By Ruthie Edelstein, NoCamels -
Chicken has long been viewed as a healthier and more economical meat option and its popularity continues to rise.
In 1993, chicken overtook beef consumption per person in the United States alone. In fact, 27.5 billion pounds of beef is produced annually, compared to 43.4 billion pounds of farmed chicken, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports.
And now Israeli food tech company SuperMeat is getting in on the poultry action, offering an alternative solution to traditional livestock farming, by cultivating real chicken meat from cells.
Their approach not only aims to reduce environmental impacts of meat production, but also seeks to address other concerns raised in conventional meat production. For instance, cultivating meat rather than farm growing it can significantly reduce the risk of contamination from E. coli and Salmonella, which eliminates the need to use antibiotics on the birds, which is very common in the poultry industry.
SuperMeat was cofounded in December 2015 by its CEO Ido Savir and Koby Barak, with a mission to produce quality meat in an animal-friendly and sustainable way.
Savir and Barak had previously jointly established the Modern Agriculture Foundation, an NGO dedicated to promoting cellular agriculture globally. Their work with the Modern Agriculture Foundation opened their eyes to the immense potential in the space, furthering their interest and ultimately bringing them to set out as pioneers in meat cultivation.
Today, SuperMeat is made up of a diverse team of 30 people, boasting experience in multiple disciplines, including stem cell biology, chemistry and engineering technology. Despite the challenges of the ongoing war in Israel, with some team members serving in the IDF reserves, they have continued to develop their product and remain dedicated to the company’s mission. Most of the team works from their office in Rehovot, where they focus on R&D and the manufacturing aspects.
“I always worked for ventures that make some positive impact, whether it’s from an environmental perspective or social perspective. I’m also ideologically driven and vegan.” SuperMeat VP Business Development Osnat Shostak tells NoCamels.
Shostak emphasizes the commitment and dedication that SuperMeat’s team has to the work they are doing, leading to the company’s innovation.
SuperMeat begins its chicken growing process with what they refer to as a seed, which are cells that only need to be taken once from a real chicken egg, and then are able to be utilized repeatedly. By establishing a master cell bank, which can be used over and over again, SuperMeat has created consistency and stability in the production process.
The SuperMeat seed, also known as the chicken cell, is placed into a fermenter where it is provided with warmth, oxygen and feed and grows and matures into meat tissue, just like the meat from a chicken grown on a farm.
It is SuperMeat’s use of embryonic stem cells, as opposed to using other common cell types used in the cultivated meat space (such as fibroblasts or primary cells), which allows them to produce different types of meat tissue with a single platform.
In fact, SuperMeat opened a production to fork facility, where they offered Israelis the chance to participate in demonstrations and tastings.
“We’ve had this substantial validation of our product, because we opened in Israel a production to fork facility, and received direct feedback on our products from both consumers and industry experts,” Shostak explains.
It was at this facility that SuperMeat conducted the world’s first and only blind tasting event, comparing cultivated meat with traditionally grown meat. The company was thrilled with the results, as tasters continually demonstrated that SuperMeat’s product was indistinguishable from traditional meat.
SuperMeat distinguishes itself from traditional chicken farming in many ways, offering a compelling proposition to meat companies seeking a competitive edge.
Their meat production results in meat tissues that are edible without any need to clean or disassemble. With very little risk of contamination, the meat is produced without the use of antibiotics, nor are they using any genetic modification in the process. It’s also projected to be more sustainable than conventional meat.
A recent life-cycle analysis of SuperMeat’s process predicts that their chicken meat can cut the carbon footprint by nearly 50 percent, compared to ambitious benchmarks for conventional chicken when produced at scale.
Alternative and cultivated meat has been a more recent topic of interest in certain religious Jewish circles, with new products needing to be classified according to Jewish dietary law.
The Orthodox Union, which certifies food as kosher around the world, found SuperMeat’s product to meet the highest Kashrut standards, certifying it as Kosher Mehadrin. The company is able to meet those standards because they take the cell sample from the egg on day zero, before the appearance of any blood spots. This also allows them to meet Halal standards.
Whether a vegetarian or vegan will eat SuperMeat is a more nuanced issue and comes down to personal preference. After all, SuperMeat’s product is made from a cell taken from an egg, so it is not a vegan product even though the same cell has been reused continuously for several years now.
When it comes to approval of their product, in the United States they will need to be approved by the USDA and the FDA and will be registered under the meat category.
Many of the company’s investors and partners are leaders in the meat industry, including Agronomics and PHW Group. Ajinomoto, a leading biotechnology and food company with a lot of experience in the fermentation process, is both an investor and partner.
When asked about their competitors in the cultivated meat industry, Shostak quickly says that each company has its own technology and at this stage in the game, they consider these other companies to be counterparts more than competitors.
“We’re building the industry together,” she says, “and the success of one company contributes to the others.”
Each company has its own technology, and of the several dozen cultivated meat companies, Shostak explains that only a few, like SuperMeat, are on the verge of commercializing their product.
Efficiency and scalability are crucial for achieving cost parity and SuperMeat takes pride in its highly efficient platform, which is demonstrated by high cell densities and rapid cell growth rates, resulting in high yields and low costs.
“By the end of the decade it should be priced the same as regular chicken,” predicts Shostak.
