Future Meat startup has developed a special solution with which you can grow 10 times more meat than in other bioreactors. Funding received, now mount the first production line. And by 2022 the food industry will change forever, promised by the founders.
Current manufacturers of artificial meat can be divided into two camps: the ones that make the simulation of plant components, others hone the technique of growing cells in a bioreactor, getting real meat without having to raise and slaughter livestock and related greenhouse gas emissions.
The leaders among first — Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, and most well-known startups from the second camp — Memphis Meats, Aleph Farms, Higher Steaks, Mosa Meat and Meatable. But the ambitious beginner — founded last year, the company Future Meat — intended to shake up the market in the most friendly way to produce meat cheaper than it now costs to grow it.
The company received $14 million in a new funding round and is already building the first production line tanks with a magic solution in order increase the efficiency of the bioreactor.
About how it works, TechCrunch said the startup founder and scientific Director of the Jacob Namias.
Two components of conventional meat muscle fibers and fat cells in reactors FM are grown from undifferentiated cells of the fibroblast, the development of which on a particular path can be directed with the help of small molecules. Also used a bit of the cells of the Chinese hamster ovary (Cho) that are already widely used in biological and medical research and commercial manufacture of therapeutic proteins. Know-how — solution, in which this meat is growing. Normally the growth of cells outside the body is limited to their own toxins.
“We have a special solution to remove toxins from the environment, which allows the cells to continue to grow, says Namias. — In fact, it is a new design of bioreactor… with a yield of 80%. That is, for each liter of the medium you won’t receive 100 grams of biomass and 800 grams”.
Second important advantage is that the organization of production is not necessary to build factory worth $100 million In a single reactor the size of a refrigerator for a couple of weeks you can grow half a ton of meat and fat. And for the month — the approximate equivalent of meat they give two cows. And they need to raise from one year to 18 months.
Namias said that the Future Meat will work with producers, providing them with products and reactants, not the supermarkets. The most important advantage of the reactor — efficiency, so — low price. According to the calculations of Namusa, the cost of manufacturing a pound of meat biomass are already on the pilot line will be around $10, and if the finished product is to add vegetable components — about $4. This is less than the cost of a kilo of beef in the United States or Russia.
“You grow the meat or the fat of a specific animal species. Says Namias. — Imagine a large truck approaching the object. These will replace the meat in the truck squeezed biomass, and such units can be thousands. They all go to a Central point where the result is meat when it is mixed with vegetable components]”.
Names also sure that the products FM will be better than substitutes plant-based: the fat gives the meat flavor and characteristic taste, and that this component is not enough and Impossible Foods Beyond Meat.
Interestingly, one of the early investors in the startup of the giant meat industry of the United States Tyson Foods. And there is work with farmers on a similar scheme — concluding the contracts for the farming of chickens for their meat processing plants.
Namias sure FM, it is sufficient to enter the market with their reactors — and the food industry will change forever. It’s one thing when artificial meat helps the environment. Quite another when it is simply cheaper. According to his calculations, it will happen by 2022. However, the environment also benefits: the farming of meat in the reactor uses 99% less land than traditional farming, and generates five times less greenhouse gases.
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