Believer Meats eyes cultivated meat cost reduction with continuous process

26 Aug 2024 --- Scientists in Israel, in partnership with Believer Meats, have developed a continuous manufacturing process for cultivated meat that lowers manufacturing costs. The research findings come amid concerns over the current production technologies’ low yields, leading to economic projections that impede the alternative meat’s scalability.

Food Ingredients First catches up with Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder of Believer Meats, who led a multidisciplinary team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, to navigate the hurdles cultivated meat formulators face and how the continuous method can contribute to a more sustainable and ethical food system.

“We developed a reusable filter stack technology that could be scaled to 5000-L bioreactors. This dramatically reduces the cost of filter consumables, equipment and labor by about 40%,” says Nahmias.

“The second breakthrough was the development of an animal component-free medium at the unprecedented price of US$0.63 per liter, reducing cost by three folds.” This supports the long-term, high-density culture of chicken cells.

While animal serum was removed from the medium of most cultivated meat companies several years ago, he says the industry is still reliant on proteins such as albumin that are animal-derived or recombinantly produced. "We developed an albumin alternative that dramatically reduced the cost of culture medium.”

The team also conducted a techno-economic analysis for a theoretical production facility of 50,000 liters using the empirical data, “showing that the cost of cultivated chicken can drop to within the range of organic chicken at US$6.2 per pound by using perfusion technology,” reads the study.

Cutting costs

In spite of the recent FDA approvals for cultivated meat production, factors like economic challenges, such as factory and raw materials costs, have been holding back its wide-scale manufacturing.

Continuous process reduces manufacturing costs, as fewer people are needed to operate machinery, says Nahmias (Image credit: Nahmias Lab).To overcome these hurdles, the researchers used the tangential flow filtration (TFF) process for the continuous manufacturing of cultivated meat. TFF produces biomass of up to 130 million cells per ml, corresponding to yields of 43% weight per volume and multiple harvests for over 20 days, states the study. 

“Continuous manufacturing is a process in which a product is made nonstop, without interruptions or pauses between batches. This process lowers manufacturing costs, as fewer people are needed to operate machinery,” he explains.

“It is easier to scale up and automate.”

The findings in Nature Study, indicate that the process manufactures meat substitutes without resorting to genetic modification or mega-factories.

Additionally, the technology “brings us closer to making cultivated meat a viable and sustainable alternative to traditional animal farming.”

Beyond batch processing

The main challenge for cultured meat formulators is to design and implement a cost-effective, reliable and scalable manufacturing process, Nahmias flags.

“The cultivated meat field was laser-focused on batch processes, as preliminary analysis by Humbrid and others suggested that perfusion technology was not scalable — that analysis was accurate at the time.”

He believes that the continuous manufacturing method is superior to batch manufacturing. Additionally, batch processes are “notoriously sensitive to contaminations, which primarily occur during processes such as bioreactor inoculation and feed that manipulate sterile seals.” 

The process has fewer process interruptions and thus will be much more robust to contamination, he explains.

Price parity with conventional meat?

When asked about the possibility of cultured meat ever achieving a price close to traditional meat, Nahmias expresses a positive outlook.

The company’s first US commercial-scale production facility is planned to produce at least 10,000 metric tons of cultivated meat (Image credit: Believer Meats).“It is important to note that cultivated meat production of chicken, beef and lamb are theoretically similar as cells grow at similar rates and require similar nutrients. As beef is more expensive than chicken, it would be theoretically possible to fall below the cost of traditional beef production.”

The team is currently working on beef and is planning a follow-up study to carry out a life cycle assessment of the study’s work.

A watershed moment

The cultivated community is close and cooperative, Nahmias underscores.

“I hope our study will help shift the industry toward more cost-efficient production methods. I firmly believe that science should be open and peer-reviewed, and I trust my colleagues to follow suit with additional publications.”

Believer Meats is constructing a 200,000-square-foot facility in the US and aims to produce at least 10,000 metric tons of cultivated meat at the site.

“I think that the Believer Meats factory in North Carolina is going to be a watershed moment for the industry. The company’s transition to the US and the strong leadership team we assembled are sure to lead us there,” he concludes.

By Insha Naureen