Posted on 08/24/2024 6:25:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
A new study introduces a continuous manufacturing method for cultivated meat that significantly lowers costs and enhances scalability, making it a viable and sustainable alternative to conventional meat and promising major advancements in global food security and sustainability.
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A new study showcases a scalable, cost-effective method for producing cultivated meat, marking a significant step towards sustainable and ethical food production.
A pioneering study unveils the first affordable method for producing cultivated meat. The research highlights that continuous manufacturing effectively overcomes the main challenges of scalability and cost, bringing cultivated meat closer to everyday consumers and paving the way for a more sustainable and ethical food system.
In an extraordinary stride for cellular agriculture, Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder of Believer Meats, and a multidisciplinary team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the cultivated meat industry unveiled a pioneering continuous manufacturing process for cultivated meat. This innovation tackles the industry’s critical challenges of scalability and cost-effectiveness.
The study, published in Nature Food, demonstrates the use of tangential flow filtration (TFF) for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat. The new bioreactor assembly permits biomass expansion to 130 billion cells per liter, achieving yields of 43% weight per volume. The process was carried out continuously over 20 days, enabling daily biomass harvests. Additionally, the research introduces an animal component-free culture medium, priced at just $0.63 per liter, which supports the long-term, high-density culture of chicken cells. In other words, this continuous manufacturing method could significantly reduce the cost and complexity of cultivated meat production, potentially bringing it closer to everyday consumers.
Economic Impact and Sustainability
“We were inspired by how Ford’s automated assembly line revolutionized the car industry 110 years ago,” stated Prof. Nahmias. “Our findings show that continuous manufacturing enables cultivated meat production at a fraction of current costs, without resorting to genetic modification or mega-factories. This technology brings us closer to making cultivated meat a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional animal farming.”
Bruce Friedrich, President of The Good Food Institute, expressed his support, stating, “GFI applauds the spirit of openness that continues to characterize cultivated meat researchers like Dr. Koby Nahmias and his colleagues, who understand that showing the scientific potential of cultivated meat will benefit all scientists working in the field.”
This research represents a significant advance in the economic feasibility of cultivated meat, addressing previous concerns about high costs and low yields. Utilizing this empirical data, the team conducted a techno-economic analysis of a hypothetical 50,000-liter production facility. The analysis indicates that the cost of production of cultivated chicken could theoretically be reduced to $6.20 per pound, aligning with the price of organic chicken.
Real-World Data and Cost Reduction
Dr. Elliot Swartz, Principal Scientist at Cultivated Meat, The Good Food Institute emphasized the significance of the study’s findings, stating “This important study provides numerous data points that demonstrate the economic feasibility of cultivated meat. The study confirms early theoretical calculations that serum-free media can be produced at costs well below $1/L without forfeiting productivity, which is a key factor for cultivated meat achieving cost-competitiveness.”
Dr. Swartz added that “Empirical data is the bedrock for any cost model of scaled cultivated meat production, and this study is the first to provide real-world empirical evidence for key factors that influence the cost of production, such as media cost, metabolic efficiency, and achievable yields in a scalable bioprocess design.”
While the authors acknowledged that various other factors would affect the final market price of cultivated meat, this research underscores the potential of continuous manufacturing to significantly lower production costs, making cultivated meat more accessible to consumers and competitive with conventional meat products.
This study not only highlights the promise of cellular agriculture in meeting the global demand for animal products but also aligns with broader environmental and ethical objectives by reducing reliance on traditional livestock farming.
The research represents the first demonstration of cost-efficient manufacturing of cultivated meat and the first empirical economic analysis based on solid data. It is a collaborative effort involving engineers, biologists, and chemists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and ADM-funded Believer Meats, which is currently building the world’s first large-scale industrial production facility for cultivated chicken.
Broader Implications and Future Outlook
As global demand for animal protein is expected to double by 2050, cellular agriculture offers a solution to meet this demand, especially as resource-intensive livestock production reaches its peak capacity. Despite recent FDA approvals for cultivated meat production, large-scale production of cultivated meat has yet to become a reality. Previous techno-economic analyses suggested economic challenges, ranging from factory to raw materials costs, casting doubt about the viability of cultivated meat production.
This work presents groundbreaking solutions, including novel filter stack perfusion that reduced factory costs, an animal component-free medium that reduced raw material costs, and continuous manufacturing that increased factory capacity, projecting an annual production of 2.14 million kg of cultivated chicken at cost parity with USDA organic chicken even for a small 50,000-liter facility.
This technological advancement could have a profound impact on animal welfare, food safety, and food security, addressing the needs of a global population increasingly affected by climate change. The study is expected to generate significant interest across multiple disciplines and resonate in popular media due to its implications for the future of humanity.
Reference:
“Empirical economic analysis shows cost-effective continuous manufacturing of cultivated chicken using animal-free medium” by Laura Pasitka, Guy Wissotsky, Muneef Ayyash, Nir Yarza, Gal Rosoff, Revital Kaminker and Yaakov Nahmias, 21 August 2024, Nature Food.
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-01022-w
Food Science The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
My friend has perfected the best manufacturing method for meat.
He puts cows and a bull together. They produce more cows. Then he puts them in a pasture, where they all eat for free.
Hardly requires any intervention at all
and then after 22 months, the meat is ready.
I’m a second hand vegan.
Cows eat vegetables.
I eat cows.......
Is it Kosher?
I think not.
Your theory of reality is way "out there", but is functionally correct. Artificial intelligence is functionally the same thing as alien intelligence. Extraterrestrial or not, non-human super intelligence is here, and the Deep State is already colluding with it for its benefit, at the expense of ours.
Your theory of reality is way “out there”, but is functionally correct. Artificial intelligence is functionally the same thing as alien intelligence. Extraterrestrial or not, non-human super intelligence is here, and the Deep State is already colluding with it for its benefit, at the expense of ours.
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Good point. AI and aliens, but I repeat myself, pose an existential threat.
Is it real meat? Or some vegan crappola like everything up to now?
An (maybe several) old SF story had real meat by harvesting cancerous meat cells — they grew uncontrollably and were = meat.
I’d think you’d want to be careful about making sure to cook thoroughly. Cancer can be transmitted if transplanted into another human. I’d hope the digestive system would take care of that — but, you go ahead and let me know how it turns out.
Lab grown meat is all energy use and do they have to make to feed/make the meat grown does that use energy and if theirs is the only meat you know they’ll up the price big time
Or cancer.
Or a beak...
To feed the world there will have to 100s of thousands if not millions of the labs
Why do they always said ,”Great for the environment” as their main reason for doing something when it always turns out bad for the environment ,LOL
Oddly enough, the percentage of people who disappear in a year is close to the percentage of wild herd animals who fall to predation in a year.
Make of that what you will...
Lab grown meat the Ultimate Processed Food ,LOL
Halal?...
Maybe that Twilight Zone episode was prescient....
Eat a tumor f you want. Uncontrolled rapid cell growth… tumor.
Halal if I know...
Hopefully the new Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr, will put an end to this nonsense.
Halal?...
The muslims will bring in someone to pray over the Vats ,LOL
I would rather not eat tumors. Even if they are made of meat.
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