Science Experiments and the Growth of Cultivated Meat in Singapore: The Case of “Betty”, an Ivy Farm Bioreactor
It is dense on the small side, which is not very similar to the classic version you imagine melting in your mouth at an Italian restaurant. It is full and delicious even though it is brown on the outside. The scent of just-cooked pork hangs in the kitchen.
There’s a reason we’re sitting a short drive from the University of Oxford dissecting the experience of eating a meatball: This one is a science experiment. The centerpiece of my lunch traces its origins not to a slaughterhouse, but to a bioreactor stationed in the next room, operated by a British startup called Ivy Farm Technologies.
We have the know how to grow cells. We know how to turn them into the components of meat,” said Elliot Swartz, lead scientist for cultivated meat at the Good Food Institute, a think tank backing alternative meat companies. “But we’ve never done it at the scale necessary for food.”
“Most of the world’s consumers love meat,” said Rich Dillon, the CEO of Ivy Farm. “The transition to a plant-based diet is not happening fast enough. We will be out of resources if we don’t make meat in a different way.
But what’s sold at restaurants and high-end grocery stores early on may not even be 100% lab-grown. I was served meatballs that had a low percentage of pork. It was mixed with plant-based meat, as well as breadcrumbs and seasoning.
The sector has seen an explosion of funding in the past two years. Ivy Farm’s new 18,000-square-foot pilot plant, which it says is the biggest in Europe, has a 159-gallon bioreactor nicknamed “Betty” and a shiny new test kitchen. There is sufficient space for 50 people to work in, sitting on beanbags or meeting tables with slogans that say, “We are forking fearless.”
Regulators are also getting on board. Last month, the US Food and Drug Administration said for the first time that a lab-grown meat product is safe to eat, a milestone for the sector. Right now, Singapore is alone in allowing the sale of cultivated meat to consumers, having issued a green light in late 2020.
Ivy Farm, whose name is a play on IV, said the process takes about three weeks. Chef Schomberg has transformed ground pork into hot dogs, sausages and dumplings, which are the first items that the startup is experimenting with.
Despite the investment boom, the industry hasn’t figured out how to rapidly scale up production to meet demand and drive down costs. The burger that was grown in a lab cost more than $300,000 to develop. Ivy Farm says it could produce a similar product for less than $50 — an improvement, but still nearly 10 times the price of a Big Mac.
There is a question about consumer appetites. While surveys indicate a willingness to try cultivated meat products, plenty of people find the concept unsettling.
There are different ways people will respond to a new thing, like novelty and excitement and others who will wait. This is something where the price and taste can go a long way.
As the world’s population grows and the middle class expands in countries like China, there is increased demand for meat. Meeting the demand could hurt the hopes of keeping global warming in check.
The livestock industry accounts for nearly 15% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The estimated 7.1 gigatons of emissions the sector churns out per year is greater than 2019 emissions from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany combined. The forest loss is mostly due to the rasing of trees.
Cell isolation, feed-graining and harvesting in a bioreactor: a study of the California startup Upside Foods
It is easy to understand how it works. Using a biopsy from an animal about the size of a dice, scientists isolate high-quality cells from different parts of the tissue. They then feed the cells with nutrients so they can grow efficiently under controlled conditions. Finally, they’re put in steel bioreactors, where they grow until they’re ready to be harvested and made into, say, meatballs.
The FDA backed the safety findings of Upside Foods, a startup in California that makes lab-grown chicken. It could be sold to consumers following additional inspections by the US Department of Agriculture.
Ivy Farm may be able to test the process with bigger tanks, but there is no guarantee that it will work. Nutrient solutions for feeding the cells are also made up of components historically used by the biopharmaceutical industry. They’re expensive if there’s only limited supplies.
The University of Bath is studying this issue and says that most of the industry uses materials priced for medical research.
GOOD Meat: Growing and Slicing Good Meat at a Farm in the United States with Dennis Group and Ivy Farm (pictured above)
Money is needed for innovation. Funding for startup businesses could be limited due to an increasingly tough economic climate. Over the course of two years, venture capitalist have poured over $3 billion into meat startups. Concerns over the global economy have made some people suspicious of companies that are not profitable for a long time.
That gap isn’t stopping Ivy Farm from plowing ahead. The company is working with Dennis Group, which built plants for companies like Danone, to scope their options in the United States.
From Japan to Israel and Australia, startup companies are honing products, from lab-grown beef steaks to sushi-grade salmon. Even cultivated fois gras is in the works, a sign high-end consumers will be the first to try these innovations.
A letter from the regulatory agency saying “no questions” is a sign that it concurs with the company’s conclusion that its chicken is safe to eat.
GOOD Meat’s production facility looks like a brewery, filled with big, shiny, stainless-steel tanks. GOOD Meat scientist Vitor Espirito Santo explains how the meat is grown on a tour of the facility.
The company says celebrity chef José Andrés has agreed to offer GOOD Meat’s chicken to his customers at one of his restaurant in Washington, D.C. When it lands in his restaurants, it’s going to be something.
Bacterial Fermentation: a Methodology for Growing Nuts and Fillets in an Open-Storage Environment
“Consumers and future generations deserve the foods they love made more sustainably and in ways that benefit the public good — ways that preserve our land and water, ways that protect our climate and global health,” Friedrich says.
“Think about yeast fermentation,” Espirito Santo says. “The processes are the same. We feed them with nutrients, and they will multiply until we tell them to stop,” he says.
The meat grows inside the tanks on trays. It becomes a nuggets or a fillet after being molded. They’re ready to grill after three to four weeks.