Extracellular, a UK-based contract development and manufacturing organisation dedicated to cell-based meat and seafood, has announced the opening of a new pilot facility for cell-based meat and seafood.

The facility – which the company says is “Europe’s largest” contact pilot facility dedicated to cell-based meat and seafood production – is located in Bristol, UK, with the ambition of driving the industry closer to commercial scale.

Extracellular says its new facility will provide the industry with the pivotal scale-up and manufacturing services required to propel the industry to commercial scale.

The facility aims to have a total capacity of 10,000 litres, with a production capacity of up to 50 tons of cell-based meat annually with its existing capabilities, and up to 100 tons per year with its predicted future capabilities.

The new site operates as a food-grade production facility and is operational now at a 200-litre scale. The company says that 2,000-litre capacity will be operational by the end of the year.

The facility – which will hold multiple bioreactors from 50 litres to 5,000 litres – will be available to cell-based meat and seafood companies through Extracellular’s development, scale-up and contract manufacturing services.

Founder and CEO of Extracellular, Will Milligan, said: “The vision for the facility is to eliminate the need for cultivated meat companies to develop pilot-scale facilities altogether, saving each company millions of pounds in CAPEX, cutting years out of their commercialisation timelines and de-risking the scale-up process by providing the much-needed manufacturing expertise. This will allow cultivated meat companies to focus on their goals of developing great consumer products at achievable prices”.

Extracellular says it will be able to support companies from around the world from its site in the UK and is already supporting more than 12 customers across eight countries and four continents.

The company’s plans to expand the facility in the future to support the development and commercialisation of cell-based meat includes dedicated scale-up sites in strategic geographies, including in Asia and the US.

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