Let’s start by saying, sorry folks, you’re going to have wait a liiiitle longer for cell based meat. For those eager to taste the latest intersection of biotech 🔬 and food 🍔, there are a number of non-meat options available. We’ll start with the non-meat options and then come back to cell based meat and when we expect it to hit the market. 

Non-Meat from the Lab 

You can find a vegan burger, taco, or meatball made using cellular technology, courtesy of Impossible Foods, at restaurants including Burger King, Applebees, Red Robin, The Cheesecake Factory and retailers including Safeway, Albertsons, Pavilions, Vons, Gelson’s, Jewel-Osco, Wegmens, Kroger. 

Direct 2 Consumer: Order Impossible Burgers from the company website to be delivered directly to your door (free shipping!)

What Makes Impossible Foods’ meat analogues “cell based”? 

Their hero ingredient in Impossible Foods is called heme and is made from microbial engineering and fermentation. It is also what gives it “meat-like” flavor and makes it “bleed”. Impossible’s heme is made from soy leghemoglobin produced by Pichia pastoris strain MXY0291 engineered specifically to optimize production of soy leghemoglobin by increasing the intracellular concentration of heme.

Soy leghemoglobin is manufactured by batch fed fermentation of the P. pastoris production strain under controlled conditions. Following fermentation, the P. pastoris cells are broken down and any insoluble content is removed by centrifugation and microfiltration. The resulting cells are concentrated and stabilized with sodium chloride and sodium ascorbate and stored as a frozen liquid concentrate.

Impossible Foods received GRAS certification for this ingredient to be used to optimize flavor in ground meat analogue products that are intended to be cooked. The soy leghemoglobin protein shall not deliver more than 0.8% of soy leghemoglobin protein in the final product enabling Impossible to enhance flavor without driving up cost too high.

Impossible Foods P. pastoris production strain MXY0291 is stored in a master cell bank at multiple locations. Nutritionally, Impossible’s soy leghemoglobin delivers approximately the same amount of heme protein as is found in beef. 

In addition to cell based heme, cell based whey is on the market albeit in small scale… 

Perfect Day is producing β-Lactoglobulin, the primary protein that makes up animal based whey. The β-Lactoglobulin is produced by Trichoderma reesei for use as a source of protein in food at levels up to 35%.

β-Lactoglobulin as described by Perfect Day is a white to cream colored powder containing β-Lactoglobulin that is produced through fermentation of Trichoderma reesei production strain that has been specifically engineered by Perfect Day to optimize production of β-Lactoglobulin protein.

The production strain of fungi is fermented under controlled conditions through which the  β-Lactoglobulin is subsequently secreted into the fermentation media. The secreted biomass undergoes a centrifugation process to separate the desired biomass  (β-Lactoglobulin) from the fermentation media and further concentration and filtration processing enables the protein to be integrated into a variety of products including yogurt, ice cream, and cheese.

  • Through a partnership with San Francisco based Smitten Ice Cream you can now purchase “N’Ice” cream made with Perfect Day non-animal whey protein. 
  • At $12/pint this is only $1 more than Smitten Ice cream regular dairy pints → this is luxe ice cream we are talking about! 
  • What We Know: The product is being marketed as vegan & lactose free and Smitten refers to the N’Ice cream as being made with “Perfect Day™ clean-label base.”
  • Head scratching emoji: Do consumers understand what non-animal whey protein, clean label base means? 

Back to Lab Grown Meat

Lab meat is slowly making its way to market with the main obstacles being scale up and cost reduction. 

The main challenges associated with cell based meat commercialization are the following:

  • Cell line engineering: developing a cell line suitable for long term replication. 
  • Cell culture media and growth factors: developing and manufacturing a formulation that is low cost and optimized cell proliferation.
  • Bioreactor design: creating a bioreactor that is large enough for adequate yield without harming the cells. As the cell density increases there also must be mechanisms in place for nutrients and oxygen to reach all cells within the closed system. Also, creating a bioreactor system that can be sterilized to meet food grade standards.
  • Efficient recycling of cell toxins: as cells proliferate they release substances like ammonia that can lead to cell death. It is important to consider interventions that enable the reuptake of potentially toxic excretes. 

Here is a timeline based on what the leading startups in the space are saying:

2022

2024

2026

2028

  • Premium priced cell based chicken, fish fillets, meatballs, burgers, steak, specialty meats.

2030

  • Cell based meats reach commercialized scale still not at price parity with conventional meats.
Summary
Where can I buy lab grown meat?
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Where can I buy lab grown meat?
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Let’s start by saying, sorry folks, you’re going to have wait a liiiitle longer for cultured meat. For those eager to taste the latest intersection of biotech 🔬 and food 🍔, there are a number of non-meat options available. We’ll start with the non-meat options and then come back to cell based meat and when we expect it to hit the market.
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Cell Based Tech
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