Meatly unveils protein-free culture medium
Through its R&D operation, Meatly has set a new benchmark for the industry by creating this medium for just £1 per litre
Cultivated meat company Meatly has announced the development of a protein-free culture medium – the first of its kind in the cultivated meat industry.
Meatly stated that this marks a significant step forward in the “quest for animal-free, cost-effective cultivated meat production”.
Through its R&D operation, Meatly has set a new benchmark for the industry by creating this medium for just £1 per litre. By comparison, typical media costs hundreds of pounds per litre to produce.
Meatly’s new medium contains no serum, animal-derived components, steroids, hormones, growth factors, or antibiotics, and it is used in its suspension culture bioreactors without micro-carriers.
The absence of expensive proteins, growth factors, and micro-carriers means that the future industrial scale will be “economically viable”. The cost will be brought down even further when higher volumes of the medium are purchased.
As well as being cost-effective, the ingredients Meatly uses in its culture medium are food-safe. Through it, Meatly can reach this industrial scale faster and contribute to making cultivated meat a “safe and affordable reality”.
A culture medium is the mix of nutrients used by companies in the cultivated meat industry to grow animal cells. It is essential to the production process and accounts for the majority of the costs involved. Reducing these costs has been a major hurdle as the industry looks to scale up and, eventually, achieve price parity with traditional meat products.
Last month, Meatly announced the production of the cultivated pet food. It aims to sell its products in the UK this year, becoming the first company to sell cultivated meat in Europe. To date, Meatly has raised £3.6m, backed by investors such as Pets at Home and Agronomics.
Helder Cruz, co-founder and chief scientific officer at Meatly, said: “Our protein-free culture medium represents a critical milestone for us and the wider cultivated meat industry. By setting this new benchmark, we are driving the cost of production down significantly, which is something the industry has been grappling with for years. It is a huge step forward in scaling our technology and making our products available to pet owners on a commercial scale and at an affordable price.”
Jim Mellon, founder of Agronomics, an investor in Meatly, added: “Meatly’s creation of the very first protein-free medium establishes the company as a true technological leader within its field. Media accounts for the majority of the costs involved in the production of cultivated meat and Meatly has single-handedly slashed those costs a hundredfold or more. This is a huge step forward in bringing the cost of cultivated meat to price-parity with conventional meat and, ultimately, toward the mass adoption of cultivated products.”
