This year, biotech companies continued scaling up production, with some leaning into innovative light-based technologies — like in Prolific Machines' case — and others doubling or tripling production yield.
Brevel shines a light on biotech microalgae production
Having secured two commercial deals already, Israeli biotech company Brevel opened its first plant with 5,000 liters of production earlier this year, what Brevel calls its First-Of-A-Kind facility.
Brevel built a facility with “the bare minimum infrastructure” that could still be commercially viable, company CEO Yonatan Golan told FoodNavigator-USA.
Typically, microalgae are grown outdoors with sunlight or indoors with artificial light, producing functional proteins and oils in the process, he said. To replicate that process, Brevel uses tubes within the bioreactor to continuously illuminate the biomass, which retains the functional properties of the microalgae, Golan explained.
“Fermentation is done in the dark, and you actually lose most of the nutritional value and the functional properties, and eventually you lose the commercial value that microalgae can produce,” he elaborated.
Brevel is already working with commercial partners to expand capacity to 1 million liters when it reaches full capacity, Golan explained.
“We are already speaking with partners on building much larger manufacturing facilities in different locations globally to bring this solution to scale,” said Golan. “We are aiming to bring the next version of plant-based protein to the industry.”
SuperMeat’s 3-step process to achieving price parity with pasture-raised chicken
Earlier last month, Israeli biotech company SuperMeat released a 21-page report detailing three key elements to produce cell-cultivated chicken at price parity to pasture-raised chicken.
“The way that we grow in the bioreactor is very standard. This is very standard fermentation. We are not talking about anything innovative in terms of the infrastructure, in terms of the bioreactor system, in terms of the fermentation process. And the reason this is important is because the industry can extrapolate that if you are getting these numbers, this can be scaled,” Ido Savir, CEO and co-founder at SuperMeat, told FoodNavigator-USA.
The three key performance indicators in the report include:
- Developing high-cell densities over a long period: SuperMeat’s developed its cell line to produce 80 million cells per milliliter in 9 days, without genetic engineering or animal components.
- Reducing cell feed costs: SuperMeat replaced the animal-based serum albumin with an animal-free alternative for 50 cents per liter, unlocking cost-savings for the manufacturing process.
- Increasing cell weight with embryonic stem cells: SuperMeat uses embryonic stem cells to develop muscle and fat tissues directly from animal cells, the company shared. SuperMeat can develop fat in a day and muscles in four days, the company added.
Over time, SuperMeat and food tech companies can scale this technology from two-fold (where SuperMeat is currently) to three- or four-fold, which will unlock further cost-savings and production benefits, Savir explained. However, this tripling or quadrupling of production still might take decades to happen, he added.
“By the end of the decade, we would be able to compete with commodity products,” Savir elaborated.
CEO and Co-founder of Luyef Biotechnologies Kris Blanchard echoed a similar timeframe, saying in a FoodNavigator-USA article: “Cultivated meat will surpass the technical limitations and will be competitive in terms of price related to conventional animal meat, but this will not happen in five or 10 years.”
Foodtech companies focus on the process in 2024
Brevel and SuperMeat join a list of food tech companies scaling alternative protein and plant-based meat production, while other food tech companies are partnering with ingredient providers to bolster commercialization efforts.
Rebellyous Foods partnered with food manufacturer RMS Foods to release its Mock 2 plant-based meat production system, which could create 2,500-5,000 pounds of plant-based chicken via an automated and continuous chilled substrate technology, Rebellyous Foods founder and CEO told FoodNavigator-USA at the time of the announcement.
Other food tech companies like Daisy Lab — which makes bioidentical dairy proteins via precision fermentation — are slotting into existing supply chains instead of creating new ones. Daisy Lab’s “plug-and-play technology” was designed with strains and fermentation processes that fit into large-scale dairy manufacturing, as shared in this previous FoodNavigator-USA article.
