Today’s meat industry is one of the largest contributors to global warming. Its business model isn’t sustainable in an ever-growing world, and so we need alternative and sustainable ways to “meat” demand for meat products. Thankfully, science has prevailed yet again and come up with an answer: Lab-Grown Meat.
Defining Cellular Agriculture
Cellular agriculture is a field of science and technology that aims to produce agricultural products, such as meat, without the need for traditional farming methods. It involves culturing animal cells in a lab setting and growing them into tissues that can be used as food. Lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat or synthetic meat, is a specific application that focuses on creating meat products from cell cultures. It involves isolating animal cells and providing them with the necessary nutrients and growth factors to multiply and form muscle tissue. The goal is to provide a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional livestock farming, addressing concerns related to animal welfare, resource consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Industrializing Meats & Seafood Summit
With the much-anticipated Industrializing Meats & Seafood Summit just around the corner, we are thrilled to delve into the revolutionary world of cellular agriculture. In this blog, we shine a spotlight on the trailblazing lab-grown meat companies that are spearheading innovation and transforming the future of the food industry. These pioneers are at the forefront of cellular agriculture, employing cutting-edge scientific techniques to cultivate real meat from animal cells in controlled lab environments. Their groundbreaking work has the potential to address the challenges associated with conventional livestock farming and pave the way for a more sustainable and humane future of meat consumption.
Without further ado, here are some of the leading lab-grown meat companies in 2023:
Food tech Vow is a prominent cultivated meat company founded in Australia, with Tim Noakesmith and George Peppou at the helm. They are dedicated to transforming the way meat is produced by harnessing cellular agriculture and fermentation techniques. Vow's focus extends beyond traditional meats, as they aim to develop cultured alternatives for unique and exotic varieties such as kangaroo, alpaca, and even lion. By pushing the boundaries of cultivated meat, Vow strives to offer sustainable and ethical choices while diversifying the protein options available to consumers.
Mewery is the first European cell-based food tech startup developing novel and fortified cultivated pork on a microalgae base. Their unique technology aims to break down barriers to scaling and accelerating the cultivated meat industry. They are developing a porcine cell line for a proprietary hybrid media, which doesn’t require FBS and uses microalgae base to lower the production costs of cultivated meat significantly.
JBS, one of the largest meat processing companies globally, has also made strides in the cultivated meat field. While not founded specifically as a cultivated meat company, JBS recognizes the potential of this emerging industry and has invested in research and development in this area. They aim to leverage their expertise and scale to accelerate the adoption of cultivated meat technologies and meet the growing demand for sustainable protein.
Founded in 2020 by the renowned tissue biologist, Dr. Ali Khademhosseini, Omeat is headquartered in Los Angeles. Omeat is an innovative food startup that has revolutionized the production of cultivated meat, offering a scalable and sustainable alternative to conventional meat. What sets Omeat apart is their cutting-edge process that utilizes the inherent regenerative properties found in cows' plasma to stimulate cell growth. This proprietary technique enables them to produce delicious and affordable cultivated meat without the need for animal sacrifice.
Ever After Foods, formerly known as Plurinova, is an Israeli food tech company at the forefront of innovation. They have introduced their groundbreaking patented bioreactor platform, aiming to make cultivated meat accessible to the mass market. Traditionally, the cultivated meat industry faces obstacles due to the significant size and expense of bioreactors required to scale production. However, Ever After Foods is developing cutting-edge technology that overcomes these challenges, enabling them to produce cultivated meat with unparalleled cost-efficiency and scalability.
Upside Foods, formerly known as Memphis Meats, is a leading cultivated meat company co-founded by Uma Valeti, Nicholas Genovese, and Will Clem. The core of UPSIDE Foods' approach involves utilizing biotechnology to guide stem cells towards differentiating into muscle tissue, which forms the basis for various meat products. These stem cells are cultivated and manufactured within specialized bioreactors, providing a controlled and environmentally friendly environment for meat production.
Finless Foods is dedicated to fostering a thriving ocean in the future. Founded by Michael Selden and Brian Wyrwas, the company's mission is to craft delectable, nutritious, and easily attainable seafood substitutes using plant-based and cell-cultured methods. With a wide array of offerings, Finless Foods caters to diverse tastes and dietary choices, ensuring that consumers have access to responsibly sourced food options.
SCiFi Foods is driven by a passion for meat while acknowledging the negative impact of industrial animal agriculture on the environment and animal welfare. Their focus lies in cultivating real meat from cells, making the process cleaner, more compassionate, and highly efficient to address the challenges posed by a growing global population and climate change. Spearheaded by Cofounder & CEO Joshua March and Cofounder & CTO Dr. Kasia Gora, the team is dedicated to creating a future where burgers can be enjoyed without compromising the health of the planet.
Through its innovative technology, Ivy Farm is on a mission to create the best guilt-free, real meat, to tackle one of the world’s biggest polluters - industrial agriculture - and to help the world reach its net zero goals. Initially spun out of Oxford University, the company has grown rapidly to a team of over 50 experts and recently opened its new state of the art R&D facility and pilot plant in Oxford to fuel its global ambitions.
SuperMeat is a food tech company founded by Ido Savir, Koby Barak, Shir Friedman in 2015. This company is located in Tel Aviv and has about 20 employees
Super Meat focuses on producing lab-grown chicken using in vitro cultured cells in a safe and controlled environment, external to the animal’s body. This kind of clean meat will require significantly less resources for its production (99% less land, 90% less water), making it both a healthy and sustainable food source for the coming century.
Mosa Meat is a company made popular by its founder Dr. Mark Post who produced the first burger made completely of culture cells in 2013. This company is located in the Netherlands and has about 100 employees. Mosa Meat produces slaughter-free hamburgers made from meat that is harvested from cow cells instead of raised and slaughtered livestock. They’ve removed the use of FBS from their formula and replaced it with myoglobin to give their meat patties a better color. By growing meat naturally from cells, Mosa Meat strives to accelerate the transition to a truly sustainable global food system.
Aleph Farms is a company founded by Didier Toubia & Shulamit Levenberg. This company is located in Israel and has about 60 employees. Aleph Farms is paving a new way forward in producing delicious beef steaks from non-genetically engineered cells, isolated from a cow. This remarkable alternative to raising livestock uses a fraction of the resources and is antibiotic-free.
Shiok Meats is a cell-based meat and seafood company founded by Ka Yi Ling, Sandhya Sriram. The company is located in Singapore and has about 30 employees. If you’re a fan of surf ‘n’ turf, then you’ll love what Shiok Meats is cooking up. They're on a mission to bring healthy, tasty, and sustainable meats and seafood to our dinner tables by harvesting from cells instead of animals.
Biftek is set to reduce the cost of lab-grown meat with its unique formula. This company is located in Turkey and has about 10 employees. Biftek is working on creating a replacement serum for FBS using its formula that utilizes 44 proteins derived from myosattelite cells.
Steakholder Foods (Nasdaq: STKH) is developing 3D bioprinters and cultivated meat. It is located in Israel and has about 50 employees. It uses 3D printing to produce whole cuts of hybrid meat such as steaks and fish and bypass the need for industrial animal agriculture. Recently it signed a first ever multi-million-dollar agreement with GCC governmental body to commercialize its 3D bio-printing technology.
Micro Meat was founded by Anne-Sophie Mertgen in Mexico and has about 5 employees. This company creates technologies for scaling up cultured/clean meat production and bringing cultivated meat products to the market faster. Micromeat uses Scispot to manage their workflows, inventory and product ordering. Check this exclusive interview with Anne Sophie Mertgen, Founder & CEO of Micro Meat, as she shares her inspirational journey and innovative approach to solving the biggest challenges in the cultivated meat industry.
As of recently, Micro Meat’s business has undergone some significant changes and has currently paused operations for the unforeseeable future. We wish Anne-Sophie Mertgen the best of luck with her mission.
Scispot: The Ultimate Biotech Software Solution for Lab-Grown Meat Companies
Scispot has become the primary lab management software of choice for numerous alt-protein startups, including lab-grown meat companies. You can turn your biostartup into a techbio.
Scispot creates a connected digital replica of these innovative bioscience companies. It centralizes their company-wide data, templatizes routine research and automates non-scientific tasks. It makes other lab software such as electronic lab notebooks (ELNs) and lab information management systems (LIMS) redundant.
Lab-grown meat companies use Scispot's operating platform to manage their research projects, inventory, samples, and partners all in one spot. Request a demo to learn how you can accelerate your research using Scispot.
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