NEW TECH FOODS

Liberation Labs has secured $30 million to advance the development of its first commercial-scale biomanufacturing facility in Richmond, Indiana. The precision fermentation platform developer says that the new facility will have a fermentation capacity of 600,000 litres with a fully dedicated downstream process (DSP). Mark Warner, co-founder and CEO of Liberation Labs, said: “This new financing, combined with our seed raise, allows us to not only secure all the needed equipment but also to continue investing in our team to move the overall project forward at speed”. The company has commenced the design engineering phase and has ordered the major engineered equipment, including its 150,000-litre fermenters and DSP separation and drying units. According to Liberation Labs, the new facility will be the “first” purpose-built commercial-scale precision fermentation plant in the US and the “first” in the US fully dedicated to novel bioproducts. Warner continued: “Traditionally it is challenging to secure this kind of funding for a first-of-a-kind facility, but this lease financing reflects the belief in our vision and strong team by our committed equity and equipment finance investors.” Liberation Labs predicts the new facility to catalyse market demand, commercialising innovation among food, chemical and material biotechnology companies and their associated economic, health and environmental benefits. This equipment financing comes after the company announced the closure of a $20 million seed round of funding in December. Construction of the new facility is expected to begin in June this year, with initial plant start-up by the end of 2024. #LiberationLabs #US

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has funded the Cellular Agriculture Manufacturing Hub (CARMA) led by the University of Bath. The EPSRC is the main UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering and the physical sciences and is part of UK Research and Innovation, the national funding agency investing in science and research in the UK. The hub, which will run for seven years, will investigate how to manufacture cultivated meat at scale. Researchers will also look into developing foods such as sustainable palm oil through precision fermentation. According to international food sustainability nonprofit, the Good Food Institute Europe (GFI), a peer-reviewed study recently found that cultivated meat can cut the climate impact of meat by up to 92%, reduce air pollution by up to 94% and use up to 90% less land. In addition to helping tackle climate change, the GFI says that these foods can protect public health as they do not require the use of antibiotics. The GFI states that CARMA is the largest single investment the UK government has made to date in sustainable proteins, and follows the government’s promise to support these foods as part of £120 million of research and development earmarked in last year’s Government Food Strategy. Experts from the University of Birmingham, the University of Aberystwyth, University College London and the Royal Agricultural University will partner with the University of Bath, while UK-based cultivated meat companies including Hoxton Farms and Quest Meat will also be part of the hub. Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at the GFI, said: “Today’s announcement is a seismic move in the development of a UK sustainable protein industry and I want to praise the government for investing in the extraordinary potential of these new ways of making meat”. He continued: “This landmark investment is a strong indication that the UK government recognises the importance of cellular agriculture and the need to invest in the R&D necessary to help British companies scale production, bringing down costs and making this food available to everyone”. #CellularAgricultureManufacturingHub #UK

Jellatech is one step closer to its mission to eradicate animals from the food system. The team has developed a technique to produce high-quality, animal-free collagen, and by doing so, aims to reduce the environmental, ethical and supply issues associated with traditional collagen production. Christopher Gilchrist, senior scientist at Jellatech, tells FoodBev Media about the start-up’s proprietary process and what this could mean for the future of collagen production. Established in 2020, Jellatech’s mission is to develop technologies that can produce high-quality, animal-free collagen and gelatin. How has the company strived to meet this objective in recent months? We have been developing a platform to produce high-quality “bio-identical” collagen from animal cells, which are the same cells that naturally produce this protein in animal tissues. Our process starts with just a small – for example, 3mm diameter – tissue biopsy from an animal. We grow these cells in a bioreactor and give them specific instructions so that they produce large amounts of collagen protein. We then separate the collagen from the cells and purify it, yielding a protein that is identical to that derived from animal tissues. This approach allows us to produce consistent, high-quality collagen while reducing the environmental, ethical and supply issues associated with traditional sources of collagen. Collagen is widely used in the F&B industry, as well as in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. Why has this ingredient become so popular? Collagen is the most abundant protein in most animals, where it provides structure and mechanical strength in tissues such as skin, muscle, tendon and bone. Because collagen is such an abundant and important protein in nature, it has historically found a variety of applications across a wide range of industries. In the food and beverage industry, purified collagen and gelatin (which is partially denatured collagen) have been used for many years as additives that provide structure and texture to a wide variety of food products. In the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries, collagen is used in areas such as dermal fillers, wound healing, implant coatings and regenerative medicine. On the cosmetics and nutraceuticals side, collagen or collagen breakdown products (peptide fragments) may stimulate tissue-building responses when applied topically or ingested. The demand for collagen continues to grow at a high rate across all of these applications, but traditional sources for collagen may soon be unable to meet the demand. What are the main challenges manufacturers face when obtaining this protein ingredient? How is Jellatech providing a solution to these obstacles? Currently, almost all of the world’s collagen supply comes from livestock agriculture. This source poses many challenges as the world’s population continues to grow and the effects of climate change are increasingly felt, as livestock farming is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and global land and freshwater usage. In contrast, we believe our cell-derived collagen process will overcome many of these issues, providing an alternative high-quality collagen source that has a lower climate cost, is consistent, clean, ethical and safe, and can be produced on-demand from a limited set of raw materials, with less dependence on supply chains. Jellatech recently announced that it had created a fully functional human collagen made from a proprietary cell line. Could you tell us more about this discovery and what it will mean for the food and beverage industry? Collagen used in the food and beverage industry is typically extracted from bovine, marine or porcine tissue sources. For biomedical and some cosmetic applications. However, collagen produced by human cells is often preferred and sought after, as it is functionally identical to the collagen protein found in human tissues and may have a lower risk for unwanted immune responses. Sources of human collagen have to date been very limited, but we have now begun using our platform (initially developed to produce bovine collagen) to generate fully-functional human collagen. This will provide a new, on-demand source of high-quality human collagen for these applications. What techniques are used to create this functional collagen? Is this product easily scalable? Collagen is a special protein with a unique full-length, triple-helical structure that gives the protein many of its important functional properties. The cells that naturally produce collagen in mammals contain specialised machinery that allows them to efficiently synthesise the protein through a series of complex steps, but this process has been very challenging to replicate in non-mammalian systems that are typically used in commercial protein production (e.g. bacteria, plants). At Jellatech, our approach has been to encourage the cells that naturally produce collagen to make it at a high rate, resulting in a collagen product that is ‘bio-identical’ – in composition, structure and function – to the native protein found in animal tissues. While scaling this sort of approach has traditionally been more challenging, recent and rapidly accelerating advances and efficiencies across the alternative protein industry have made this approach much more feasible and scalable for a variety of applications. How does Jellatech’s cell-based bovine and human collagen differ in comparison to collagen created through fermentation, and plant-based collagen? As mentioned above, collagen’s large and complex structure makes it very challenging to synthesise in non-mammalian production systems, resulting in products which can lack much of native collagen’s structure and (importantly!) function. Often, these products may just be small fragments of the complete protein and have limited applications. In contrast, Jellatech’s bovine and human collagen products have the structure and function of the native protein found in tissues, making it useful for any application where animal-derived collagen is currently being used, except human collagen would not be used in the F&B industry. It has been reported that collagen production (e.g. bovine/marine) has had damaging effects on the environment. How does Jellatech’s proprietary technique reduce/avoid these? Collagen derived via livestock farming places major demands on the world’s land and freshwater supplies, is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and has supply chains that are increasingly susceptible to the effects of climate change. Jellatech’s cell-cultivated collagen would provide an alternate source of this important protein that requires fewer resources: it can be grown in a clean facility with a small land footprint using a set of basic raw materials that are less susceptible to supply chain and climate change issues, with a lower overall climate cost. What’s next for Jellatech and the cell-based collagen F&B industry? Currently, we are working on scaling up our process to a pilot scale and looking to partner with collagen users across a range of industries, from food and beverage to biomedical. #collagen #Jellatech

Ayana Bio, a plant cell technology company and producer of sustainable bioactives for consumer products, has launched plant cell-cultivated lemon balm and echinacea health and wellness ingredients. Launching first into the US market, these products have the bioactive composition of conventionally grown botanicals and can replace lemon balm and echinacea in dietary supplement formulations for sleep, mood and immune support. Ayana Bio’s products are produced using plant cell cultivation technology. The process begins by identifying the best plant cell lines, which are then propagated from authenticated plants and assessed to identify the most suitable line for characteristics such as bioactive potency, composition and stability. Plant cells can be fully propagated and harvested as an ingredient in just a few weeks. Ayana Bio’s lemon balm and echinacea are non-GMO plant powders with standardised hallmark bioactive compositions. These ingredients were created as a means of tackling current supply challenges faced with agriculturally derived lemon balm and echinacea. Frank Jaksch, chief executive officer of Ayana Bio, said: “The dietary supplement industry is in desperate need of bioactives that are traceable and more sustainable.” He added: “Bringing plant cell-derived health and wellness ingredients to these markets will help CPGs access the full spectrum of bioactives characteristic of these plants without the supply chain challenges. Consumers are seeking out products for healthier lifestyles and a healthier planet.” The plant cell-derived ingredients are DNA-fingerprint certified and clean label, with standardised phytocomplex, increased bioavailability, full traceability and a neutral taste and colour. #AyanaBio #US

Steakholder Foods has collaborated with Singapore-based start-up, Umami Meats, to develop the “world’s first” 3D-printed cultivated fish using hybrid grouper cells. As part of the strategic partnership between the two companies, Steakholder Foods customised its bio-inks, utilising grouper cells provided by Umami Meats. Steakholder Foods’ 3D bioprinter was used to create the fish. The machine lays down layers of cells – similar to how a traditional 3D printer lays down layers of plastic – until a fully formed piece of tissue is created. The company’s 3D bioprinters – in a process known as bioprinting – use a range of biomaterials, including proteins, polysaccharides and other organic compounds, to create living tissue. Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods, described the development as “a significant milestone in the food industry”. Unlike fully cultivated meat products that require incubation and maturation after printing, the grouper fish product is ready to cook after printing, due to Steakholder Foods' technology that allows the mimicking of the flaky texture of cooked fish – a technology that is the subject of a provisional patent application. Kaufman continued: "We're excited to be working with Umami Meats to develop 3D-printed structured fish products that have the same great taste and texture as traditionally caught fish, without harming the environment…Having created a customised bio-ink that works effectively with Umami's cells and optimised the taste and texture to meet the high standards of consumers, we anticipate expanding our collaborations to a greater variety of species with additional partners." Mihir Pershad, CEO of Umami Meats, added: "We are delighted to have produced the world's first whole fillet cultivated fish in partnership with Steakholder Foods. In this first tasting, we showcased a cultivated product that flakes, tastes and melts in your mouth exactly like excellent fish should. In the coming months, we intend to announce our plans for bringing this world-class cultivated fish to the market." #UmamiMeats #SteakholderFoods #Israel #Singapore

International technology group Andritz has expanded its offering to the food and feed industries with solutions to produce alt-proteins. The company’s expertise will help customers scale-up alt-protein production to a commercial level and provide support over the entire equipment life. The new offering will initially focus on alt-protein sources such as peas, pulses, lentils, insects and animal residues. Andritz experts will work side-by-side with customers to find the optimal solution for their alt-protein production needs based on wet or dry processing. The tailored end-to-end solutions include concept design, process engineering, realisation, automation and service. Andritz has technologies for all key process steps available including milling, conditioning, dewatering, drying, extrusion and pelleting – all backed by innovative process automation and proven service. To produce alt-proteins, Andritz says it “will draw upon the broadest product portfolio worldwide” as well as its expertise in project management. Christian Kling, head of alternative protein solutions at Andritz, said: “We are thrilled to officially announce the birth of this new offering. The field of alternative proteins is an exciting market but moving from lab to industrial scale can be challenging.” He continued: “Andritz – as the trusted partner on your side – not only has the production technology but also helps customers speed up commercialisation and bridge the gap to full-scale production”. To support customers, Andritz is building a test centre at Waddinxveen, the Netherlands (around 80km from agri-food research hub Wageningen), which is set to open in Q4 2023. The new centre, named Food Innovation Xperience, will enable customers to validate their concepts by scaling up production and testing quality, consistency and energy efficiency, at industrial levels. #alternativeproteins #Andritz #Austria

Cellular agriculture platform Cult Food Science has entered into a share exchange agreement with Peqish that will also see the two companies establish a joint venture (JV). Peqish is a food as medicine ag-tech company that combines technology with scientific and clinical knowledge to develop innovative solutions to support health and wellness. As part of the agreement, the companies will exchange $187,500 worth of shares with one another. Once the transaction has been completed, the companies plan to establish a JV for the development and commercialisation of cellular agriculture food products within the medical foods framework, established by Peqish. If the JV proceeds to the commercialisation phase, Cult Food Science and Peqish expect to establish a new, equally-owned subsidiary company. Cult Food Science will contribute to 100% of the start-up costs, including initial product design and branding expenses. Peqish will contribute its insights, industry network and knowledge in the culinary medicine and clinical arenas. Its team of clinical and scientific experts will also assist the JV in conducting clinical trials and validating products that have been identified for their adherence to culinary medicine principles. Anthony Marotta, Peqish’s CEO, will serve on Cult Food Science’s scientific advisory board. In a LinkedIn post, Marotta wrote: “Under this agreement, we will embark on a strategic collaboration to develop and commercialise cellular agriculture food products within the medical foods framework established by Peqish. We are excited to bring together our insights, industry network and knowledge in the culinary medicine and clinical areas with Cult’s core competencies in design research, new ideation and validation, program management, recruitment and investment.” He added: “We are proud to work alongside the talented team at Cult Food Science and to join their scientific advisory board to bring forth a better future for all”. The transaction is subject to necessary regulatory approvals, including, as applicable, all required filings with the Canadian Securities Exchange. #CultFoodScience #Peqish #Canada

Israeli bioproduction company Enzymit has announced the successful development of insulin substituents, in partnership with Aleph Farms. Using proprietary algorithms and throughput testing capabilities, Enzymit was able to develop a variety of insulin substituents and experimentally assess their functionality. Further screening resulted in several leading substituents that exhibited superior results in activity for cell culturing and required minimal concentration for activation. These new proteins, which demand notably fewer downstream purification and maturation processes, have the potential to reduce the cost and development time for producing cultivated meat at scale. A “prohibitive expense” in scaling up cultivated meat production is developing non-animal-derived serum protein mimetics that promote and support cell growth – these proteins are not widely available in the current market at the quantity, quality and cost necessary for large-scale production. Aleph Farms and Enzymit have co-developed novel insulin substituents in microorganisms that are able to fulfil the function of proteins found naturally in animals, and with greater desired activity per molecule. Neta Lavon, CTO of Aleph Farms, said: “Developing more suitable processing aids for the production of cultivated meat is imperative for driving economies of scale and taking cultivated meat mainstream. This innovation, combining Enzymit’s outstanding protein design and experimental capabilities with our team’s expertise in cellular agriculture, is helping to build the foundations for our sector to achieve cost-efficiency and long-term impact.” According to Enzymit, as insulin is a conserved protein across mammals and other species, it has the potential to similarly influence the production of other cultivated meat types – not just cow cells – such as porcine, ovine and poultry. Enzymit’s CEO, Gideon Lapidoth, commented: “With recombinant proteins currently accounting for the overwhelming majority of cell culture costs, creating highly stable and more active insulin substituents can markedly reduce the cost of growth media and increase efficiency in producing cultivated meat at scale.” #AlephFarms #Enzymit #Israel

ADM and Air Protein have entered into a strategic development agreement to collaborate on R&D to advance new and novel proteins for nutrition. Air Protein has developed air-based nutritional proteins that require no agriculture or farmland, enabling the decoupling of protein production from traditional supply chain risks. The strategic agreement will combine ADM’s expertise in nutrition, formulation and research, with Air Protein’s unique landless agriculture platform. It aims to develop methods to scale cost-effective ingredients that enable meat substitutes to deliver on cost, nutrition, flavour and texture expectations. The agreement also provides mutually exclusive rights for ADM and Air Protein to collaborate on and operate the world’s first Air Protein commercial-scale plant. Before entering into the agreement, ADM supported Air Protein by investing in its Series A round and contributing to ‘simple agreement for future equity’ funding. To date, Air Protein has raised $107 million in cumulative capital and has used the funding to accelerate its expansion of scientists and manufacturing and food experts, as well as the construction of its Air Farm in California, US. In a statement, Air Protein said the Air Farm in San Leandro, California “serves as a prototype for the protein farm of the future,” and “demonstrates the making of protein and other ingredients using air, water and energy as inputs”. Ian Pinner, ADM’s senior VP of strategy and innovation, said: “With today’s agreement, we’re expanding our partnership to bring ADM’s industry-leading expertise in flavours and complete nutrition solutions to help expand the universe of applications in which Air Protein’s technology can be used. To sustainably feed a growing global population, we need a broad protein ecosystem, from animal to plant to other novel sources.” Air Protein’s founder and CEO, Dr Lisa Dyson, commented: “Air Protein is excited to extend our relationship with ADM, which has been a strong supporter and collaborator in our mutual mission to provide innovative protein solutions that can sustainably feed the growing global population. Their continued commitment to building a more sustainable food system has helped us significantly accelerate and scale our Bay Area Air Farm and other growth initiatives.” Dyson also announced that Air Protein had successfully concluded a regulatory review confirming its protein is GRAS – Generally Recognized as Safe – by the US Food and Drug Administration. #ADM #AirProtein #alternativeproteins

Food tech investor Big Idea Ventures has announced a first close for its New Protein Fund II (NPF II), which aims to raise $75 million within the next 12 months to support new alt-protein and ingredients start-ups.  The round also included participation from AAK and Bühler, which were both previous investors in Big Idea Ventures' New Protein Fund I (NPF I) in 2020. Big Idea Ventures is said to be broadening its investment portfolio by including companies that specialise in alternative ingredients. In addition to continuing its current investment strategy, the company aims to invest in plant-based, cell-based and fermentation-enabled alternative protein companies worldwide. NPF II is set to invest in early-stage start-ups around the world both through its accelerator programme and direct investments. Big Idea Ventures' accelerator programme is an intensive five-month project conducted across the company's Paris, Singapore and New York offices. It assists companies in overcoming obstacles to effectively scaling a start-up by providing assistance from internal and external experts, corporate investors and a broad network of mentors. Big Idea Ventures founder Andrew D. Ive said: “With NPF I, we found and worked with companies we believe will become leaders in the alternative protein category. NPF II enables us to bring even more innovators with fantastic innovations and teams in our portfolio. Our mission is to solve the world’s biggest challenges by supporting the world’s best entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers.” D. Ive added: "From tantalising plant-based meat to sustainable cultivated oysters, as well as innovative seaweed and mycelium-based products, our team has been privileged to witness the growth and development of these exceptional product lines. Currently, we are focused on enabling technologies for the industry. We foresee that through NPF II, we will be able to accelerate the industry further with investments in technologies such as molecular farming, precision fermentation, AI-enabled softwares and hardwares, and more.” The new raise brings Big Idea Ventures' total assets under management to over $100 million.  #BigIdeaVentures #US

Biotech company BSF Enterprise – owner of UK-based clinical and cellular agriculture company 3D Bio-Tissues – has announced that it has produced two full-scale fillets of cultivated pork. The cultivated pork fillets each measure 5cm in diameter, 3cm in height and around 60g in weight, making them similar in size to traditional 2-oz tenderloin steaks. Additionally, BSF produced a cultivated pork strip, or ‘noodle’, measuring around 30cm in length and 1cm in diameter. The company says that the development of the pork strip demonstrates the effectiveness of BSF’s intellectual property that could be applied to produce meat in the future as a consumer-ready, ‘pre-sliced’ form for cooking purposes. The cultivated meat products were produced using 3D Bio-Tissue's patented, serum-free and animal-free cell booster City-Mix, which eliminates the requirement for conventional plant-based scaffolds, blends or fillers. The products underwent testing last week, with data collection and study participants invited to inspect the product in a raw and cooked state. BSF has said that the cultivated meat products were very similar in appearance to conventional meat in their raw state, with fibres clearly visible. According to BSF, the study participants that tasted the cultivated meat provided “very positive feedback” in terms of its taste and texture. Che Connon, MD of BSF and CEO at 3D Bio-Tissues, said: "We have gained a huge amount of valuable knowledge from testing our products with a trained chef and we were reassured to observe that our cultivated meat is able to be handled and cooked in the same way as traditional meat products.” He continued: “Further, data collected from the study participants indicated comparable meat qualities to traditional pork meat, which was very pleasing and highly validating of our work. This gives us further confidence as we continue our conversations with potential customers to license out the technologies demonstrated as well as building on the agreements already secured.” #BSF #3DBioTissues #UK

Dutch biotech company Meatable has announced that it can create “tasty” cultivated pork in eight days. The company says that eight days is 5% of the time needed to rear a pig on a farm. To create Meatable’s cultivated meat, the team first isolates a single animal cell, taken "harmlessly" from an animal. The technology is based on pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which have the natural ability to keep on multiplying and to do so rapidly – Meatable’s process has a doubling time of only 24 hours. Meatable said that “the difficulty with using PSCs is that it can be more challenging to change them from stem cells into more specialised cells, such as muscle or fat. However, by using these cells in combination with our patented opti-ox technology, we’re able to produce real muscle and fat cells that are fully differentiated in just days.” This technique is coupled with a perfusion process that allows the Meatable team to work in a continuous cycle to generate very high cell densities. “We’ve been able to reach 80 million cells per millilitre and are pushing this even further,” Meatable stated. “If you’re not a scientist, this means we can grow a lot of cells in our bioreactors, and harvest cultured meat from the reactors continuously. This is a great step forward as it increases productivity and makes the process easy to scale.” The multiplying and differentiation of Meatable’s cells occur in bioreactors filled with nutrients needed to feed the cells (called media). To optimise the process and decrease costs, the company says it will scale to bioreactors of 50 metres cubed. The statement continued: “We have been able to reduce our media costs for some of these nutrients by 100x, in part thanks to a joint research project with Royal DSM. This is also why the speed element of our process is so important – it drives down the number of reactors required, the amount of media we need, as well as labour and energy, which all makes it more affordable, easier to scale and reduces the impact of meat on the environment.” Meatable’s cultivated meat cells are said to be indistinguishable from traditional muscle and fat cells. By using PSCs in the process, Meatable can fully differentiate its cells, enabling the company to create the right level of fibre formation, protein and fat accumulation in the cells which is similar to those in traditional pork and gives meat its pronounced flavour and bite. #Meatable #theNetherlands