Lab-grown meat company Aleph Farms has submitted an application to the UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) for approval to sell its beefsteak product, marking a significant step in its efforts to scale up and bring sustainable protein products to market.
Aleph’s move comes amidst the growing interest in cultivated meat, a product created from animal cells in bioreactors, seen as a more humane and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional livestock products.
“The strategy is to file in the UK and Switzerland which are interesting markets,” Aleph's chief executive officer Didier Toubia said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We believe the UK will take a couple of years, but the potential is huge.”
Israel-based Aleph, which is backed by investors including L Catterton, DisruptAD and Cargill, intends to begin production in the coming years, but significant technical hurdles remain.
It has been a full 10 years since the first lab-grown burger was grilled, yet the sector has effectively flatlined due to scaling issues and regulatory scrutiny.
However, Aleph Farms is not alone in its pursuit of bringing lab-grown meat to the UK.
BSF Enterprise PLC (LSE:BSFA), through its subsidiary 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT), has made significant strides in the field, having recently unveiled the UK's first full-scale fillet of structured cultivated meat, a pork steak produced in its Newcastle laboratory.
This product, created using 3DBT's patented, serum-free and animal-free cell booster, City-mix, is touted as the world's first 100% cultivated pork steak.
BSF Enterprises has also secured its first major agreement after a successful evaluation of City-Mix, and has expanded its lab production space to accommodate the growing demand.
The company recently raised £2.9 million in an oversubscribed share placing, with plans to use the funds to further develop its cultivated meat fillet technology and expand into new markets.