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Category: Cell-Based News

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

    mewery pork burger
    2 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

    Courtesy

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

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

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

    Regulatory approval focus

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

    good meat
    Good Meat Courtesy Eat Just

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

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

    The post Mewery Unveils World’s First Cultivated Pork-Microalgae Burger first appeared on Green Queen.

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    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    Bluu fish sticks
    2 Mins Read

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

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

    U.S. approval

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

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

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

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

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

    Cultivating fish

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

    Courtesy Bluu

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

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

    The post German Cultivated Fish Startup Bluu Seafood Raises $17.5 Million as It Pursues U.S. Approval first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post German Cultivated Fish Startup Bluu Seafood Raises $17.5 Million as It Pursues U.S. Approval appeared first on Green Queen.

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

    Omeat
    3 Mins Read

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

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

    ‘A simple and elegant solution’

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

    Omeat burger
    Omeat burger | Courtesy

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

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

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

    ‘A bridge to the future’

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

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

    Omeat
    Omeat meatballs | Courtesy

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

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

    The post Cultivated Startup Omeat Emerges From Stealth Mode With $40 Million to Build Its ‘Bridge to the Future’ first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Cultivated Startup Omeat Emerges From Stealth Mode With $40 Million to Build Its ‘Bridge to the Future’ appeared first on Green Queen.

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

    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods
    4 Mins Read

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

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

    ‘A giant step forward’

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

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

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

    Cultivated chicken | courtesy Upside Foods

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Where to try cultivated meat

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

    Upside Foods’ EPIC California factory, Courtesy

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

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

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

    The post Breaking: Upside Foods, Eat Just Earn First USDA Approval to Sell Cultivated Meat in the U.S.: ‘A Giant Step Forward’ first appeared on Green Queen.

    The post Breaking: Upside Foods, Eat Just Earn First USDA Approval to Sell Cultivated Meat in the U.S.: ‘A Giant Step Forward’ appeared first on Green Queen.

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    Upside Foods' cultivated chicken
    3 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The post 6 Key Insights from GFI APAC’s Cultivated Meat Industry Survey first appeared on Green Queen.

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

    3 Mins Read

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

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

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

    ”Production at low cost and at scale is key’

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

    CellX cultivated meat
    CellX cultivated meat | Courtesy

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

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

    Partnerships for a sustainable food system

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

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

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

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

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

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

    The post CellX, China’s Most Funded Cellular Agriculture Startup Lands $6.5M in Series A+ Round first appeared on Green Queen.

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

    3 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

    Collaborating on cell agriculture

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

    Cell-cultured meat from IntergiCulture | Courtesy

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

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

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

    Japan as a cultivated protein hub

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

    Prime minister of japan fumio kishida

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

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

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

    The post A Joint Venture Between APAC-SCA and JACA Will Boost Japan’s Cellular Agriculture Industry first appeared on Green Queen.

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

    upside
    3 Mins Read

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

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

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

    ‘A major step forward’

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

    Upside Foods’ EPIC California factory, Courtesy

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

    Cultivated meat coming to a menu near you?

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

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

    Cultivated chicken | courtesy Upside Foods

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

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

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

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

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

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

    cow
    4 Mins Read

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

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

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

    Cultivated protein production

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

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

    Cultivated meat | Courtesy BioTech Foods

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

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

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

    Can JBS clean up its protein production?

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

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

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

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

    Photo by Mark Stebnicki at Pexels

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    uncommon bacon
    3 Mins Read

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

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

    RNA-based cultivated meat

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

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

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

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

    Disrupting the global pork market

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

    Courtesy Uncommon

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    Chef Marcus Samuelsson joins Aleph Farms
    3 Mins Read

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

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

    Chef-approved

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

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

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

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

    ‘Bringing delicious, cultivated meat to the table’

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

    Aleph Cuts
    Aleph Cuts | Courtesy

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    13 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Listen to the rest of the interview here.

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    salmon
    3 Mins Read

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

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

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

    ‘Next level fat’

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

    Plantish vegan salmon | Courtesy

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

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

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

    Scaling up

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

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

    fish
    Courtesy Martin Widenka via Unsplash

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    4 Mins Read

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

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

    OlaTek

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

    Koolmill

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

    Straw Innovations

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

    Fotenix

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

    Intelligent Growth Solutions

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

    uFraction8

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

    Bright Biotech

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

    Higher Steaks

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

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

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

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    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    cowabunga milk

    9 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    What is Precision Fermentation?

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

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

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

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

    Seizing the Opportunity, Why the Disconnect?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Starting from the ground up?

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

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

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

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

    The investors’ journey: important aspects to unpack during diligence

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

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

    Customer Validation

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

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

    Proof of Concept and Scalability Mindset

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

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

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

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

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

    Process Feasibility, Efficiency & Optimization

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

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

    It’s Time to Seize the Opportunity

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    6 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Courtesy George Peppou

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    4 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

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

    TissenBioFarm shows off its cultivated meat
    4 Mins Read

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

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

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

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

    The North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    South Korea’s cultivated meat sector

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

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

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

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

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

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

    This post was originally published on Green Queen.

  • Australia’s Magic Valley Debuts Cultivated Pork Meat

    Magic Valley pork wontons

    5 Mins Read

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

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

    ‘An ethical and sustainable solution’

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

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

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

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

    Pork format, cost per kg and cultivated material percentage

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

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

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

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

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

    Actively fundraising and working with Australian regulators

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Food tech in Australia

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Because Animals Sells Off Discontinued Products To CULT Food Science To Accelerate Cultivated Pet Food Technology

    4 Mins Read

    Cultivated meat innovation company CULT Food Science has acquired consumer brand assets, two patents, non-scientific IP and product formulations from cultivated pet food startup Because Animals.

    CULT Food Science, a publicly traded Vancouver, Canada-based cultivated meat innovation company, announced yesterday in a press release titled posted to its website that it had signed a binding Letter of Intent (LOI) to acquire the consumer brand assets, related patents, non-scientific intellectual property, and product formulations (referred to in the release as “the Assets”).

    The Assets include a yeast-based dog treat (noochies), a yeast-based dog food and two provisional patents for rehydrated-then-freeze-dried-yeast-probiotic-based pet supplements.

    According to the release, these assets will be combined with CULT’s existing pet food brands to form a new Pet Food Division that will work to develop and commercialize cultivated pet food products.

    Confusion around LOI news media coverage

    There was some initial confusion yesterday surrounding the LOI news, with social media posts and smaller media outlets suggesting that Because Animals had been entirely acquired and one platform that contacted us describing it as the “World’s First Cultured Meat Brand Acquisition”.

    In a statement sent to Green Queen via email regarding the original CULT press release, Shannon Falconer, co-founder and CEO of Because Animals reiterated that “Although it’s not clear from the press release, the consumer brand ‘Because Animals’ was not acquired.”

    Instead, Falconer told us that the company is focusing all its resources to accelerate the commercialization of its cultured meat technology. As a result, it discontinued the sale of its nutritional yeast-based products late last year and had recently agreed to sell all formulations and two provisional patents related to these discontinued products to Joshua Errett.

    Falconer added that “Because Animals retains all of its intellectual property relating to cultured meat – which is our core business – and we are committed to revolutionizing the pet food industry with this technology.”

    When asked to confirm the news mentioned in the release, Lejjy Gafour, CEO of CULT Food Sciences, told us via email that “as stated in the release formally on our website”, the news announcement referred only to the acquisition of “Because Animals Inc.’s consumer brand assets, related patents, non-scientific intellectual property, and product formulations” and directed us to “additional clarifying language included in the release which the other outlets or individuals may have overlooked”, which says that “Because Animals Inc will continue to innovate in the pet food industry.”

    Former Because Animals co-founder joins forces with CULT

    Errett is the former COO and co-founder of Because Animals. He departed in September 2022 according to Linkedin profile and on October 31, CULT announced that Errett had joined the company as Vice President.

    “The CULT platform is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive in the field of cellular agriculture. It has endless potential to impact the world’s food supply and so I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” added Mr. Errett.  

    Earlier this month, CULT, which according to its website is focused on “providing investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat, cell-based dairy, and other cultured food companies around the world”, revealed that Canadian biotech and cannabis entrepreneur Marc Lustig had acquired a 15% stake in the company, making him the largest single shareholder

    “I am very excited to have taken a significant ownership stake in CULT Food Science. I believe it is inevitable that cell-based foods will sustainably transform our food systems for the better, and that these products will be coming to market much sooner than most people think. As a first-mover in the cellular agriculture space, CULT has the opportunity to play a unique and valuable role in the industry’s exciting scientific innovation,” said Lustig of the investment news.

    Pet food is a growing focus area for cultivated meat startups

    Because Animals was founded in 2016 by Falconer and Errett, and backed by leading VC funds including Draper Associates and SOSV. It was one of the first companies globally to focus on developing pet food aimed at dogs and cats using cellular agriculture technology and in August 2021, debuted the world’s first commercially available cultivated cat food. In early 2022, Because Animals secured investment from European CPG company Group Orkla SA, bringing the company’s total funding to $6.7 million.

    Colorado-based Bond Pet Food created cultured chicken aimed at pets in 2020 and last November, vegan dog food company Wild Earth, which famously got Shark Tank judge Mark Cuban to invest $550,000 in 2019, said it had developed a cultivated chicken broth topper “aimed at making the category more sustainable”.

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  • Vow Debuts Cultivated Meat Made From Extinct Wooly Mammoth DNA

    4 Mins Read

    Australian cultivated meat company, Vow, has created a meatball using cells from the extinct wooly mammoth as part of a project to showcase the potential of cellular agriculture.

    Vow’s mammoth meatball is a token product showing not just how cells from unconventional species can create new kinds of meat, but also as a symbol of both biodiversity loss and climate change.

    Mammoths went extinct in large part due to human hunting as well as post-ice-age planetary warming. The novel meatball was unveiled on Tuesday at the Nemo science museum in the Netherlands.

    “We have a behaviour change problem when it comes to meat consumption,” Vow CEO George Peppou said in a statement.

    “The goal is to transition a few billion meat eaters away from eating [conventional] animal protein to eating things that can be produced in electrified systems.

    “And we believe the best way to do that is to invent meat. We look for cells that are easy to grow, really tasty and nutritious, and then mix and match those cells to create really tasty meat.”

    A copy of the invitation for Vow’s Wooly Mammoth Meatball tasting

    Cultivating curiosity

    While most cultivated meat producers are tackling conventional meat such as chicken, pork, beef, and fish, Vow is taking a different approach by investigating the potential of more than 50 less common species, including alpaca, buffalo, crocodile, kangaroo, peacocks, and various types of fish. Tapping into human curiosity to taste less conventional meat could help acclimate consumers toward the novel cell tech, the company says.

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

    The mammoth muscle protein was created by Vow along with Professor Ernst Wolvetang at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering at the University of Queensland. The team used DNA from mammoth myoglobin, a key muscle protein that gives meat its flavor, and filled in a few gaps using elephant DNA. This sequence was placed in myoblast stem cells from a sheep, which replicated to grow to the 20 billion cells subsequently used by the company to grow the mammoth meat.

    “It was ridiculously easy and fast,” said Wolvetang. “We did this in a couple of weeks.”

    Mammoth was the second choice. The initial idea came from Bas Korsten at the creative agency Wunderman Thompson. The team wanted to replicate dodo bird meat, but there is no DNA available for replicating.

    Mammoth worked just as well symbolically though. “Our aim is to start a conversation about how we eat, and what the future alternatives can look and taste like. Cultured meat is meat, but not as we know it,” Korsten said.

    Vow is not the first food tech company to explore mammoth protein. Last year the startup Paleo explored creating woolly mammoth “paleo protein” via its novel precision fermentation heme technology. And the biotech company Colossal is using CRISPR technology to potentially resurrent the species, which it says could play a crucial role in protecting ecosystems that trap and store carbon.

    Cultivating sustainable protein

    Like other cultivated meat offerings, Vow says cultivated meat uses much less land and water than livestock and produces no methane emissions. The energy Vow uses is all from renewable sources, and the company does not use the controversial growth medium, fetal bovine serum.

    No one has tasted the mammoth meat yet, though. “We haven’t seen this protein for thousands of years,” said Wolvetang. “So we have no idea how our immune system would react when we eat it. But if we did it again, we could certainly do it in a way that would make it more palatable to regulatory bodies.”

    Vow quail meat, Morsel | Courtesy

    Vow was moving toward approval last year for its cultivated quail meat, dubbed Morsel. It had anticipated an end-of-2022 launch into Singapore restaurants, but it has yet to be approved by Singapore Food Agency (SFA).

    The mammoth meatball debut comes as the U.S. FDA issued a “no questions” letter to California’s Eat Just for its cultivated Good Meat label chicken. Eat Just is currently the only cultivated meat producer in the world with regulatory approval, which was granted by the SFA in 2020.

    Eat Just and fellow Californian cultivated meat producer Upside Foods, which received FDA clearance last November, now must both pass USDA inspections before they can begin selling their meat in the U.S.

    The post Vow Debuts Cultivated Meat Made From Extinct Wooly Mammoth DNA appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • The White House Issues Guidelines to ‘Harness the Full Potential and Power of Biotechnology’

    3 Mins Read

    The Biden-Harris Administration revealed new priorities detailed in a report last week that will trigger actions to advance American biotechnology and biomanufacturing.

    The move follows an Executive Order signed by President Biden last September aimed at advancing biotechnology and biomanufacturing innovation. The goals aim to enhance America’s bioeconomy, restore local supply chains, and support the country’s innovation ecosystem.

    U.S. biomanufacturing

    Biomanufacturing, the use of biological systems to produce goods and services at a commercial scale, the tech has the potential to unlock sustainable alternatives across industries such as plastics, fuels, and medicines, the White House said in a statement. These innovations hold potential for new solutions in health, climate change, energy, food security, agriculture, supply chain resilience, and national and economic security.

    The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) detailed its plan in a new report outlining a vision for what is possible with biotechnology and biomanufacturing and the research and development needed. The report includes sections authored by federal departments and agencies that are responsive to the President’s E.O. on biotechnology and biomanufacturing R&D to further societal goals such as climate change solutions, food and agricultural innovation, supply chain resilience, human health, and crosscutting advances. These goals serve as a guide for public and private sector efforts to harness the full potential and power of biotechnology and biomanufacturing to develop innovative solutions in different sectors.

    lab worker
    Photo by Julia Koblitz via Unsplash

    The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Biomanufacturing Strategy will guide investments in bioindustrial domestic manufacturing infrastructure to establish a domestic bioindustrial manufacturing base. The strategy includes three priorities: establishing customers that stand to benefit from early-stage innovations, advancing biomanufacturing capabilities through innovation, mapping and tracking the biomanufacturing ecosystem to support future efforts. DoD is issuing a formal request for information on biomanufactured products and process capabilities that could help address defense needs and whose development and commercialization could be addressed by DoD investment.

    The Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis will assess the feasibility of economic contributions to the country’s bioeconomy, as called for in the President’s E.O. Other deliverables from the E.O. are also in development, including plans to expand training and education opportunities for the biotechnology and biomanufacturing workforce, a report on data needs for the bioeconomy, a national strategy for expanding domestic biomanufacturing capacity, actions to improve biotechnology regulation clarity and efficiency, and a plan for strengthening and innovating biosafety and biosecurity for the bioeconomy.

    ‘Accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient food system’

    Magi Richani, CEO of Nobell Foods, a biotech company making animal-free cheese, applauded the move in a statement shared to LinkedIn. “I can’t overstate the importance of this step in accelerating the transition to a more sustainable and resilient food system,” she wrote.

    “Our global food system over the last few years has proven to be anything but resilient. And with the continued environmental degradation caused by industrial-scale animal agriculture, it’s not only refreshing, but critical to see the work we are doing prioritized as a key solution to building a more resilient food system, increasing consumer choice, and offsetting greenhouse gas emissions,” Richani said.

    Methane emissions
    Photo by Joachim Süß on Unsplash

    Richani pointed to animal agriculture, which contributes close to 31 percent of total U.S. methane emissions — a planet-heating gas more potent than CO2. But the reality is, she said, “no one will change their behavior fast enough to offset its impact. Most people are not going to eat less cheese or meat if it costs more or tastes less.”

    The U.S. investment into biotech could help change that. “The bold goals and R&D needs outlined in this report serve as a guide for public and private sector efforts to harness the full potential and power of biotechnology and biomanufacturing to develop innovative solutions in different sectors, create jobs at home, build stronger supply chains, lower costs for families, and achieve our climate goals,” the White House said.

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  • Cultivated Pork Startup New Age Eats Shuts Down After Five Years Amidst ‘Recent Market Turmoil’

    3 Mins Read

    The CEO of cultivated pork startup New Age Eats announced in a social media post that the company is shutting down after just under 5 years of operation.

    Founder and CEO Brian Spears broke the news on social media writing that “we made the painful decision to shut down New Age Eats” amidst a tumultuous funding environment and a lack of runway to continue.

    “As the CEO, I take ultimate responsibility for this shutdown. When we started ~5 years ago, we had no blueprint to develop and commercialize cultivated meat. I am grateful to everyone who supported our brilliant, talented team as we learned along the way,” he said.

    Earlier this year, Spears penned another social media post in which he shared that New Age Eats was letting go of the company’s pilot manufacturing facility in the Bay Area’s Alameda city food innovation hub, The Research Park at Marina Village and asked potential buyers to reach out. “Construction is 90% complete (put your final touches on it!) and 80% paid for (we’re walking away from significant investment because, well, we have to). You’d be move-in ready in 1-2 months…We will take the best offer in the next few weeks!”

    Spears confirmed today the company was unable to find a buyer for the plant and was not able to secure additional funding: “Unfortunately, with recent capital market turmoil, we have been unable to attract investment.” He told AgFunder News earlier today that things changed starting the second quarter of last year: “The shift in capital markets beginning around spring 2022 has made life challenging for startups across the board, he said.”

    New Age Eats was focused on bringing cultivated pork sausages to market and had raised over $32 million dollars since its founding in June 2018 and backers included seasoned food and tech VCs like IndieBio, TechU Ventures and Siddhi Capital. The company reeled in a $25 million Series A investment round back in October 2021 led by South Korean energy and real estate conglomerate Hanwha Solutions and at the time had been vocal about a launch plan that included both the US and Asia.

    Spears was hopeful about the state of the cultivated meat sector going forward, writing that “While our company will no longer survive, multiple companies will pick up the baton and use our technology to further our shared mission.”

    He was candid about the challenge of creating a cultivated meat company and alluded to how complicated it was to match investment timelines in a R&D context that requires long timelines: “Creating the experience of meat without slaughter is extremely difficult. We start with biotech borrowed from human health applications designed for high cost, low volume products. We worked to flip to low cost, high volume products. That is expensive, takes time, and needs a lot of patient capital.”

    Spears also expressed his gratitude for all the support the company has received to date. “Lastly, I want to express profound gratitude to everyone who supported me and the team along the way. I’m also grateful to those who worked against us. Without them, I wouldn’t have learned what I did, that everything is one – no crest without trough, buyer without seller, villain without victim. My gratitude is for everything in this beautiful existence that we share. Ideally, my future work leads to broadly sharing that increased appreciation.”

    Spears has been outspoken about the importance of focusing on founder mental health and in his latest post, he said he was encouraged that this topic was gaining more attention: “The toll on my mental heaIth to gain these perspectives over the years has been tremendous. I am encouraged that mental health – including of founders – is being more openly discussed.”

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  • Malaysia Gets Its First Cultivated Meat Facility

    malaysian meal
    3 Mins Read

    Slated to launch in Q4 2024, Cell AgriTech says its first cultivated meat production facility will also be Malaysia’s first.

    Cell AgriTech says it plans to be in full production by spring of 2025, pending regulatory approval for cultivated meat. The company made the factory announcement during the first Malaysia Cultivated Meat Conference held at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center earlier this month.

    Malaysia’s first cultivated meat facility

    “We are proud to be the first cultivated meat company in the country, bringing a sustainable and delicious alternative to traditional meat products,” said Jason Ng, the founder and manufacturing vice president of the Cell AgriTech group of companies.

    eel
    Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

    Cell Agritech’s focus will be on seafood, with tuna and eel up first. The goal is to achieve price parity with conventional seafood, the company says. The new facility will span three to four acres in size, with a 1,000-liter production volume.

    According to Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup, who was also present at the conference, the global cultivated meat market is expected to grow from US$176.48 million (RM791.87 million) in 2022, to US$321.71 million (RM1.44 billion) in 2027.

    “The development of cultivated meat technology in Malaysia promises to create job opportunities and revenue while addressing national challenges such as food security, health management, and climate change,” Kurup said.

    Cultivated meat is currently only approved for sale in Singapore, but two U.S. companies, Eat Just’s Good Meat and Upside Foods, have received FDA clearance with “no questions” on their tech.

    Alternative protein across Southeast Asia

    In a post shared on LinkedIn, the Good Food Insitute APAC said the historical development also opens up opportunities for new collaborations across Southeast Asia. That kicked off with Ng announcing that Cell AgriTech will partner with Singapore’s Umami Meats to scale up the production of cultivated seafood.

    fish ball
    Courtesy Umami Meats

    Last year, Umami Meats announced it had produced cultivated fish cakes and filets, following the launch of cultivated fish ball laksa last August. It filed a patent for a novel single-stem cell technology that it says can build both muscle and fat in cultivated seafood.

    Mohd Khairul Fidzal Abdul Razak, CEO of the Bioeconomy Corporation — the lead development agency for the bio-based industry in Malaysia — said that as the global population surpassed 8 billion last November 2022, the cultivated meat industry is “poised to grow substantially.”

    “We believe that the future of meat is cultivated,” Ng said. “We are committed to bringing this innovative and sustainable solution to the meat industry as our focus in the field of cellular agriculture.”

    The post Malaysia Gets Its First Cultivated Meat Facility appeared first on Green Queen.

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  • Cocoon Bioscience Raises €15 Million for Its Caterpillar Bioreactors

    cabbage looper caterpillar

    3 Mins Read

    Spain-based Cocoon Bioscience has closed a €15 million equity funding round to scale its looper moth-based tech, including the development of a new production facility in Spain.

    The new funding for the biotech startup spin-off of biotech company Algenex was led by Columbus Venture Partners and Cleon Capital with participation from Viscofan, and North South Ventures, among others.

    Caterpillar bioreactors

    Cocoon is focused on developing growth factors for cultivated meat and other alternative protein as well as mRNA synthesis and genetic sequencing. It uses looper moth caterpillars to develop its vaccines and growth mediums instead of steel bioreactors. It injects the moth cocoons with the Baculovirus and then encodes it with different information.

    Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson
    Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson | Courtesy

    “It’s kind of like leveraging cocoons as natural, low-cost bioreactors,” Cocoon Bioscience CEO Josh Robinson told AgFunder News. “When [humans] catch a virus like a flu, we make a bunch of mucus. Similarly, these moths catch this virus Baculovirus and make whatever protein or enzymes are sequenced into that virus,” he says.

    “We have a product, we’re selling it today, we just need to make more of it,” Robinson said. “We’re selling it at a price point that’s already lower than anyone else, and this platform develops new products extremely quickly.

    The new production facility will be located in Bilbao, Spain — about 250 miles north of Madrid — and is slated to be fully operational in 2024.

    “Our proof of concepts, from knowing what we want to make to having a sample ready to test is an 8- to 10-week process.”

    Reducing cultivated meat costs

    Robinson says that growth factors for cultivated meat costs hundreds of dollars for milligrams, but Cocoon’s tech takes away the bioreactor expense.

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

    But with companies moving away from animal-based growth mediums like fetal bovine serum, time will tell if there’s a market for moth-grown media. It’s not slowing things down for Cocoon, though.

    According to Robinson, 2023 is expected to be a big year for the company including building and completing the industrial-scale manufacturing facility “where we’ll be able to produce kilograms to tens of kilograms of these growth factors as well as these enzymes to meet scaling demand for our current partners and those that have expressed interest in working with us,” he said.

    “Cultivated meat companies need to manufacture whatever meat they’re producing in large-scale bioreactors,” says Robinson. “But the growth factors, those high-value, hero ingredients, have to program the bovine cells to perform the way they need to. Those growth factors are traditionally produced in bioreactors, and it becomes really expensive if you’re doing that in the traditional way.”

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  • BREAKING: Eat Just’s Cultivated Good Meat Is the Second to Receive FDA Clearance

    good meat

    4 Mins Read

    Good Meat, the cultivated meat division of Bay Area food technology company Eat Just, has received a “no questions” letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its cultivated chicken.

    The FDA has accepted Eat Just’s conclusion that its first poultry product, cultivated chicken, is safe to eat, clearing a crucial step in bringing GOOD Meat to restaurants and retail in the U.S.

    ‘No questions’

    The “no questions” letter comes as part of one of the agency’s first pre-market consultations for meat, poultry, and seafood made from cells instead of conventionally raised animals. It followed a similar clearance for fellow Bay Area producer Upside Foods that came from the FDA late last year.

    Good Meat’s cultivated chicken was the first in the world to earn regulatory approval, which was granted by the Singapore Food Agency in 2020. Good Meat won several regulatory approvals for its chicken in Singapore since 2020; it remains the only cultivated meat producer in the world with the ability to sell to consumers.

    José Andrés
    Chef José Andrés will be first in the U.S. to serve cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    “Today’s news is more than just another regulatory decision – it’s food system transformation in action,” Bruce Friedrich, president of The Good Food Institute, said in a statement. “Good Meat has become the second cultivated meat company to receive the go-ahead from FDA for its cultivated chicken, bringing cultivated meat closer to becoming a real choice for American consumers. Consumers and future generations deserve the foods they love made more sustainably and in ways that benefit the public good – ways that preserve our land and water, that protect our climate and global health, ways that allow for food security. Global demand for meat is projected to increase significantly by 2050. A few governments around the world are beginning to prioritize alternative proteins as a solution that accounts for this growing consumer demand while also achieving national climate and development goals, but far more need to follow suit.”

    Since its launch, Good Meat’s chicken has been featured on menus across Singapore including at fine dining establishments, hawker stalls, via the foodpanda delivery platform, and at Huber’s Butchery, one of Singapore’s premier producers and suppliers of high-quality meats.

    The company is now working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on necessary approvals before world-renowned chef and humanitarian José Andrés is slated to become the first in the country to offer Good Meat’s chicken to customers at his restaurant in Washington, D.C.

    “The future of our planet depends on how we feed ourselves…and we have a responsibility to look beyond the horizon for smarter, sustainable ways to eat. Good Meat is doing just that, pushing the boundary on innovative new solutions, and I’m excited for everyone to taste the result,” Andrés said in a statement.

    Imminent regulatory approval

    The recent green lights from the FDA for both Good Meat and Upside Foods signal that the cultivated meat industry could be up and running in the U.S. within the next year or two. The U.S. requires a two-pronged approval process for cultivated meat involving both the FDA and the USDA. Experts predict cultivated meat could become a $25 billion global industry by 2030.

    Good Meat claims that surveys conducted on its cultivated chicken show a wide approval rating in Singapore with 70 percent of respondents who tried it claiming it tastes as good as or better than conventional chicken. Nearly 90 percent said they would opt for the cultivated chicken instead of conventional, and nearly as many restaurants said they would be open to selling the meat.

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

    The benefits of cultivated meat are significant, especially when produced with renewable energy, according to a recent LCA. It has the potential to address many of the challenges associated with traditional meat production, including environmental concerns, animal welfare, and public health.

    “While I will always support family farmers’ efforts to feed the world, forward-thinking companies like Good Meat are tackling food security, nutrition and environmental stewardship in new and exciting ways,” said Dan Glickman, Good Meat Advisory Board member; former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and member of the U.S. House of Representatives. “Receiving a ‘no questions’ letter from the FDA and a subsequent clearance from the USDA will allow Good Meat to scale up manufacturing and begin introducing its products to American consumers,” he said.

    “Just as the United States has been a global leader in modernizing conventional food and agriculture techniques, it too can lead in the emerging alternative protein space. Today’s announcement is one such example.” 

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  • Jimi Biotech Debuts China’s First Cultivated Chicken

    jimi chicken
    3 Mins Read

    The innovation and AI-driven Jimi Biotech has presented the first fully developed cultivated meat in China.

    China-based Jimi Biotech has achieved a major milestone in cultivated meat by developing what it says is the country’s first 100 percent cell-based meat. The product is created entirely from animal cells without any plant scaffolding.

    Zhehou Cao, CEO of Jimi Biotech, says that cultivated meat containing plant scaffolding cannot replicate the taste and product perception of real meat products, making 100 percent cell-based meat a more viable option for consumers looking for a sustainable option without sacrificing taste or texture.

    Cultivated chicken

    The company is working to develop what it calls “new forms” of meat while reducing public health risks and addressing food safety, environmental pollution, and animal welfare problems related to conventional meat production.

    jimi biotech chicken
    Jimi Biotech’s cultivated chicken | Courtesy

    Roosters in Hangzhou provided the cells for the meat. Cao said a sensory evaluation of the product found that the difference in color, smell, and taste comparing conventional chicken with Jimi’s cultivated chicken was minimal, making it a successful first attempt and a viable contender for scaling up, once China greenlights cultivated meat.

    The company says it has managed to reduce the cost of the culture medium to around ¥ 100 ($14), which is only 3 percent of the price of the culture medium on the market.

    Funding the future of sustainable meat

    Prior to the launch, Jimi Biotech completed its second exclusive ¥10 million round of funding ($1.45 million) in the last four months — both led by Shiwei Capital. The funding will be used for research and development as well as the construction of a small pilot plant.

    Weichang Jiang, a partner at Shiwei Capital, praised Jimi Biotech’s rapid progress in core areas such as cell lines and culture media. Jiang also noted that the company’s automation and AI will make the company an efficiency leader in the sector.

    jimi
    Jimi’s cultivated meat | Courtesy

    “Although only three months have passed since the last round of funding, Jimi Biotech has still made significant technological breakthroughs,” Jiang said in a statement. “In addition to the rapid progress in core areas such as cell lines and culture media, we believe that Jimi Biotech’s deep integration of automation and AI into the research and development also reflects the founder’s emphasis on continuously improving research and development efficiency.”

    The debut comes as the Chinese government has explicitly listed cultivated meat as a key area for future food manufacturing in the “14th Five-Year Plan” for National Agricultural Science and Technology Development. The National Food Safety Risk Assessment Center (CFSA) will also establish a special group for cultivated meat this year to study the regulatory framework of cultivated meat in China.

    “China has the largest market for meat and a well-established supply chain system, so we believe that some of the world’s leading cultivated meat enterprises will be Chinese enterprises,” Jiang said. “With the attention of the regulatory agency, the industry is about to enter an important turning point in China.”

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  • TurtleTree Debuts Its Cultivated ‘Pink Gold’ Lactoferrin

    TurtleTree has debuted its cultivated lactoferrin
    3 Mins Read

    TurtleTree, a global leader in animal-free functional dairy proteins, has announced the launch of the world’s first precision fermentation-produced lactoferrin.

    Known as “pink gold” for its high value and iron-rich pink hue, Singapore-based TurtleTree debuted the cultivated LF+ product at an exclusive tasting event in San Francisco this week.

    LF+ is considered a highly prized bioactive milk protein and one of the most powerful components found in cow’s milk, with functional benefits for immunity, iron regulation, and digestive health.

    ‘Harnessing the power of precision fermentation’

    “By unlocking access to one of the most powerful and multifunctional proteins in milk, we are envisioning a better food future where more people than ever before can improve their personal nutrition sustainably,” TurtleTree Founder and CEO Fengru Lin, said in a statement. “Harnessing the power of precision fermentation will provide us with an abundant supply of these vital nutrients that can be enjoyed by all segments of the population through everyday food products.” 

    TurtleTree's lactoferrin
    TurtleTree’s lactoferrin in application | Courtesy

    TurtleTree says its breakthrough provides an affordable source of lactoferrin; conventional sources can retail at between $700 to $1,500 USD per kilogram.

    While lactoferrin is in use in supplements and infant formulas, supply scarcity means that demand cannot be met for other fertile segments like sports nutrition, where the protein’s iron-regulating benefits can improve physical performance.

    TurtleTree’s development is also removing high methane-emitting cows from the supply chain. Animal agriculture represents more than 15 percent of anthropogenic emissions, fueling the climate crisis.

    ‘Transforming the food system’

    “As one of TurtleTree’s early investors, KBW Ventures recognized that transforming the food system requires studied innovation; a commitment to the science, and both ingenuity and integrity to see it through,” said KBW Ventures Founder and CEO Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed.

    “Transforming the food system as a mission is the business of changemakers, and I am proud that we could play a role in fueling the world’s future in food. TurtleTree’s world first, the showcase of LF+, is what technology can do when mobilized for good,” he said.

    TurtleTree raised $30 million in a 2021 Series A funding round led by Verso Capital after it first announced the lactoferrin product was in the works in June 2020.

    Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed was an early investor in TurtleTree | Courtesy

    “We are incredibly touched by the degree of faith all our investors have placed in TurtleTree and our unique vision of food,” Lin said at the time. “The Series A funds will allow us to scale up our processes and come a huge step closer to creating a new era of sustainable nutrition.”

    The company sees a clear path to profitability on a per unit basis within six to 12 months after commercial launch, which is anticipated for Q4 2023.

    Good Food Institute co-founder and president Bruce Friedrich called the development “another innovative breakthrough” that he says gives consumers more sustainable food choices and creates a more sustainable food system.

    “Consumers deserve nutritious, affordable options that are produced in efficient, better-for-the-planet ways,” Friedrich said. “With more private sector and public sector support, precision fermentation is one of the brilliant alternative protein technologies that can open up a world of possibilities on this front.”

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  • Life-Cycle Assessment Shows Cultivated Meat’s Benefits for a Sustainable Food System

    GOOD Meat cultivated chicken
    3 Mins Read

    A new ex-ante life-cycle assessment looks at the efficiencies and benefits of cultivated meat.

    The LCA looked at cultivated meat from more than 15 companies, comparing the outlook of cultivated meat production in 2030 to that of conventional animal meat. The research was funded by GAIA, The Good Food Institute, a donor-backed 501(c)3 nonprofit, and CE Delft. The findings are published in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.

    “Cultivated meat (CM) is attracting increased attention as an environmentally sustainable and animal-friendly alternative to conventional meat,” reads the abstract. “As the technology matures, more data are becoming available and uncertainties decline.”

    The findings

    According to the researchers, the ex-ante LCA looked at cradle-to-gate production of 1kg of meat. Source data include lab-scale primary data from five cultivated meat producers, full-scale primary data from processes in comparable manufacturing fields, data from computational models, and data from published literature.

    “Although animal products contribute around 18 percent of calories and 37 percent of protein to the average global diet, the impacts on the environment are disproportionately large compared to non-animal products in diets (Poore and Nemecek 2018),” note the researchers.

    Photo by Louis Reed at Unsplash.

    The researchers note that conventional animal products’ impact on climate change is significant, making up between 16.5 percent and 19.4 percent of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, twice as large as plant-based sources and “by far the highest contributor within food system emissions.”

    Conventional animal products use approximately 83 percent of global agricultural land, including pastures and cropland for feed, as well as 41 percent of green and blue water use.

    The findings suggest cultivated meat is nearly three times more efficient at turning crops into meat than even the “most efficient” livestock, making agriculture land use significantly lower. It also found nitrogen emissions to be lower because of cultivated meat production efficiency and lack of manure.

    Renewable energy

    The report also points to the need for renewable energy in producing cultivated meat as the process is “energy-intensive”.

    “Using renewable energy, the carbon footprint is lower than beef and pork and comparable to the ambitious benchmark of chicken,” reads the report. “Greenhouse gas profiles are different, being mostly CO2 for CM and more CH4 and N2O for conventional meats. Climate hotspots are energy used for maintaining temperature in reactors and for biotechnological production of culture medium ingredients.”

    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods
    Cultivated chicken from Upside Foods | Courtesy

    The researchers say cultivated meat producers should work to optimize energy efficiency, including sourcing renewable energy, and leverage supply chain collaborations to ensure sustainable feedstocks. The LCA also calls on governments to consider the renewable energy demands of the emergent cultivated meat industry, and, it encourages consumers to look at cultivated meat not as an extra menu option, but a substitute for higher-impact meat products.

    Cultivated meat has the potential to have a lower environmental impact than ambitious conventional meat benchmarks, for most environmental indicators, most clearly agricultural land use, air pollution, and nitrogen-related emissions, the researchers say. “While CM production and its upstream supply chain are energy-intensive, using renewable energy can ensure that it is a sustainable alternative to all conventional meats.”

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  • South Korea’s Tofu Giant Teams Up With Cultivated Meat Startup Simple Planet

    burger
    3 Mins Read

    South Korea’s plant-based food manufacturer Pulmuone and cell-based startup Simple Planet have teamed up to co-produce hybrid cultivated meat.

    Pulmuone and Simple Planet say they’re working to co-develop and commercialize hybrid cultivated meat products that combine plant-based ingredients and cultivated meat. The companies are targeting a 2025 retail launch given the current lack of regulatory approval for cultivated meat products.

    Hybrid meat

    Demand for healthier and more environmentally friendly food is on the rise in South Korea; the country’s alternative meat market was worth approximately $15.6 million USD in 2022, an increase of 28 percent from the previous year, according to Euromonitor. The market is predicted to rise to $24 billion USD by 2025.

    simple planet
    Simple Planet’s cultivated meat will be blended with Pulmuone’s plant-based ingredients. Courtesy

    The move builds on Pulmuone’s recent launches including a plant-based meat brand last year and a 2020 partnership with cultivated seafood startup BlueNalu.

    Last June, Simple Planet announced that it had developed cultivated meat with a higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids.

    Coldplay-backed SCiFi Foods is also working to develop plant-based and cultivated meat hybrids.

    Hybrid meat development is also coming to conventional meat producers. Last month, Mush Foods announced its mycelium protein intended for combining with traditional beef.

    U.S. market

    Pulmuone is also preparing to increase its U.S. presence. Already, 70 percent of the tofu products sold in the U.S. are made by Pulmuone; Walmart, Costco, and hundreds of restaurant chains currently use Pulmuone’s products. It’s the company behind the Plantspired range.

    The company is now aiming to bring healthy, low-fat Korean food sold in South Korea for the last 40 years, to the U.S. consumer, including a range of “healthy” instant noodles.

    Cho Kil-su, head of Pulmuone, told the Korean Herald that the U.S. market saw significant growth in consumption of plant-based food after the pandemic years, as consumers’ interest in health grew.

    plantspired
    Pulmuone is behind the U.S. brand Plantspired. Courtesy

    “Concern for the environment also grew after the pandemic, and demand for plant-based products soared even higher as they produce less carbon dioxide throughout the production process,” he said.

    “This year, we plan to further expand our production infrastructure and expand our B2B business. We will mainly center on supplying universities with our products, as we have analyzed that young adults are most sensitive about health issues and receptive to new types of food,” said Cho.

    “We have partnered with leading local universities such as Yale University and Virginia Tech to provide sustainable food, and contribute to having students establish healthy diets.

    “We also aim to foray into Canada and Europe by expanding our tofu production line at the Ayer tofu plant (in Massachusetts) at the end of 2023.”

    Fellow South Korean plant-based food manufacturer Unlimeat has also seen steady growth in the U.S. after launching in stores last year. It recently launched its plant-based Korean BBQ and two flavors of pulled pork into 1,500 Albertsons locations.

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