EIT Food awards start-ups €1.8 million to slash cultivated meat production costs

15 Sep 2023 --- EIT Food has unlocked €1.8 million (US$1.93 million) worth of funds directed to three cultivated protein-pioneering businesses from Germany, Israel and the UK. The funding will be laser-focused on lowering production costs as much as possible within the next two years.

The start-ups were selected from the Cultivated Meat Innovation Challenge, a competition organized by EIT Food and the Good Food Institute Europe (GFI) to accelerate the development of sustainable and affordable alternatives to animal meat.

Each company will develop commercial products using “food grade” cell culture media, which is cheaper and greener than the pharmaceutical-grade media used by biotech firms. These products will help cultivated meat companies grow more cells with less media.

Cell-culture media – the nutrient-rich brew that feeds the cells as they grow in a cultivator – remains the most expensive element of cultivating meat. 

“Cell culture media is currently one of the biggest barriers, which is why we’re delighted EIT Food has provided this additional funding. But we also need investment in increasing the availability of cell lines, improving scaffolding to recreate the complex texture of conventional meat and building larger fermenters,” Seren Kell, senior science and technology manager at the GFI, tells Food Ingredients First.

Kell also notes that to solve technical, scaling up, and commercialization challenges, “governments need to boost public funding of open access research and development.” 

Racing to EU commercialization
With EIT Food’s funding, the start-ups will receive support to pursue further market testing and reach the commercialization stage, targeting European consumers.

One of the companies that have received funding is the German pharmaceutical business LenioBio, whose technology allows the rapid growth of plant cells to produce proteins within 48 hours. The company was initially formed to find a way to develop proteins faster to tackle the West African Ebola outbreak in 2015.

3D Bio-Tissues plans to develop an “innovative” media mix by combining its pharma knowledge with low-cost, food-grade ingredients. (Image Credits: 3D Bio-Tissues).LenioBio affirms that “cultivated meat companies can use it [their technology] to produce any protein within two days at any scale, anywhere in the world – whether they are using it to produce beef or salmon – using standard equipment without the need for advanced cell engineering expertise.”

UK’s 3D Bio-Tissues, a spin-out from Newcastle University producing human corneas for eye transplants, plans to develop an “innovative” media mix by combining its pharma knowledge with low-cost, food-grade ingredients that can be sold to cultivated meat companies as ready-to-use, recyclable products.

The company’s existing pharmaceutical formula is made from the byproducts of agroforestry and other industries.

“In such a new sector, one of the things that is so exciting is the confluence of so many diverse disciplines sharing knowledge and building expertise from the ground up. From biochemists to nutritionists, and from chemical engineers to food scientists – cultivated meat is such a complicated challenge that everyone is able to contribute,” Kell explains.

“Of course, some of the work undertaken by pharma companies is really transferable to cultivated meat. It’s excellent to see some of these companies realize the potential of this space and help build the foundations of the sophisticated supply chain this growing sector will need,” she continues. 

Meanwhile, food-tech start-up BioBetter has formulated a unique protein manufacturing platform for producing growth factors (GFs) using tobacco plants as self-sustained, animal-free bioreactors.

Speaking to Food Ingredients First this week, Amit Yaari, CEO of BioBetter, said: “Our technology is based on common industrial equipment, which is found in many agricultural processing plants, and requires no custom or pharma-based concepts and equipment that are bottlenecking and expensive.”

Also commenting on BioBetter, Kell says, “Their approach, using plants which can be harvested up to four times a year as ‘eco-friendly bioreactors,’ was a fascinating solution to this problem.”BioBetter’s plant bioreactors contain several advanced mechanisms designed to optimize performance and increase protein expression levels. (Credit: Photographer, Rotem Golan)

“Ultimately, we expect to see a range of different approaches to address the challenge of reducing cell culture media costs, including precision fermentation and cell-free protein synthesis, as our cell culture media anticipated growth factor costs and volumes report found.

“BioBetter now has a golden opportunity to drive prices down, scale up production and slash the carbon emissions from our food system,” he underscores.

Exciting times for the cell-based movement
The food industry is thrilled as cultivated meat reaches its commercialization stage and could soon be available to consumers.

“This is such an exciting time for cultivated meat innovation, and we’re delighted to be awarding new funding to three of the most cutting-edge start-ups in the industry,” Adamek says.

In the same vein, Seren Kell, senior science and technology manager at the GFI, states, “It’s very exciting to see these innovative ideas turned into plans that could be brought to the market within the next two years, helping cultivated meat companies across the world to drive prices down and turn this more sustainable way of making meat into a commercial reality.”

The GFI notes that cell-based meats could cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 92%. 

“This work could have a major impact on how quickly we can scale up production and create a more sustainable food system,” Kell highlights.

By Marc Cervera