2023 signified several major news updates in the cell-based food sector. Below are five of the most popular stories from The Cell Base.
Ayana Bio opens new laboratory to commercialise cultivated ingredients
July saw plant cell technology company Ayana Bio announce the opening of a new lab situated in Boston’s Seaport district in Massachusetts, US.
The lab will serve as a hub to advance Ayana Bio’s plant cell-cultivated production systems to create a diverse range of cost-effective and high-quality health, wellness and nutrition ingredients.
Ayana Bio says the new facility will help it to overcome previous industry challenges through better cell lines and a multi-product production system. The technology will make plant cell-cultivated ingredients scalable through its proprietary hardware and production process that can accommodate a variety of cell lines simultaneously.
Ayana Bio says the facility “solidifies [its] commitment to transforming the future of sustainable ingredients in one of the world’s most innovative scientific research and development hubs”.
GEA inaugurates new innovation centre for alt-proteins
In June, international tech group GEA inaugurated its new Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC) in Hildesheim, Germany.
The ATC houses a pilot plant for the production of sustainable alternatives to meat, milk, seafood and eggs, through microbial fermentation and cell cultivation.
At the new technology centre, GEA’s food experts will use a cell cultivation and fermentation pilot line to fast-track innovations from the lab to commercial-scale manufacturing.
The new testing platform at the ATC is designed to bridge the gap between the test bench and industrial-scale production without customers having to invest in a large-scale plant from the outset.
CellRev and BSF Enterprise’s 3D Bio-Tissues to form cell-based meat JV
This month saw UK-based tissue engineering company 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT) and its sister company Kerato, owned by BSF Enterprise, announce a new a joint venture with continuous cell manufacturing biotech CellRev.
The JV will focus on developing, and offering to the market, an end-to-end solution for manufacturing cell-based meat at scale.
Named Cultivated Meat Technologies (CMT), the JV will combine CellRev’s continuous bioprocessing expertise, which facilitates faster, cheaper and more sustainable production of muscle cells, with 3DBT’s know-how in forming meat tissue and its City-Mix animal-free cell culture supplement.
CMT aims to provide the market with the premier platform for manufacturing cell-based meat in a scalable and cost-competitive manner. It will focus on upstream and downstream processes, providing scale-up capabilities for cell-based meat production.
Initially, CMT will begin with the development of the processes and technology needed to showcase cell-based meat fillets, manufactured in a scalable manner, that can translate into a mass production facility.
ICA and Re:meat explore cell-based meat’s potential in Sweden
In November, Swedish food chain ICA and Re:meat have partnered to explore the market potential for cell-based meat in Sweden.
Together, the companies will initiate a pilot project to study cell-based meat in an experimental environment, pending its EU approval as a safe-to-consumer food product.
Initially, the collaboration will explore consumer's attitudes to cell-based meat. Together, ICA and Re:meat will work to define the necessary conditions to create demand from a sustainability perspective.
In a statement, ICA said: “It is already clear that the taste, price and nutritional value of the meat will be critical factors, but there are more perspectives, for example how the consumer views cell-based meat”.
Jacob Peterson, Re:meat’s CEO, commented: “Our vision is that all people should be able to enjoy good, nutritious and sustainable meat. For Re:meat, collaboration across the value chain is important to succeed in changing both the industry and what the consumer chooses to cook and put on their plate.”
Cultzyme opens investment round for intelligent bioreactor development
In October, bioprocessing solution provider Cultzyme opened an investment round to fund the development and commercialisation of its intelligent bioreactor.
The firm’s intelligent R&D bioreactor, BION (Bioreactor Intelligent Operative Nanotechnology), integrates the latest hardware, AI and quantum computing to deliver precise control of reaction conditions, real-time monitoring and optimisations and scalable methods.
The intelligent bioreactors are said to overcome the greatest challenges in bioprocessing, empowering R&D driven businesses to produce high-quality bio-tech products efficiently and effortlessly.
Cultzyme aims to target 10% of the global reusable bioreactor market by 2028 and is seeking investment to support this. The company says it will use the additional funding to facilitate the continued development of BION, support the expansion of partnerships with leading organisations, and enable commercialisation of the product in this high-growth market.
