CULT Food Science Corp (CSE:CULT, OTCQB:CULTF) said its affiliate company GOOD Meat, the cultivated meat division of food tech company Eat Just Inc, has received first-in-the-world regulatory approval from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) for the use of serum-free media in the production of cultivated meat, leading the industry closer to price parity.
"This announcement from GOOD Meat is another example of their leadership in the cellular agriculture industry. Access for the industry at large to low-cost cell culture media, with consistent quality, is a key element to the industry’s long-term success. It can make the difference if the end-product for consumers is affordable and accessible, or not," said Lejjy Gafour, CEO of CULT in a statement.
GOOD Meat's approval for the use of serum-free media will make cultivated meat production more scalable and efficient, inching the industry closer to price parity, in comparison to conventional animal agriculture, CULT said.
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Cellular agriculture technology traditionally uses fetal bovine serum (FBS) in bioreactors as an effective growth medium to cultivate animal cells into the muscle, fat, and connective tissues that form meat. However, FBS serum has a number of disadvantages, including inconsistent quality, ethical concerns, and cost.
Up to 95% of the cost of cultivated meat production can be attributed to the cost of growth media for cells, CULT noted. Removing serum as the media or growth trigger for the cell-based meat process is seen as a major factor in driving down costs and expanding commercialisation of cultivated meats, it said.
GOOD Meat recently launched at Huber's Butchery in Singapore, the first butcher in the world to sell cultivated meat. Eat Just is also constructing a Singapore-based facility with the ability to produce tens of thousands of pounds of cultivated meat. The plant, which will be running the company's serum-free formulation process, is slated to open later in 2023.
Eat Just is a food technology company with a mission to build a healthier, safer and more sustainable food system in our lifetimes. The company's expertise, from functionalizing plant proteins to culturing animal cells, is powered by a world-class team of scientists and chefs spanning more than a dozen research disciplines.
Eat Just created one of America's fastest-growing egg brands, which is made entirely of plants, and the world's first-to-market meat made from animal cells instead of slaughtered livestock. The company has been recognized as one of Fast Company's ‘Most Innovative Companies’, Entrepreneur's ‘100 Brilliant Companies’, CNBC's ‘Disruptor 50’ and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer. JUST Egg has been named among Popular Science's ‘100 Greatest Innovations’ and Fast Company's ‘World Changing Ideas’ and the history-making debut of GOOD Meat was heralded as one of 2020's top scientific breakthroughs by The Guardian, Vox and WIRED.
CULT Food Science is the first publicly-traded company of its kind in North America, pioneering the investment, development, and commercialization of cellular agriculture technologies and products. Through its global portfolio of affiliates, CULT provides investors with unprecedented exposure to the most innovative start-up, private or early-stage cultivated meat, cell-based dairy, and other cultured food companies around the world.
CULT Foods, a division of CULT Food Science, creates breakthrough products that provide a sustainable, environmental, and ethical solution for the future of food, with the mission to make cell-based foods a part of everyday life.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com