UK- Ivy Farm Technologies, UK’s producer of cultured meat products has officially launched a state-of-the-art production plant in Oxford, UK, that will be the center for research and development of its cultivated meat.
The 18,000 square feet facility has production capabilities of 2.8 tonnes (over 6000lbs) of cultivated meat a year, which the company claims is the largest of its kind in Europe.
The facility will also include a pilot manufacturing plant featuring a terminal 600L bioreactor that provides a platform for the company to fine-tune the novel manufacturing process.
Ivy Farm grows pork stem cells in large fermentation tanks in order to produce meat that it says has a ‘healthier nutritional profile and a more sustainable greenhouse gas footprint’.
The cultivated meat processor uses a small number of cells taken from an animal and places those cells in a bioreactor, where they are grown and multiplied into meat.
Ivy Farm says its technology is a “game changer” because of “a unique ‘scaffold’ system where the cells grow.”
its approach to scaffolding involves creating a special surface that allows for the “continuous harvest” of cells (there’s no need to stop the system), at a lower cost vs. other technologies.
UK-based Ivy Farm Technologies is a spin-off from Oxford University, and thus Oxford owns the technology and has licensed it out to Ivy Farm.
This opening of the facility marks the next phase in the advancement of its technology as it looks to “boost its R&D capabilities, with the aim of reducing costs, scaling up production, and making cultivated meat accessible to consumers on a global scale in the near future”.
In addition to the expanded R&D capabilities, the new offices can accommodate a 50-strong and expanding team of experts, while the innovation kitchen gives Ivy Farm’s team of in-house food scientists and development chefs a space to cook and experiment with the company’s mincemeat products.
For a company that has made offering more sustainable solutions its raison d’etre, sustainable building design and self-sufficiency have been put at the heart of the development.
Highlighting the environmental and economic benefits of investing in cultured meat innovation, Ivy Farm pointed to a recent report by CE Delft, which states that cultivated meat can reduce carbon emissions by up to 92% and reduce land use by as much as 95% when compared to traditional agricultural methods.
The company noted that the facility has an inclusion of recyclable materials in the building’s cladding, solar panel arrays with the aim of generating a large proportion of energy used by the plant on site, EV chargers for staff vehicles, as well as other smart energy efficiency features.
In the benefits of cultured meat economically, the UK alt protein pioneer quoted a recent study by Oxford Economics that projects the industry could add £2.1 billion (US$2.09bn) to the UK economy and create more than 16,500 jobs, including 8,300 skilled roles, by 2030.
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