Formerly Omeat’s chief people officer, Stojkovic will “ramp up…internal infrastructures and implement the systems needed to scale toward commercialization and price parity,” the company wrote in a press release.
During his tenure as chief people officer, Stojkovic helped build the team behind Plenty and Omeat’s initial ground beef patty. In his new role, he will lead the company’s long-term strategic planning, including regulatory approvals, commercialization and sustainability solutions.
Omeat is focused on providing humane and affordable alternatives to traditional meat products. Currently, the company is working towards improving the cost of cultivated meat with its recent development of Plenty, a proprietary and ethical replacement for FBS, as reported previously by FoodNavigator-USA.
In an interview with Stojkovic, he explained that production of Plenty “will significantly help [Omeat] scale towards commercialization.”
He added, “With Plenty, we’ve eliminated one of the primary hurdles the cultivated meat industry faces when scaling: an effective, affordable, and ethical solution to replace FBS. Since we can extract much more plasma from one cow than FBS, we can cultivate more meat at much larger scales. We can use our bioreactors without the overwhelming burden of expensive media to fuel cell growth within the machines.”
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Navigating the regulatory landscape
The company continues navigating the regulatory landscape and approvals that are critical to its commercial success.
Stojkovic reiterated that Omeat is in “ongoing conversations with the FDA and USDA. Given our high standards for our ecosystem, the conditions of our farm, and our commitment to producing a great product, we’re confident that our conversations will continue to be productive with a favorable end result.”
Stojkovic elaborated further on Omeat’s strategy to streamline the regulatory and commercialization process, adding that, “Our quality control processes and lack of antibiotic use in bioprocessing ensures that our meat is high quality, antibiotic-free, and delicious.”
“The health bar for our cows is much higher than what is required of the conventional meat industry, which helps us deliver a superior product. Aside from the cow, our other ingredients, like amino acids, vitamins, minerals, etc., come from high-quality sources and are already recognized as food-safe to help us meet the high standard we’ve created for our product,” he concluded.
