ISRAEL – SuperMeat, a biotech and food technology company based in Israel, has introduced major advancements to make cultivated chicken more affordable, bringing the industry closer to widespread commercial viability.
The company has developed methods to produce chicken fat in just 24 hours and muscle tissue in four days, achieving rapid, high-yield production cycles.
SuperMeat’s progress includes achieving production costs of US$11.79 per pound, comparable to premium pasture-raised chicken in the U.S.
This development is significant in the cultivated meat sector, where lowering costs has been a substantial hurdle.
The company utilizes a high-performance cell line that grows at a density of 80 million cells per milliliter within nine days, with no genetic modifications or animal-based components. These dense cultures are maintained over extended periods, allowing for a continuous production cycle and more consistent output.
To further drive down costs, SuperMeat has reduced its cell growth media expenses to less than US$0.50 per liter by eliminating costly animal-based components like serum and albumin.
Instead, they use cost-effective, animal-free alternatives.
After six days in culture, the cells autonomously produce critical growth factors, enabling a minimized feeding requirement of only 1.5 vessel volumes daily, improving efficiency.
The company’s approach uses embryonic stem cells to produce both muscle and fat directly from animal cells, with resulting cells nearly twice the size of conventional counterparts, cutting costs by about 50%.
This method not only speeds up production but also aims to deliver an authentic chicken sensory experience, with texture, taste, and nutrition similar to traditional meat.
The production process includes a nine-day cell growth period to achieve high density, followed by a 45-day harvesting phase.
During this time, meat mass is collected daily while the cells continue to grow, yielding around 66 pounds of cultivated chicken in a compact 10-liter bioreactor.
In 2022, SuperMeat secured a grant from the Israeli Innovation Authority to help fund the construction of an extensive screening system for ingredients, supplements, and scaffolds in cultivated meat production.
That same year, it partnered with Ajinomoto, a global biotechnology company, to establish a supply chain for cell-based meat production and signed an agreement with Europe’s PHW Group to manufacture and distribute cultivated chicken on a larger scale for European markets.
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