Cell-based antelope: Could cultured meat unlock Southern Africa’s nutrition problems?

06 Oct 2021 --- South African-based cellular agriculture food-tech company, Mogale Meat is developing solutions to future-proof Southern Africa’s inadequate nutrition and food security issues – including creating cell-based meat from free-roaming antelope and cattle.

Company CEO Dr. Paul Bartels tells FoodIngredientsFirst how cultured meat in Southern Africa provides a leap toward a more sustainable meat production process and how cultured meat technology can help unlock some of the biggest nutrition issues facing the region's food industry and potentially solve the food security dilemma.

“Southern Africa is plagued by undernutrition, including stunting, wasting, underweight and micronutrient deficiencies. Meat, and more specifically cell-cultured meat, can provide some of the essential nutrient requirements and is efficient, given its enhanced bioavailability as compared to some plant diets,” explains Bartels.

“Cell culture meat derived from African antelope is a lean, healthier meat as compared to meat derived from livestock species.”

Cementing food security in Africa
Africa’s expanding population is rapidly outstripping the continent’s ability to supply affordable nutritious foods.

Cultured meat is a giant leap forward in meat production as the global nutritional demand increasingly exceeds agricultural production capacity placing untold strain on the natural environment and resources, stresses the company.

Bartels strategy is to advance bio-technologies to provide affordable healthy and nutritious cell cultivated meat products to a growing population, to the benefit of animals, people and the planet. It simultaneously addresses the UN SDG challenges and supports the conservation of Africa’s biodiversity for future generations.

Another of the company’s objectives is to preserve Africa’s rich wildlife reserves and heritage.

A two-way technological approach
Bartels details the cultured meat production process and how cells are used in this process.

Cellular meat production is a multi-stage process that entails cell line isolation of the antelope meat, cell starter culture, cell expansion and cellular differentiation.Stage one of the cultured meat production process (Credit: Mogale Meat Company).

During the cell starter culture the cells are screened and selected. In the cell expansion stage, the cells are replicated at an increasing scale. Finally, the cellular differentiation stage involves cell aggregates being harvested and formed into meat products.

“In the short time that we have been in operation, we have been able to produce and cryopreserve more than 500 cell cultures from five antelope species and cattle,” says Bartels.

“These collections are being screened to select cells to be added at our next stage of development, namely cell scale-up in bench-top bioreactors.”

“Here again, we are approaching the technology in two ways, firstly the use of embryonic stem cells and secondly the production of fat and muscle stem cells derived from the collection of small biopsies.”

The types of meat used also encompass the two-way approach. “Our strategy is two-fold, namely to focus on the meat from antelope (venison), which is a lean and healthy nutritious meat. Secondly, the variety of antelope species will allow us to produce novel foods, differing in taste and texture,” he explains.

Nutritionally healthier?
When cell-cultured meat reaches the retail store shelves, it is expected to be a nutritionally healthier meat option, adds Bartels.

“This is because the process of ‘farm to fork’ of cell culture meat production does not include a multitude of steps as seen in conventional meat production,” he continues.

“The steps such as acute and chronic stressing – due to transporting livestock to crowded feedlots – use of excessive antibiotics, loading and transport to abattoirs and the slaughter process can decrease meat quality.”

These steps can lead to the quality of the meat end product being compromised, he notes.

In addition, growth hormones and antibiotics in meat derived from factory farms can disrupt normal metabolic processes and exacerbate antibiotic resistance, while zoonotic diseases are increasing due to the practices of factory farming and wet markets. These are other factors that are driving the development of cellular agriculture technology.Stage two of the cultured meat production process (Credit: Mogale Meat Company).

A two-way technological approach
Bartels details that the company has focused on antelope species and cattle since its establishment in 2020.

“In the short time that we have been in operation, we have been able to produce and cryopreserve more than 500 cell cultures from five antelope species and cattle,” says Bartels. “These collections are being screened to select cells to be added to our next stage of development, namely cell scale-up in bench-top bioreactors.”

“Here again, we are approaching the technology in two ways, firstly the use of embryonic stem cells and secondly the production of fat and muscle stem cells derived from the collection of small biopsies.”

The types of meat used also encompass the two-way approach. “Our strategy is two-fold, namely to focus on the meat from antelope (venison), which is a lean and healthy nutritious meat. Secondly, the variety of antelope species, and thus their meat will allow us to produce novel foods, differing in taste and texture,” he explains.

Impact on environment
Cell cultured meat is predicted to have a massive impact on the environment, wildlife and biodiversity in Southern Africa, affirms Bartels.

“As Africa’s population is expected to double in the next 30 years, it will total over one billion more people on the continent of Africa,” he adds. “One can only predict that with millions of more people wanting to eat meat, that more land will have to be transformed into crop production for feeding more livestock, destroying millions of square kilometers of natural habitat.”Cultured meat manufacturing process (Credit: Mogale Meat Company).   

To solve this environmental and food security dilemma, Mogale Meat Co sees part of the solution as the production of cell-cultured meat.

“The cell-culture meat production ticks many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals of saving natural habitats, fighting poverty, improving food security, decreasing GHG emissions, conserving energy – through the use of renewables – and conserving water,” Bartels concludes.

Investors involved
Mogale Meat Co also has two global venture capital investors based in the US, Sustainable Food Ventures and Cult Food Science.

Mogale Meat Co was one of the finalists in the XPRIZE competition. The company collaborated with Cryowild BioBank NPC, University of KwaZulu-Natal and Tshwane University of Technology to “Feed the Next Billion” by developing a sustainable lean

chicken breast meat alternative, produced using advanced cell-culture technology.

Cultured meat takes the global stage
Industry players worldwide have shown interest in cultured meat and how it is a sustainable meat production option.

FoodIngredientsFirst is continuously covering the burgeoning cultured meat, seafood, poultry and fish space, as well as other food and commodities that fall under the cell-based umbrella.

In September, the Technical Research Centre of Finland successfully produced coffee cells in a bioreactor through cellular agriculture – an innovation that can help make coffee production more sustainable.

Dutch start-up Mosa Meat has recently received a €5 million (US$5.6 million) investment from the Bell Food Group to scale up its cultivated meat technology. The company also completed a US$85M Series B investment round to scale up its cell-cultured beef production and received funding from Leonardo DiCaprio on a separate occasion.

Meanwhile, Asia is expanding the cultivated meat sector. Last week, Aleph Farms partnered with CJ CheilJedang and the Thai Union to bring cultured meat to the Asian region.

By Nicole Kerr and Gaynor Selby