TOP 5 CELL-BASED MEAT COMPANIES
Cell-based meat is no doubt one of the most trending revolutions in the food industry. This is because from all indications, it is a promising solution to the world's challenge of meeting the protein demands of the ever-increasing population. As a result, many companies have been actively involved in supporting this revolution by working to get cell-based meat and its associated products into the market. Some of these companies have made huge progress while others are steadily coming behind. This article explores five cultured meat companies at the top of the ladder.
1. EAT JUST
Eat Just, based in the United States, seems to be at the top of the cell-based meat revolution as it is the first cell-based meat company to receive regulatory approval for the sale of lab-grown meat.
Eat Just’s journey to producing cell-based meat began in 2017. The company, which was initially focused on plant-based egg products and mayonnaise, announced that it would begin to produce cell-based chicken nuggets. Later that year, Eat Just set up its first cultured meat production facility.
In December 2020, after a thorough evaluation by the Singapore Food Agency, Singapore turned on the green lights for the company to commence the commercialisation of cell-based chicken, which was first sold at a restaurant known as 1880.
In 2021, the company was able to acquire about $200 million funding to embark on large scale cultured chicken production, which is one of the foremost cell-based meat products to emerge. The company is working on the production of other types of cell-based meat asides from chicken. It is also working on gaining regulatory approval in other countries of the world.
Eat Just struck a partnership deal with Doha Venture Capital and Qatar Free Zones Authority in 2021. This partnership is about to birth the construction of the first cultured meat production facility in the Middle East and North Africa, Qatar precisely. The choice of this location is due to the willingness of Qatar to embrace ideas that would proffer enduring solutions to food security.
The facility will be bigger than the one being used for production in Singapore, and will focus on the production of the Good Meat cultured chicken, with Doha Venture Capital investing in alternative proteins while Qatar Free Zones Authority operates the facility.
2. UPSIDE FOODS
Based in California, Upside Foods is a lab-grown meat company that was initially known as Memphis meats. It was founded in 2015 by Drs Uma Valeti and Nicholas Genovese.
It has attracted huge investors like Tyson Foods, CPT Capital, Richard Branson, Kimbal Musk, and Bill Gates, and was able to raise $161 million in 2020 for investment in the construction of a facility for cell-based meat production. In November 2021, Upside Foods took a step further in its quest for improving its cell-based meat production strategies by launching its first commercial scale production plant in California. The goal of setting up the plant is to produce 50 000 pounds of cultivated meat yearly. With this progress, the company would likely be the first to get cultivated meat on store shelves in the United States once regulatory approval is given. Their cell-based meat production processes are simple and efficient, and they yield quality products. With the wealth of investment in Upside Foods, the world is waiting to see when Upside Foods will launch its first cell-based meat product for sale.
One of the co-founders has mentioned that the company is not in a hurry to get its products into the market. Rather, the company is interested in ensuring that it gets everything relating to the production of cultivated meat right before getting it out. He believes that any mistake in the release may spell doom for the cell-based food industry as consumer acceptance is already an issue of concern.
3. MOSA MEAT
Mosa Meat, known as the company making 'the beef burgers for the future' is a Dutch cell-based meat company founded by Dr. Mark Post in 2013. It may be mentioned as one of the foremost companies driving the cell-cultured meat revolution since it produced the first cell-based beef hamburger in August 2013, which was cooked and tasted by Dr. Post at a taste-tasting event that had many journalists in attendance. The production cost about €250, 000.
The company grows meat in the lab by mimicking the process of muscle growth in cows. A small amount of cells is acquired and then cultured into beef through natural processes, and a single sample can yield close to 100, 000 burgers.
Investors have taken keen interest in Mosa Meat, and this may be because the company has been around for quite a while and has a wealth of experience when it comes to cell-based meat production.
At the beginning of 2021, the company announced it had raised some funds running into millions of dollars, which would be poured into putting facilities and resources in place for an upscale production.
The goal of Mosa Meat is to have its products on supermarket shelves in about three to four years, hoping that by that time, regulatory approval would have been given for cell-based meat in Europe.
4. ALEPH FARMS
Based in Israel, Alephs Farms is a cultivated meat start-up company. Unlike other start-ups in the cell-based meat industry that have focused mainly on meat products like hamburgers, the company has taken a different turn to work on the cultivation of steaks by harnessing three-dimensional(3-D) technology. The company produced the first cultivated steak in 2018, a 3-D printed cultivated meat in space in 2019, and the first 3-D ribeye steak in 2021. Even at that, it has not rested on its oars in ensuring that its products get into the market. Aleph Farms is already partnering with important investors in various locations around the world.
The company produces steaks using a scaffold that is custom-made for culturing muscle, vasculature, tissues, and fat together into a well-structured steak in a few weeks. The possibility of growing a variety of cells together to form a composite steak has been one of the challenges in growing structured meat. Aleph Farms has affirmed that the technologies it uses help to beat this challenge.
Collaborating with Wacker, a protein tech company, Aleph Farms is working on eliminating Fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is an important component of cell-based meat production, from its manufacturing processes. The company plans to replace FBS with fermentation-based growth proteins, hence reducing production costs and making the possibility of getting cultivated meat in the market in a short while a reality.
Like Most Meat, Aleph Farms is hoping to get its products into the market in a short while. Reports have it that the company has received about $105 million funding from various investor groups, and is working on launching its products in the market by 2022. Aleph Farms has mentioned that it is also working on getting regulatory approval for the sale of its products.
5. BLUENALU
Cell cultured meat not only includes animal meat, but also houses seafood, and some of the companies leading the cell-based meat revolution are focused on seafood production. One of them is BlueNalu located in San Diego, California.
BlueNalu is working on cultivating seafood from different types of species like the ones which are majorly imported, difficult to rear on a farm or contain pollutants. It recently received funding totalling $60 million, which is the highest that any start-up cell-based Seafood Company has ever received.
The company is looking to work on a test scale production before opting for large scale production in the coming years. The funding it has received will help the company in setting up a production facility, carrying out the necessary regulatory review for its debut products, and putting the necessary structure in place for testing the products in the United States.
BlueNalu is also creating partnerships and networks that will help it sail through regulatory approval hurdles, reduce costs and also enable it to adopt the right strategies for market entry when the time is ripe. One of the key partnerships already established in 2021 is with Nomad Foods, a leading frozen food company in Europe. The goal is to work hand in hand to meet the ever-increasing demand for seafood in Europe
CONCLUSION
Spread across the globe are other cell-based meat companies working hard at ensuring that the cultured meat revolution does not get cut short midway. The cell-based meat industry seems to have a bright future, and with the right technologies, appropriate regulatory approval, and continuous flow of investors, these companies would be able to record remarkable success in getting cell-cultured meat to the global market in the years to come.
