consumption will double, it nonetheless suggests that at least 80% of farmland could be released to be used for something else.

    That land might become nature reserves or be used to store carbon, for example, in forests or the waterlogged soils of peat bogs. It could be used to grow sustainable building materials, or simply to produce more human-edible crops, among other uses.

    Gone too will be industrial livestock systems that produce huge volumes of manure, bones, blood, guts, antibiotics and growth hormones. Thereafter, any remaining livestock farming could be carried out in a compassionate manner.

    Cows in a forest
    Longhorn cattle on a rewilding project in England: if we got most of our protein and carbs through new technologies, this sort of compassionate and wildlife-friendly farming could be scaled up. Chris Thomas, Author provided

    Since there would be less pressure on the land, there would be less need for chemicals and pesticides and crop production could become more wildlife-friendly (global adoption of organic farming is not feasible at present because it is less productive). This transition must be coupled with a full transition towards renewable energy as the new technologies require lots of power.

    Converting these technologies into mass-market production systems will of course be tricky. But a failure to do so is likely to lead to ever-increasing farming intensity, escalating numbers of confined animals, and even more lost nature.

    Avoiding this fate – and achieving the 80% farmland reduction – will require a lot of political will and a cultural acceptance of these new forms of food. It will require economic and political “carrots” such as investment, subsidies and tax breaks for desirable technologies, and “sticks” such as increased taxation and removal of subsidies for harmful technologies. Unless this happens, biodiversity targets will continue to be missed, COP after COP.

    This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

    Lead photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh via Pexels.

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  • 2022 Review: Top 10 Cultivated Protein Stories of The Year

    5 Mins Read

    It’s been a whirlwind year for the alternative protein industry. That’s why we’re taking a look back on some of the biggest headlines of 2022, spanning across the globe. Here, we review what the cultivated meat sector brought to the table, from major funding milestones to product launches. 

    1. Upside Foods earns GRAS status

    Upside Foods’ chicken taco.

    California-based cell-based chicken maker Upside Foods received the milestone GRAS status from the FDA this year. In November, it became the first U.S. company to obtain the “No Questions” letter from the authorities to deem its products safe to eat. It’s a big deal for the cultivated industry, with this move seen as the first step towards gaining regulatory approval for producers to sell to consumers directly in the country for the first time. The announcement comes just short of a year after Upside acquired cultivated seafood startup Cultured Decadence.

    2. First-ever cultivated yogurt becomes a reality, thanks to Wilk 

    In a global first for the sector, Israeli food tech startup Wilk says it has developed yogurt using cell cultures derived from human and animal milk. The yogurt product, released in November, contains cell-based milk fat that rivals the nutritional benefits of conventional dairy-based milk fat.

    3. Cultivated chicken gets served at COP27…then sold at a butcher shop

    Good Meat’s cell-based chicken.

    With the sustainability of our food system a subject of focus at the United Nations COP27 summit this year, cultivated chicken was served up for the first time. Guests at the event, which took place in Egypt in November, got a taste of Good Meat’s real chicken meat grown directly from cells. Good Meat is the cultivated protein arm of San Francisco-based Eat Just, the brand known for its plant-based JUST Egg product. Weeks later, Good Meat’s cultivated meat, which evolved from a nugget format last year to now a satay chicken skewers (and soon, even chicken skin), landed on the bistro menu and display case at a Singapore butcher shop for the first time.

    4. APAC agrees on ‘cultivated’ nomenclature

    Perhaps the alternative protein nomenclature wars have come to an end–or at least in the cultivated meat world. In APAC, cell-based food producers came to an agreement that the preferred English-language term would be “cultivated”. Those who signed the memo in October include the Good Food Institute’s (GFI) regional arm, as well as over 30 other major stakeholders in the category, from Cargill to the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture. While terms such as “cell-cultured” and “cell-based” have been previously been touted as the top terms to describe this sector of alternative proteins, the GFI has long been a proponent of the word “cultivated” since 2019.

    5. Africa welcomes its first cultivated beef burger

    Mzansi Meat’s beef burger.

    In April, we saw cultivated beef land in the African continent for the first time. South African startup Mzansi Meat launched its first cell-based burger, serving it at a special event to Cape Town’s mayoral committee member Alderman James Vos. Other African startups racing to bring their cell-based meats to the table include chicken-focused Mogale Meat and Sea Stematic, which has its eye on seafood.

    6. Governments around the world formally back cultivated meat

    Cultivated meat got a big boost from governments around the world. From the €60 million investment made by the Dutch authorities to Israel’s go-ahead for the country’s cultivated meat consortium, it’s clear that states are finally seeing the sector as a promising solution to global food security and sustainability. Global superpowers are on it too. The Biden administration gave huge backing to the biotech industry, which was largely seen as paving the way for cultivated meat regulatory approval. Meanwhile, China’s 5-year plan specifically included cell-based protein for the first time, which certainly boosted investment sentiment for players like CellX, a Shanghai cell-ag firm that bagged $10.6M in its Series A this year.

    7. Vow to become world’s second approved cultivated meat brand in Singapore

    French onion dish with Morsel, Vow's first product
    French onion dish with Morsel, Vow’s first product.

    Australia’s Vow revealed it will soon gain regulatory approval from Singapore to sell its cultivated quail meat. The announcement was made as the food tech sets a record with its $49.2M Series A funding, which came soon after it opened one of the world’s largest cultured meat factories capable of churning out 30 tons per year. The factory joins the strong league of cell-based producers that turned its machines on this year, from Ivy Farm’s plant in the U.K. (which is Europe’s largest), and Asia’s biggest facility in Singapore spearheaded by Good Meat. 

    8. Cultivated food ecosystem get organized across the globe

    In October, three of the world’s biggest cultivated food industry associations hosted a meeting in Singapore. The first-of-a-kind alliance is made up of U.S.-based Alliance for Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Innovation (AMPS Innovation), Cellular Agriculture Europe (CAE), and the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA). Together, these societies hope to get ecosystem stakeholders together to speed up the process of creating a global regulatory framework, time to market and educating consumers about the welfare benefits and sustainability solutions the industry has to offer. The latter was founded by 11 companies across the Asian region, which only just launched in March this year. 

    9. 2022 is a year of firsts for cell-based product launches, from smoked duck breast to fish balls

    forsea foods
    Forsea Foods’ eel.

    2022 marked an incredible year for cultivated protein product rollouts. Some of the major ones include Meatable, which is set to launch cell-based pork in Singapore by partnering with the city-state’s contract manufacturer ESCO Aster, Meatiply’s regional-first cultivated smoked duck breast, and Israel-based Future Meat’s ground lamb meat. There’s also Umami Meats’ fish balls, Forsea Foods’ eel, and Joes Future Food’s pork belly for its pork-loving domestic market–all cultivated directly from cells. Even cell-cultured fish fat is now a thing, thanks to ImpacFat. 

    10. Foie gras makers Gourmey bag record funding 

    Finally, French startup Gourmey made headlines for closing a record-breaking €48M Series A in October. The oversubscribed round will go towards making its culinary-grade cultivated foie gras a reality by building a 46,000-square-foot commercial production facility in Paris, due to open in 2024. 

    Lead image courtesy of Good Meat.

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  • The First LCA on Cultivated Beef Shows 88% Fewer GHGs Than Conventional

    SCiFi Foods co-founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora, PhD, Courtesy
    3 Mins Read

    SciFi Foods has conducted the world’s first Life Cycle Analysis on cultivated beef and the findings show significant benefits for the planet.

    Researchers at The Ohio State University (OSU) conducted the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) on cultivated beef — the first peer-reviewed research on the climate impacts of lab-grown protein versus its conventional live animal counterparts. The findings were published in the journal Sustainability.

    The researchers looked at burgers made from cultivated beef along with plant-based ingredients including soy protein, produced by ScIFi Foods, the Bay Area startup that emerged from stealth mode earlier this year.

    The findings

    According to the findings, the SciFi Foods’ burgers reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 88.5 percent when compared to conventional beef burgers. Energy use dropped more than 37 percent, land use dropped more than 90 percent, and water used dropped by nearly 97 percent when the beef was grown in bioreactors.

    The researchers note that some parts of the process were very similar to conventional beef, such as cold storage, packaging, and distribution, but they note “there was little doubt overall that the SciFi Burger had a significantly smaller environmental impact.”

    SciFi Foods cultivated meat produces 88% fewer GHGs than conventional | Courtesy

    “There are many ways engineering and bioengineering is being utilized today to create a more sustainable future,” lead study author, Dr. Bhavik Bakshi, Richard M. Morrow Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at OSU, said in a statement, “and this is just the onset when it comes to what science can do for the food system.” 

    While the study only looked at SciFi’s products, the researchers say the findings validate the entire category — a significant milestone as regulatory approval nears in the U.S., following Upside Foods’ recent FDA GRAS status.

    ‘Leaving a positive mark on the planet’

    [W]e’re proud to prove that yes, what we’re doing is truly making an impact, because as much as this is about delicious burgers, the crux of it is about leaving a positive mark on the planet,” said SciFi Foods’ co-founder and CEO Joshua March.

    Methane emissions
    Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash

    The researchers say the study does not assume exclusive use of renewable energy, suggesting a shift to renewable resources could prove even more climate-friendly than conventional cattle farming.

    Animal agriculture is a leading producer of emissions. According to the OSU researchers, agriculture and the food industry is responsible for 25 percent of all global emissions. The world’s leading climate scientists and public health organizations have called for drastic dietary shifts to reduce animal products in order to meet the Paris Agreement target of keeping temperatures from rising more than 1.5°C.

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  • Cultivated Meat Just Landed In a Butcher Shop for the First Time

    Cultivated meat comes to the butcher shop
    3 Mins Read

    Eat Just’s Good Meat is now available through a Singaporean butcher shop, Huber’s Butchery.

    Eat Just’s cultivated Good Meat is coming to the display case and bistro menu of Huber’s Butchery in Singapore, beginning early next year. The launch includes a tasting preview happening this Saturday.

    ‘Another historic moment’

    “Offering this new approach to making meat at a butchery is another historic moment in the long road to making our food system more delicious and sustainable,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just, said in a statement. “I’m very proud to partner with the Huber’s team to give people a whole new way to experience our cultivated chicken in the new year.”

    The news follows several recent launches across Singapore including a partnership with the delivery platform Food Panda, and a recent partnership with a number of hawker stalls, as well as fine dining restaurants.

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

    Last month, during the COP27 conference in Egypt, Eat Just served its Good Meat chicken to global climate leaders, media, and consumers for the first time outside of Singapore. Cultivated meat is poised to reduce the protein industry’s carbon footprint by producing fewer emissions than conventional meat production — some estimates put it at 90 percent fewer emissions. It’s also less resource intensive, requiring less land and water than conventional meat.

    The Huber’s partnership will see the company’s first placement alongside conventional butcher shop meat, something Huber says aligns with its longstanding commitment to quality.

    “When we founded our butcher shop, we made it our mission to provide top quality and exceptional tasting meat products with the highest food safety standards at an affordable price. Partnering with GOOD Meat is in keeping with that vision and the realities of our ever-changing food system,” said Huber’s Butchery Managing Director Ryan Huber.

    Executive Director Andre Huber said cultivated meat “could be one of the solutions to over-farming due to increased population size and density and an increase in animal protein consumption in many parts of the world.”

    Cultivated protein poised for regulatory approval

    The launch into the family-run butcher overlaps with the two-year anniversary of Good Meat’s approval in Singapore; it’s currently the only company with regulatory approval to sell its cultivated meat.

    Upside Foods’ EPIC factory, Courtesy

    But that will likely change in 2023 as fellow U.S.-based cultivated meat company, Upside Foods, has completed the first regulatory hurdle with the FDA GRAS status for its cultivated chicken.

    The meat is likely to receive USDA approval within the next year, which would make it legal for sale and consumption across the U.S.

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