Quotes from Petfood Industry, May 13, 2024
By Lisa Cleaver
Pioneering Sustainable Pet Nutrition: Meatly’s Cultivated Meat Milestone
Agronomics, a pioneer in the field of alternative protein sources, has reported, that Meatly, situated in the UK and known for its innovation in pet nutrition, has reached a groundbreaking achievement. Meatly has successfully developed a novel pet food product, which is notably the inaugural commercial offering to incorporate lab-grown chicken as its primary protein constituent. Furthermore, this achievement is underscored by the development of a cost-effective culture medium devoid of animal proteins, priced at £1 (equivalent to US$1.26) per liter, marking a substantial advancement in sustainable food production.
Argronomics noted that a culture medium plays a pivotal role in the production of cultivated meat, serving as the source of nutrients necessary for cell survival and growth outside of a living organism. While the practice of cultivating animal cells is a common procedure in research settings, the challenge lies in generating biomass at a scale and cost that is feasible for the market. This necessitates substantial decreases in expenses and breakthroughs in substituting key ingredients of the medium, like fetal bovine serum and albumin, to make the process economically viable.
According to the company, medium costs are responsible for a significant portion of the costs associated with producing cultivated meat, and reducing them is one of the biggest challenges this industry faces as it seeks to scale up and achieve price parity with conventional meat products as quickly as possible.
Bringing cultivated meat cost to price-parity with conventional meat
The team at Agronomics has noted significant disparities in the pricing of cultivation mediums across different enterprises. In certain instances, the cost remains prohibitively high, with figures soaring above several hundred pounds for each liter, rendering the prospect of industrial-scale production financially impractical. Conversely, Meatly has introduced a groundbreaking medium that is devoid of serum, components derived from animals, steroids, hormones, growth factors, or antibiotics. This novel medium is utilized within their suspension culture bioreactors and does not rely on microcarriers, marking a significant stride towards more economically feasible industrial production.
In a significant advancement for the cultivated meat industry, Meatly has innovated the first-ever protein-free growth medium, positioning itself as a pioneer in the sector. This sentiment was echoed by Jim Mellon, the founder of Agronomics and an investor in Meatly, who highlighted the groundbreaking nature of this development. The new growth medium represents a substantial reduction in production costs, which are a major component in cultivated meat manufacturing. By dramatically decreasing these expenses, Meatly is leading the charge towards making cultivated meat as affordable as traditional meat options. This breakthrough is expected to accelerate the widespread acceptance and consumption of cultivated meat products. Anticipation is high as Meatly anticipates imminent regulatory endorsement.
The elimination of costly proteins like transferrin and insulin, along with growth factors and microcarriers, renders the large-scale manufacturing of Meatly’s protein-free culture medium financially feasible, with a cost of £1 (equivalent to US$1.26) per liter. According to Helder Cruz, cofounder and chief scientific officer of Meatly, the company anticipates that the expense of the medium will decrease further as purchase quantities increase.
The development of our protein-free culture medium marks a significant achievement not only for our team but also for the broader lab-grown meat sector,” Cruz stated. “Establishing this new standard is pivotal in substantially reducing production costs—a challenge that has persisted within the industry for a considerable time. This advancement is instrumental in the expansion of our technology and in ensuring that our offerings are economically accessible to pet owners, while also facilitating mass-market distribution.”
