Cell Based Tech Weekly – BlueNalu’s Yellowtail Amberjack, Legendairy Raises $4.5M, BIFE Insights

Cell based fish company, BlueNalu, announced a product demo of the company’s yellowtail amberjack grown using cellular aquaculture. 

Major Accomplishment: BlueNalu’s yellowtail amberjack is a whole muscle portion of fish, which is a unique feat for a cell based meat company as most companies have been creating samples of unstructured, ground products to date. 

Why We Care: According to a BlueNalu press release, the company is now ready to focus on increasing production volume and launching the products into a test market within the next two years. 

Investments 

German lab grown dairy company, Legendairy Foods, is using cellular fermentation to “brew” real milk proteins like casein and whey. They’ve just raised $4.7 million from Merck KGaA, CPT Capital and Agronomics Limited. https://cellbased.link/qgk 

CBT UPDATE 

Last week, I reported on Argentinian Craveri Laboratories and the company’s new cell based meat division called BIFE (Bio Ingeniería en la Fabricación de Elaborados, or Bioengineering in Processed Foods Manufacturing). I caught up with Craveri President and CEO, Juan Craveri, to find out more about the company’s expansion into lab grown meat. 

What I learned: Craveri has extensive research experience in bioengineering cell types (keratinocytes, chondrocytes, cornea, etc) and has already created prototypes of muscle fiber rings that can be formed into a burger or meatball. They are currently working on culturing other cell types (connective tissue cells, fat cells, vascular cells) in order to combine them with the fibers and reach a product with the same texture, consistency and flavor then traditional meat.

The major limit for BIFE is finding a large enough bioreactor for commercial production.

The company is working with local manufacturers to create scaled up bioreactors and once they acquire a big enough bioreactor, BIFE will be ready for commercial production.