Cult Food Science buys stake in Ohayo Valley to develop cell-based premium grade Wagyu ribeye beef

29 Oct 2021 --- Cult Food Science has secured investment in Ohayo Valley, a cultivated meat science and cell biology company. By acquiring a stake, Cult can sharpen its portfolio to develop and commercialize the sustainable production of premium, lab-grown, marbled Wagyu ribeye beef.

“When considering capital deployments, Cult considers many factors including, but not limited to, the defendability of IP, product roadmaps and founder’s experience, among others,” Cult Food Science CFO Francis Rowe tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

“Ohayo’s pursuit of a gourmet product (wagyu beef), its carbon offset potential, as well as its impressive founding team made it a clear fit for Cult.”

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Patented processes offset greenhouse gas emissions by producing cultivated versions of all varieties of beef.

Patented processes offset greenhouse gas emissions by producing cultivated versions of all varieties of beef.

Textured whole beef analogs
Ohayo’s expertise allows Cult to reproduce textured whole beef cut analogs. Once fully commercial, the company intends to supply its cultivated whole beef to restaurants and chefs.

The platform advances the development of novel technologies, focusing on sustainable and ethical solutions to global factory farming and aquaculture. 

With this strategic investment, Cult gains access to the processes to recreate protein, fat and beef texture profile, underpinned by five of Ohaya’s provisional patents.

On the topic of when their cultivated meat would be commercialized, Rowe merely discloses that “each of the portfolio companies is commercializing products at different speeds.”

“We do expect cultured food products to become increasingly prevalent on store shelves and in restaurants in the months and years to come,” he adds.

Lab-grown food cred
At present, Cult has seven investments in the cellular agricultural (CellAg) space, including Biftek, Mogale Meat Co. MeliBio, Cell Ag Tech, Just Good and Novel Farms.

Rowe explains: “Cult is committed to being the first publicly traded investment platform with a sole focus of democratizing access to the future of food (lab-grown foods) via diversified investment holdings and a streaming portfolio of intellectual property that is currently under development.”

In hot pursuit toward commercializing cultivated meat products, Nutreco and Mosa Meat’s joint project “Feed for Meat” was recently awarded a substantial grant by European REACT-EU’s recovery assistance program to advance cellular agriculture and cultivated beef production. 

The Good Meat division of Eat Just also secured US$97 million in new funding in September, which enables the company to increase capacity and accelerate R&D for high-quality, real meat made directly from animal cells.

In China, significant funds are being allocated to help the nascent alternative protein sector optimize and scale up. This was revealed earlier this month through public government records reviewed by the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC. 

Offsetting emissions with cultured beef
It is well documented that cows are the primary source of agriculture-based greenhouse gases worldwide. Methane from cattle is 28 times more potent in warming the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Ohayo’s patented processes offset greenhouse gas emissions by producing cultivated versions of all varieties of beef, thereby furthering its ESG mandate.

The team has more than 20 years of combined research experience in cultivated meat science and cell biology, including developing the Artemys burger prototype.

By Inga de Jong