Clever Carnivore poised for authorization of scalable and low-cost cultivated pork

Cultivated meat producer Clever Carnivore is in the process of submitting a comprehensive dossier to the US FDA, with plans to make price-conscious cultivated pork available to consumers. 

Clever Carnivore has developed unique non-GMO porcine highly proliferative cell lines capable of less than 14-hour doubling times in adherent culture.

Scientists at the company have been working to demonstrate that cultivated meat is a viable option for commercialization. It hones in on three vital areas of innovation, including low-cost, limited-ingredient cell culture media (providing the nutrients in which cells grow) and high-performance pork cells that grow efficiently and are produced without genetic modification. 

The third pillar is the company’s factory design that minimizes costs and maximizes bioprocess robustness. 

It has developed several pork products, including bratwursts, breakfast sausages, hotdogs, and meatballs. 

Cultivated pork within reach

The company lays out the costs of cell culture media at US$0.07 per liter to produce at the current pilot scale (with further reductions expected at full plant scale). 

Previous reports of industry-leading media costs range from US$1 per liter to US$10 per liter, and the cost of cell culture media at Clever Carnivore has been at or below US$0.07 per liter for the past two years.

Clever Carnivore is currently raising funds to sustain current efforts and support further growth.

“We plan to submit our FDA dossier sometime in late Q3 and we anticipate the authorization process taking between 1-2 years. Given our previous communication with the FDA so far, we anticipate a smooth process toward authorization,” Virginia Rangos, Clever Carnivore CEO, tells Food Ingredients First.

“We don’t believe consumers should be expected to pay a premium for our great-tasting cultivated products. Instead, we’re focused on remaining low-cost and are confident we can go to market at or below parity with traditional pork.” 

Increasing efficiency 

Clever Carnivore produces cultivated pork in a pilot facility with two 500-liter stainless steel bioreactors but has plans to expand with a third 500-liter bioreactor, which will lead to greater production volumes. 

“Our proprietary, highly proliferative cell type and US$0.07/L media unlock an ultra-low-cost production process capable of the growth needed to reach profitability at smaller scales,” Paul Burridge, CSO, tells us.

“We continuously develop new cell lines in the latest version of our optimized media formula to keep innovation moving and maximize proliferation and robustness.”