The explosion in veganism and plant-based meat – which is projected to become a $US7.5 billion market globally by 2025 – underpins a growing desire by consumers to avoid animal cruelty and negative environmental impacts that livestock causes.
But what if there was a way to enjoy meat that is created free from these ethical and environmental issues?
Magic Valley is one of a handful of recent agritech start-ups that are creating lab-based cultured meat from STEM cells. After perfecting its method to produce lamb mince that is molecularly identical to its farm-produced counterpart, Magic Valley today revealed a new pork mince product.
The lab-cultured pork is created from skin cells from a living pig via a small painless biopsy in the animal’s ear.
The skin cells are cultured in a liquid media containing glucose and amino acid and are reprogrammed as STEM cells, which can then grow muscle and fat to mimic a pig’s development.
For now, Magic Valley is cultivating the muscle and fat cells in separate containers known as bioreactors and produce simple products such as pork mince, but chief executive Paul Bevan said the eventual aim is to cultivate them to produce more complex structured products such as chops and steaks.
Bevan said the process allows for the nutritional profile of the meat to be tailored in a controlled environment to reduce saturated fat or increase the vitamin content of the product.
Several other companies are producing lab-cultured meat, but Magic Valley’s process does not use Foetal Bovine Serum, which is obtained from the blood of calf foetuses, to manufacture its products, which are therefore ethical and cruelty-free, Bevan said.
Moreover, the skin cell sample only needs to be taken once, so the product can be made with minimal interference to living animals’ lives.
And the taste? “Identical to meat,” Bevan said. “From the feedback we’ve had externally from tests that we’ve done, is it’s indistinguishable and it should be because it is molecularly identical [to pork].”
Veganism is still relatively rare, with just 79 million globally identifying as vegan which translates to just one per cent of the population, however, it is expected to grow rapidly, and in 2020 sales of vegan products grew twice as fast as general food, according to Redefine Meat.
Importantly, a growing number of non-vegans are adding meat-free products to the food they consume, so the growth in sales of vegan products are outstripping the growth of those following a strict vegan lifestyle. The cultivated meat market is expected to grow to $630 billion globally by 2040.
Magic Valley is now looking to raise $5 million in venture capital funding as it targets regulatory approvals for the products this December, which could take up to a year, with the first cultured meat products for sale at the end of 2024.
The funding will go towards building larger containers and bio reactors to create more mass and volume in the end product.
Bevan said cultured meat products will appeal to consumers who enjoy eating meat but who have concerns around animal welfare and sustainability, as well as health-conscious consumers who seek products with less saturated fat.
Currently the pork mince costs $50 per kg to produce, which is far more expensive than traditional meat, but Bevan said by the end of the expansion phase he expects the cost to fall to as low as $5 per kg, making the product cost-competitive with meat.
The company hopes to be producing “structured” products such as steaks and chops within five years of launching production. Next on the menu? A lab-cultured beef product, Bevan said.