SWITZERLAND – Bell Food Group, a meat processing company, has increased its investment in Mosa Meat, a food technology company based in Maastricht, The Netherlands, to help the start-up commercially produce and market its cultured beef product.
By investing an extra €5 million (US$5.67m) into Mosa Meat, Bell Food Group aims to reinforce its position in the meat alternatives market and actively participate in shaping new trends.
Bell Food Group had already taken a €2 million (US$2.26m) share in Mosa Meat in 2018, during a Series A funding round.
With its latest financing round, Mosa Meat plans to construct an industrial production plant and further develop and scale-up its technology.
“Mosa Meat has developed very well since the first investment and we are confident that the first burgers made from cultivated meat will soon be on the market.
“By participating in a further round of investments, Bell Food Group is supporting Mosa Meat in its goal of being the first company with a licence for a cultivated meat product in Europe,” Fabian Vetsch, Project Manager Corporate Communication, at Bell, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.
“The Bell Food Group has taken a leading role in the booming market for meat alternatives in recent years and intends to expand this role further. The Group remains convinced that cultivated meat is an interesting technology with future potential in this area.
“In a first step, cultivated beef will only be available in small quantities. Mosa Meat plans to commission a large-volume production plant within five years. We assume that in a few years other suppliers with similar products will also come onto the market,” he says.
The start-up also aims to have its cultured beef product, created directly from cow cells, admitted to the market in Europe by 2022, making it the first company to do so.
Mosa Meat’s first pilot production plant will commence operation in 2021. Meanwhile in the course of 2022, the first industrial production line will start and the company’s first products will be launched on a small scale in selected restaurants.
Plans are also reportedly in place to commission the first high-volume production plant by 2025.
At the beginning of this year, Mosa Meat entered into a strategic partnership with Nutreco and Lowercarbon Capital. Both companies joined M Ventures and Bell Food Group among other investors who have funded Mosa Meat throughout its development.
Earlier this month, Bell Food Group announced the divestiture of its production plants in Perbál, Hungary and Saint-André, France, as part of ongoing restructuring of its international charcuterie activities.
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