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Breakthrough in cultivated meat research

In a major advancement for cellular agriculture, Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder of Believer Meats, and a team from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have introduced a new continuous manufacturing process for cultivated meat.

Cultivated meat is made by harvesting cells from an animal and growing them in a bioreactor.

These cells replicate and develop into muscle and fat tissues, which are then shaped into familiar products like steaks or chicken nuggets. Plant proteins are often used to give these products a final texture.

This innovation tackles the industry’s critical challenges around the scalability and cost-effectiveness of cultivated meat.

The study, “Continuous Manufacturing of Cultivated Meat: Empirical Economic Analysis,” published in Nature Food, demonstrates the use of tangential flow filtration (TFF) for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat.

The new bioreactor system allows biomass to expand to 130 billion cells per litre, with a yield of 43 per cent by weight, and runs continuously for 20 days, enabling daily harvests of the biomass.

The research also presents a culture medium that contains no animal components with a cost of $0.63 per litre. As a result, this medium would support the long-term, high-density growth of chicken cells.

In other words, this continuous manufacturing method could reduce the cost and complexity of cultivated meat production, potentially bringing it closer to everyday consumers.

“We were inspired by how Ford’s automated assembly line revolutionised the car industry 110 years ago,” said Nahmias.

“Our findings show that continuous manufacturing enables cultivated meat production at a fraction of current costs, without resorting to genetic modification or mega-factories.

“This technology brings us closer to making cultivated meat a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional animal farming.”

Bruce Friedrich, president of The Good Food Institute, also expressed his support for the research.

“GFI applauds the spirit of openness that continues to characterise cultivated meat researchers like Dr. Koby Nahmias and his colleagues, who understand that showing the scientific potential of cultivated meat will benefit all scientists working in the field,” he said.

This research represents a step forward for the economic feasibility of cultivated meat, addressing previous concerns about high costs and low yields.

Utilising this empirical data, the team conducted a techno-economic analysis of a hypothetical 50,000-liter production facility.

The analysis suggests that the cost to produce cultivated chicken could potentially drop to $6.20 per pound, making it comparable to the price of organic chicken.

Dr. Elliot Swartz, principal scientist at Cultivated Meat, The Good Food Institute emphasised the significance of the study’s findings.

“This important study provides numerous data points that demonstrate the economic feasibility of cultivated meat,” he said.

“The study confirms early theoretical calculations that serum-free media can be produced at costs well below $1 a litre without forfeiting productivity, which is a key factor for cultivated meat achieving cost-competitiveness.”

Swartz added that empirical data remains the bedrock for any cost model of scaled cultivated meat production.

“And this study is the first to provide real-world empirical evidence for key factors that influence the cost of production, such as media cost, metabolic efficiency, and achievable yields in a scalable bioprocess design,” he said.

The authors noted that other factors would also impact the final market price of cultivated meat.

However, this research highlights how continuous manufacturing could greatly reduce production costs, making cultivated meat more affordable for consumers and more competitive with conventional meat products.

Results also showed how cellular agriculture can help meet global demand for animal products while also supporting environmental and ethical goals by reducing the need for traditional livestock farming.

This research is the first to demonstrate a cost-effective way to produce cultivated meat and provides the first solid economic analysis based on real data.

In practical support of the technology, Believer Meats is building the world’s first large-scale facility for producing cultivated chicken.

With global demand for animal protein set to double by 2050, cellular agriculture could help meet this need, especially as traditional livestock farming reaches its limits.

Despite recent FDA approvals for cultivated meat production, large-scale production of cultivated meat has yet to become a reality.

Earlier analyses raised concerns about the costs of factories and raw materials, questioning the economic viability of producing cultivated meat.

This research introduces innovative solutions, such as a new filter stack perfusion that lowers factory costs, an animal-free medium that cuts raw material expenses, and continuous manufacturing that boosts factory capacity.

These advancements could allow a small 50,000-liter facility to produce 2.14 million kg of cultivated chicken annually at a cost comparable to USDA organic chicken.

It’s hoped this technological breakthrough could greatly improve animal welfare, food safety, and food security, helping to meet the needs of a global population facing the effects of climate change.

The study is likely to attract widespread interest from various fields and gain media attention because of its important implications for the future of humanity.

This latest development comes just one year after a study by the University of Californian concluded the production of cultivated meat would ‘not work’ on a large scale.

Monash University professor Paul Wood, AO, has studied cultivate meat extensively and said multiple studies concluded that producing cell-based protein in a lab ‘will be far more energy intensive when it’s produced at scale’.

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