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

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

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

Swiss consumers are eager to try cultivated meat

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

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

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

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

Global cultivated meat market

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Revolutionizing the way meat is produced’

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

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

Meat demand surge

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

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

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

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

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

Honoring cultivated meat’s history

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

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

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

‘People are going to be talking’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

First cultivated meat served in the U.S.

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

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

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

‘The first meat that I feel good about serving’

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

“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.

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

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

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German 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’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.

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

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

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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.

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

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

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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.

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.

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.”

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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.”

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.

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 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.

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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.

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.”

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

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

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

A clear roadmap to scalability

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

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

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

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

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

Cultivated meat in Israel

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

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

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

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

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

Cultivated filet

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

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

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

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

Whole-cut cultivated meat

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

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

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

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

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

The research

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

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

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

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

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

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

New business models for Swiss farmers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kosher cultivated steak

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

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

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

Kosher beef demand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Preparing public guidelines for the industry’

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

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

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

Regulatory approval for cultivated meat

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

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

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

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