3Mins Read Israel’s Aleph Farms is known for its progress within the cultivated meat sector. Now, it has announced it will be diversifying its interests to include cell-based collagen. The news comes as the company pledges to replace or reproduce all bovine proteins that are commercially valuable. The move is seen as a natural extension of Aleph […]
3Mins Read Alife Foods has unveiled its first cultivated meat prototype, a schnitzel (breaded cutlet) made in collaboration with LabFarmFoods and the Fuchs Group. The product is currently undergoing taste trials and sensory evaluations. The company hopes to present a fully realised prototype to investors by year-end and become known as the ‘cultured schnitzel company’ after releasing […]
3Mins Read The Netherlands’ House of Representatives has just passed a motion to make cultivated meat samples legal. Dutch cell-based startups have heralded the move as significant progress towards regulatory approval. The D66 and VVD democratic political parties proposed the motion. Formal acceptance of cultivated technology in the Netherlands adds pressure on other countries to define their […]
3Mins Read Singaporeans are more accepting of cultivated meats than their U.S. counterparts. The finding comes from a study conducted by the Singapore Management University (SMU). Data points to a correlation between social image and acceptance of new technologies with Singaporeans seemingly motivated to eat certain foods for a positive social image. Links to ‘kiasu-ism’ were made, […]
5Mins Read Israel’s alternative protein sector has experienced its biggest investment year on record. $623 million was raised last year, representing a 450 percent increase on 2020’s $114 million. It secured Israel the second spot on the global investment leaderboard. New Good Food Institute Israel (GFI Israel) data highlight growth across all sectors. Previous startups are shown […]
3Mins Read The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA) announced its launch this week as a new coalition with a mission to offer member companies developing cultivated meat and seafood access to shared information. Its key priorities include interacting with consumers, building knowledge and acceptance and developing straightforward regulatory frameworks. In a joint statement by APAC-SCA’s management committee, […]
4Mins Read Montreal-based Opalia (previously Bettermilk) is creating cell-based milk, without the use of Foetal Bovine Serum (FBS). The startup has already secured $1million in pre-seed funding, with a seed round now in progress for continued R&D and projected scaling costings. Opalia uses all the functional components of milk to create its cultivated version, which it does […]
4Mins Read Israeli foodtech SuperMeat, whose cultivated chicken a food expert called indistinguishable from the animal version, has announced a strategic partnership with Japanese food giant Ajinomoto. The two plan to work together to speed up and improve the development of cultivated meat products. This marks Ajinomoto’s first move into cellular agriculture, with the biotech investing in […]
4Mins Read Buenos Aires-based Stämm Biotech recently closed a $17 million Series A round to scale its 3-D printing bioreactors aimed at the global cultivated meat sector. This brings the startup’s funding to $20 million. The new investment will be used to double the company’s headcount and refine its micro-fluidic bioreactor developments. The smaller bioreactors could reduce […]
4Mins Read In a historic first, China’s President Xi Jinping has referenced alternative proteins in a speech during which he underlined his support for domestic food innovation. Speaking at a meeting with agricultural, social welfare and social security sector figureheads, he made statements that positively impact the country’s burgeoning alternative protein industry. News of President Xi’s perceived […]
3Mins Read Mzansi Meat, the African continent’s first cellular agriculture startup, has announced that it has successfully produced a cultivated beef burger after two years of research and development. The burger will make its debut was made at a bespoke event net month. “This is a huge milestone for South Africa and Africa,” co-founder and CFO Tasneem […]
4Mins Read Micro Meat, Mexico’s first cultivated meat startup, Micro Meat, has launched to offer key foundational tech for the growing cellular agriculture industry. The startup, which is based in Monterrey and co-founded by a tissue engineer and a space systems engineer, claims it is developing a proprietary scaffolding system that will revolutionise the cultivated meat sector, […]
4Mins Read 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, later this year. When completed, the location will offer the largest capacity for cell […]
3Mins Read California’s Upside Foods, which has pioneered cultivated meat in the U.S, has announced that it is inviting consumers to tour around its Engineering, Production, and Innovation Center (EPIC) in Emeryville as a way to educate the public about its products. Cellular agriculture alternatives to conventional meat remains shrouded in mystery for many and Upside hopes […]
3Mins Read Non-profit think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC has released a report documenting the alt-protein sector’s growth within the APAC region and globally over the past year. Highlights include a 60 percent increase in funding into the sector on a global level, with fermentation and cultivated projects claiming more funding than ever before. Overall, […]
3Mins Read Singaporean cellular agriculture startup Umami Meats has closed a $2.4 million pre-seed investment round. The company specialises in “cultivated, not caught” seafood production. Funding has been earmarked for continued plant-based serum development and manufacturing cost auditing. Minimised costs and maximum outreach are top priorities, to make Umami a leading sustainable seafood supplier. Pre-seed funding was […]
3Mins Read Eat Just has announced a significant first. It will provide its cultivated GOOD Meat products to hawker stalls across Singapore, for consumers to buy alongside longstanding favourite dishes. Select hawkers will alternate approximately every two months for limited runs. The first Eat Just collaboration was with Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice. The stall has been in […]
4Mins Read A new report neatly summarizes the state of regulatory approvals for alternative protein products around the world in just a few pages. Spain’s Amgen, which provides regulatory advice and consulting to companies working in the alternative protein space, recently unveiled a new report that tracks the status of alt-protein regulatory approvals in various parts of […]
3Mins Read Israel’s Aleph Farms has announced that it has relocated to new 6,000 square metre headquarters in Rehovot, which will allow the cultivated meat company to increase production by six-fold. Production of thin-cut beef steaks will be the initial focus. An onsite R&D centre is now being planned, to continue developing market-leading technology. International marketing and […]
3Mins Read CellulaREvolution has announced the closure of a new funding round. Having netted £1.75 million in a pre-Series A, the British biotech intends to accelerate the development of its continuous cell cultivation technology. This will be used to usher in cultivated meat as a viable and affordable product, within a reasonable timescale. Happiness Capital led the […]
3Mins Read Cultivated eggs will be commercially available before the end of the year, says Fiction Foods, a subsidiary of Cult Food Science. “It’s not a fake egg, but a whole new culinary experience, that is made from a single-cell organism called euglena that contains animal-like and high-quality protein, but without the animal,” Brendan Brazier, Fiction’s founder, […]
A number of companies are further along in the development process for cultivated meat than ever before. These innovators are leading the charge to gain U.S. regulatory approvals.
Singapore is currently the only country to have granted regulatory approval for the commercial sale of cultivated meat products, with U.S.-based Eat Just receiving the go-ahead for two of its products. But optimism is high that the U.S. will follow Singapore’s lead soon, even our founder & editor-in-chief Sonalie Figueiras thinks so. According to Crunchbase, more than $2 billion in investment has poured into the cultivated meat sector over the past two years. The amount is expected to increase exponentially in 2022. So who’s leading the way? Below we roundup five cultivated meat companies that promise to are looking to conquer the U.S. market.
Based in Israel, Aleph Farms has enjoyed ongoing success. Debuting the world’s first cultivated ribeye steak early last year, it has gone on to secure additional funding with Leonardo DiCaprio included in the list of backers. While continuing to hone its cultivated products, the company has sought to develop critical strategic partnerships that, when regulatory approval is granted, will assist in scale-up and fast commercial launches.
In a bid to drive down the cost of cultivated meat production, Aleph Farms recently announced a new partnership with Munich-based Wacker. The two will be developing FBS-free growth mediums that will be shared with the entire industry, to create price parity with conventional meat. Open-source tech sharing of this kind is designed to progress the entire sector, not one company.
U.S.-based Upside Foods may have been the most disappointed company when regulatory approval was not granted by year-end 2021. Having predicted the breakthrough, it was ready to scale and serve its chicken nuggets and chicken hotdogs. In December last year, Upside revealed that it had successfully created an animal-component-free cell feed. The development represented a goal of the business since its 2015 inception.
Despite no confirmed green light for commercial sale, Upside opened its new ‘EPIC’ production facility. The location is capable of manufacturing 400,000 pounds of cultivated meat every year. Most recently, Upside has acquired cultivated seafood company Cultured Decadence. The move comes as seafood alternatives are showing significant market growth and are predicted to continue on an upward trajectory in 2022.
In a bid to manifest regulation progress, Wildtype has already signed U.S. distribution deals for its cultivated salmon. The San Francisco startup has agreements in place with sushi bar franchiser Snowfox and poké chain Pokéworks. The move follows completion of a pilot plant which brings production facilities, an education centre and tasting rooms all under one roof. The idea is to make the technology accessible and understandable, to encourage consumer trust and openness. When fully operational, the location will be able to produce 200,000 pounds of salmon a year.
Wildtype’s salmon will be sushi-grade and whole cut. Green Queen tried the prototype last September and it was hard to differentiate from the real thing.
MeaTech steak. Photo by MeaTech.
4. MeaTech 3D
Israeli foodtech MeaTech 3D is focussed on two aspects of cultivated meat. The first is chicken fat that can be leveraged in a B2B scale, to add flavour to other cultivated developments. In addition, honing of industrial processes and technology to manufacture recognisable meat cuts. Steak and chicken breasts have both been slated for future unveiling.
In early 2021. MeaTech secured $7 million in a funding round. $1.19 million was used to acquire Belgian startup Piece of Meat, to benefit from its stem cell technology. The rest was earmarked for the construction and fit-out of a pilot plant, also in Belgium, in 2022.
Back in 2020, MeaTech became the first cultivated meat company to go public in the U.S. It claimed a $25 million valuation for its IPO.
Making history as the first and only company to be allowed to sell cultivated meat products anywhere, Eat Just is the company to chase. December 2020 saw Eat Just bag regulatory approval for its GOOD meat chicken nuggets, in Singapore. Almost exactly one year later, GOOD Meat chicken breasts were also approved. In 2021 alone, Eat Just scooped $370 million in investments. It beat Upside Foods’ previous record.
Gearing up for U.S. distribution, Eat Just has appointed Chef José Andrés as a GOOD Meat board member. The chef has agreed to service cultivated chicken in at least one of his U.S. restaurants, as soon as regulatory approval is granted. The move guarantees high profile rollout, thanks to the Michelin-starred businessman.
3Mins Read U.S. patent approval has been granted to Israel’s Wilk Technologies for its proprietary procedures and technology associated with milk cultivation. The company, formerly known as BioMilk, holds the patent exclusively and it covers both animal and breastmilk production. The startup is in the process of developing methodologies for commercial-scale sustainable milk manufacturing. Wilk aims to […]
4Mins Read Chicago’s Back of the Yard Alage Sciences (BYAS) has revealed it is on the brink of an ecologically significant breakthrough. The company, which uses cellular agriculture to create zero-waste food additives, claims to have reproduced toad parotoid glands and 5-MeO-DMT. The latter is a naturally psychedelic venom produced by toads that has become a popular […]
3Mins Read Korea’s Seawith, developer of cultivated beef, has announced a ₩1 billion investment from Mint Venture Partners. It follows previous backing from Hg Initiative, Daesung Startup Investment and Daily Partners. Launched in 2019, Seawith has made fast progress. The company claims it will be in a position to make cultivated steak for $3 per kilogram, by […]
3Mins Read After pioneering cultivated pork in March 2021, South Korean cellular agriculture startup Space F has unveiled a host of new innovation including an upgraded version of its existing cultivated pork prototype, a brand new cultivated beef prototype, presented as meatballs and a patty and their first cultivated chicken fillets and nuggets. The newly improved cultivated […]
3Mins Read The U.K. Government has published a paper entitled ‘The Benefits of Brexit’. The 100-page report has included one six-line paragraph alluding to potential novel food regulation updates. A review of existing regulations appears underway based on the report. The food paragraph pledges the government to work with the Food Standards Agency to ‘update the process […]
3Mins Read A new report from business technology outfit CIIE.Co and the Good Food Institute (GFI) claims that cultivated meat could radically transform India’s food system. The reasoning behind the claim comes from securing a domestic food chain, reduced impact of climate change, and reliable nutrition. The report states that without significant government investment, alongside industry acceptance […]
4Mins Read It’s been more than three years since California voters passed Prop 12, one of the nation’s strictest animal welfare laws. The pork industry pushed back, saying regulations would make meeting demand for products like bacon near impossible. Is a bacon crisis really coming? And with all the innovations in vegan and cultivated meat, will it […]
The search for animal fat alternatives is taking off. Below, we highlight five food tech startups focusing on the business of fat.
Demand for flavourful cultivated meats, realistic plant-based options, and palm oil-free products is increasing, and in parallel, a variety of fats are being developed to cover a spectrum of needs. Who are the key players in the category? Let’s take a closer look.
Palm trees. Photo by Artem Beliaikin from Pexels
1. NoPalm Ingredients
Netherlands-based biotech startup NoPalm Ingredients has risen to the challenge of replacing environmentally damaging palm oil. It uses microbial oil in place of the unsustainable alternative and can be added to a variety of products, food, and cosmetics included. The company announced its first fundraising success earlier this month, scooping €1 million from the Future Food Fund, Green Creators, and ICOS Capital, amongst others.
Fermentation technology is used to create the oil, with specific characteristics brewed into the microbial base. NoPalm uses waste feedstocks such as rejected produce and peelings. Any biomass that remains at the end of production can be reincorporated, creating a sustainable circular manufacturing model.
“The oil produced by our yeasts is remarkably similar to plant-derived oils such as palm, sunflower and coconut,”Jeroen Hugenholtz, CTO and co-founder of NoPalm said in a statement. “Our yeasts contain high amounts of oil, much higher than the oil-containing crops, making the overall oil production much more efficient and less energy-intense than for vegetable oils. In addition, we have the great advantage that our microbial – fermentation – process is tunable allowing for the production of harder or softer oils depending on the need of the customer or application.”
In 2021, the company won the ‘Most innovative F&B ingredient or Processing Technology’ award at the Fi Global Startup Innovation Challenge.
Fruit kernels. Photo by Kern Tec.
2. Kern Tec
Austrian startup Kern Tec saw the potential in food side streams to provide sustainable and cost-effective ingredient oils. Taking fruit pits, notably apricots, cherries, and plums, proprietary technology has been developed to process these waste items and convert them into raw ingredients for the F&B industry. It also recently launched ice cream and yogurt made from the pits.
The company, an alumn of 2021’s ProVeg incubator, refers to its base pits as ‘new nuts’. Similar to conventional nuts, it claims that they have healthy fats, proteins, and other nutrients locked away inside. The operation is still young but has initiated a production line in Austria. It can process thousands of tonnes of fruit pits every year and is scalable.
“We have a lot of milestones in front of us, Luca Fichtinger, co-founder of Nern Tec, told Vegconomist. “Of course, we want to scale our impact and production, with more suppliers from across the whole of Europe. We will continue to develop new products to help accelerate the transformation. For example, we will extend our product range with proteins extracted from seeds. Additionally, we will apply our tech and supply chain to other by-products. Fruit pits are just the beginning.”
Co-founders Jordi Bladé, Dr. Raquel Revilla & Andrés Montefeltro (Photo by Cubiq Foods)
3. Cubiq Foods
Focussing on the alt-protein sector, Barcelona’s Cubiq Foods is developing what it refers to as ‘smart fats’. Omega-3-rich cultivated fat products range from structured ingredients to oils and fatty emulsions, to be used across a variety of applications. The company’s intention is to remove the alt-protein sector’s reliance on saturated fats such as coconut oil.
Not looking to discriminate, Cubiq aims to supply both the cultivated and plant-based meat sectors. The latter would be offered products developed from healthy oils, such as olive, to avoid animal contamination. Cultivated meat companies, including Mosa Meat, have previously been reported to be in discussion with Cubiq about a supply relationship. Existing brands, such as Beyond Meat could benefit from healthier fat developments, as saturated fat levels have come under scrutiny.
In May 2020, Cubiq confirmed that it had successfully raised $18.4 million to date. In a statement, Andrés Monrefeltro said, “Sustainable omega-3 and vegan healthier fats inspire our team and partners. We are ready to deliver a new generation of nutritious, healthy, and accessible products at industrial scale by the end of this year.”
Plant-based bacon made with Lypid fat. Photo by Lypid.
4. Lypid
San Francisco food tech company Lypid is a relative newcomer. It is focused on the development of a tasty vegan-friendly fat that can be added to plant-based meats. The company cites this as an often neglected piece of the puzzle when trying to create authentic-tasting food.
Little has been released about the company so far, with no known funding successes yet. It has made its mission clear, however. It seeks to develop a 100 percent vegan fat that will give a “rich meaty mouthfeel” to animal-free meat products. Final products will perform identically to conventional animal fats.
Confirmed supporters of Lypid include SOSV, Indie Bio, Genesis Consortium and NSF.
Bacon made with cultivated pork fat. Photo by Mission Barns.
5. Mission Barns
Based in Silicon Valley, Mission Barns is a food-tech startup specifically cultivating animal fat. In 2021 it celebrated a successful Series A fundraising round that generated $24 million for the construction of a pilot manufacturing plant. Lever VC was amongst the round participants.
With new facilities in place, Mission Barns intends to commercialise its proprietary cell-based animal fat development for use in a range of foods. Testing has already commenced with cell-based bacon made using cultivated pork fat being trialled in 2020. Other foods to use the cultivated fat analogue include burgers, nuggets and sausages.
“I’ve been sampling plant-based meats for 20 years from a huge variety of brands globally, and have never tasted anything as meat-like as products containing Mission Fat,” Nick Cooney, managing partner at Lever VC said in a statement. ”This is going to be a game-changer for the alternative meat sector, because it’s going to help brands around the world have a dramatically better product almost overnight.”
Mission Barns will be working closely with Shanghai’s Herotein to create hybrid cultivated/plant-based meat to market.
