MeaTech 3D Ltd., the first cell-cultured meat company to be publicly listed, yesterday announced its intention to establish, own, and operate a pilot plant in 2022, with the goal of producing cultured chicken fat for industry collaborations. Ultimately, MeaTech plans to produce real meat cuts, such as steak or chicken breast, using 3D bioprinting technology.
The cultured fat production process will be designed to deploy technologies developed by recently acquired Belgian subsidiary Peace of Meat, whose laboratory work and public taste tests have shown that cultured chicken fat has the potential to significantly enhance the flavor, mouthfeel, and texture of plant-based alternative meat products whilst reducing the total number of ingredients.
Sharon Fima, CEO of MeaTech, states: “We believe that our cultured fat is an extremely promising additive ingredient that can potentially improve the taste, texture, and mouthfeel of plant-based alternative meats, which we believe can further drive market growth.
“A key challenge facing the cultured meat industry is cost-efficient production. We believe that establishing this pilot plant facility and scaling up our cellular agriculture technologies will be a significant step forward toward achieving cost parity with conventional meat as well as realizing MeaTech’s vision for the ‘Factory of the Future’ – comprising the inputs, processes and equipment underlying a flexible cultured meat manufacturing facility.”
Dirk von Heinrichshorst, CEO and Co-Founder of Peace of Meat: “Setting up a pilot plant to produce Peace of Meat’s cultured chicken fat at scale will be a significant milestone. With it, we believe we can demonstrate a fully functional production process to B2B customers looking to include cultured ingredients in their products. We believe the pilot plant can be a model for larger scale future production facilities.”