AgriCultura Celular España launched recently, as a non-profit organization that aims to make Spain a global player in the cellular agriculture industry by creating new business opportunities and promoting the production, integration, and acceptance of cell-derived products.
“One of our goals (…) is to provide consumer-facing information about the science behind cellular agriculture and the need for change in our food system in Spanish”
The organization is poised to promote cellular agriculture technology, especially cultivated meat, and other industry initiatives as solutions to the current challenges that the food system is facing.
Players in the alt protein sector established the new initiative: Jordi Morales-Dalmau, director of technology at cultivated fat specialist Cultimate Foods; Paula V. Méndez, quality engineer at cultivated meat food tech Mosa Meat; Iris Gallego, a researcher at Mosa Meat; and Adrian Hirt, co-founder of ‘The Alt Protein Project‘ at EIT Food.
Information in Spanish
Under one roof, the organization will provide information, share resources, and coordinate activities among companies and institutions. Simultaneously, AgriCultura Celular España seeks to promote collaboration, technology development, and knowledge transfer to accelerate the advancement and adoption of cellular agriculture in the country.
The initiative also aims to lead Spain’s cell ag ecosystem by creating dynamic interactions between experts, organizations, and relevant companies in the cell culture products value chain. This proactive effort could pave the way to create a more sustainable and ethical food production, argues the new organization.
“One of our goals, as we expand, is to provide consumer-facing information about the science behind cellular agriculture and the need for change in our food system in Spanish. As these resources are currently mainly available in English, we believe this will be one of the most impactful aspects of our work in the mid-term,” Adrian Hirt told vegconomist.
Cell ag players in Spain
- GrowMeat is a cultivated meat startup based in Málaga, Spain, founded by biologist and University of Málaga (UMA) researcher Estefanía García Luque.
- Biotech Foods: A cultivated meat producer researching cell lines, cultured media, and biomaterials to scale up cultivated meat production to an industrial level. It was acquired by Brazil’s JBS (the world’s largest meat processing company) in 2021. It is building its first commercial-scale plant, claimed as the world’s biggest cultivated meat facility.
- Cocuus: Based in Navarra, Cocuus uses a proprietary 3D bioprinting platform with in-house designed bio-inks, AI, and mathematical models to create plant and cell-based meat. In a partnership with Foody’s, Cocuus launched an industrial-scale 3D printing facility for plant-based meat.
- Cubiq Foods: A B2B company that develops and produces plant-based and cultivated fats. Its goal is to replace animal fats and saturated vegetable oils with smart options. The company produces a cell-cultivated oil, rich in omega-3, designed to enhance taste and food mouthfeel in alt meat.
“Over the next months we’ll begin to foster the growth of the cell ag ecosystem in Spain and are planning to host the first Spanish cell ag conference later this year. We’re already talking to a majority of the stakeholders in Spain and have received a lot of positive feedback,” Hirt added.
