A new facility for cellular agriculture products called The Cultured Food Innovation Hub is to be established in Zurich, Switzerland. The pilot plant is the brainchild of three companies; Givaudan, Bühler, and Migros, which have formed the hub as a new entity.
Going live in 2022 to accelerate the development and market penetration of cellular agriculture products, The Cultured Food Innovation Hub will be a self-sustained company owned by Swiss multinational manufacturers Givaudan and Bühler, as well as Switzerland’s largest retail company Migros. The new hub will be located in The Valley, Kemptthal, a center of innovation and technology just outside of Zurich.
The new accelerator will give facilities and knowledge to help other companies with their cell-cultured meat, fish and seafood, and precision fermentation development. The Cultured Food Innovation Hub will be equipped with a product development lab as well as cell culture and bio-fermentation capabilities to aid start-ups with market entry.
All three companies are looking to position themselves at the forefront of the alt protein revolution, with Givaudan and Buhler recently collaborating on the joint opening of the new APAC Protein Innovation Centre in Singapore, with the mission of enabling agile plant-based product development on a global scale. Swiss retail giant Migros has also started the development of its own plant-based butchery.
“Cellular agriculture offers a solution in several areas from reducing land use and water, to animal welfare, to the safety and quality of the food chain. The three partners in this new venture are each committed to sustainability as individual companies; the combined effort enables the journey to a more sustainable food system,” says Ian Roberts, Chief Technology Officer at Bühler.
“Bühler contributes with industry leading solutions that are used in the scale-up and production of thousands of food products around the world; Givaudan brings in centuries of experience and knowledge in every aspect of taste, including all kinds of meat alternatives, and deep expertise in biotechnology, to product development; Migros is known for its competence in customer interaction and market cultivation. The combination of the three partners is remarkable,” added Fabio Campanile, Givaudan’s Global Head of Science and Technology, Taste & Wellbeing.
