Czech cultivated meat company Mewery, known for its cultivated pork and microalgae burger, announces a key milestone in its product development: successfully establishing a stable cell line.
The new cell line exhibits the most favorable response to Mewery’s proprietary co-cultivation technology, which involves pork cells and also microalgae cells used for a proprietary serum-free medium.
Vladislav Strmiska, CSO at Mewery, comments: “This achievement represents another important step forward in our ongoing efforts to bring cultivated meat to consumers.“
Meat without animals
As the company explains, a stable cell line is a population of cells that can continuously grow and retain their desired properties over many generations. This continuous growth eliminates the need to take cell samples from animals, making cultivated meat a more sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional meat production.
In addition, a stable cell line allows for precise control and characterization, ensuring that every batch of cultivated pork delivers the same high quality. And, more importantly, a consistent and reliable source of cells for meat production allows to grow cells on a large scale to become commercially competitive.
Mewery also announces that it has expanded its cell bank to include multiple non-GMO porcine cell types. This cell diversity will provide a foundation for future developments, growth condition optimization, and the ability to create a wide variety of cultivated pork products.
Cultivated meat for everyone
Roman Lauš founded Mewery in Brno in 2022 to create a sustainable and ethical source of healthier meat for both people and the planet, starting with pork, one of Eupope’s favorite meat.
“We are committed to developing delicious, sustainable, and accessible cultivated meat for everyone”
After these product development milestones, the company’s next steps include characterizing the stable cell line requirements, adjusting the cells for growth in suspension bioreactors, and testing its unique co-cultivation process in 200 L bioreactors. In January, the Czech government awarded the startup a €200,000 grant to improve the efficiency of its platform.
Lauš shares, “We are committed to developing delicious, sustainable, and accessible cultivated meat for everyone. This breakthrough brings us a significant step closer to achieving that goal.”