A science entrepreneur is spearheading the region’s clean meat revolution by using new production methods.
Dr Martina Miotto, co-founder of CellulaREvolution, has developed a revolutionary new approach to clean meat production technology that could transform the growing industry.
The Newcastle University spin-out was launched with the help of North East university partnership Northern Accelerator, to address major production challenges in the sector and change our future meat consumption habits.
“Clean” or “slaughter-free” meat is grown in a lab and developed using cell-based technology, rather than animals, and was pioneered by Mark Post, who created the world’s first cell-based beef burger patty back in 2013 at Maastricht University.
The cultured meat has been hailed for removing animal exploitation from the meat production process, with lab-grown beef estimated to help reduce land use by over 95% and CO2 emissions by up to 87%.
Clean meat has slowly been moving from academic laboratories toward the factory production line over the last seven years, but the process has many challenges including cutting high costs and making large-scale production feasible to winning regulatory approval. Work also needs to be done to reduce the time it takes to produce the products, as a small steak containing 10 billion cells takes almost a month to produce.
The seven-strong CellulaREvolution team, led by chief scientific officer and co-founder Ms Miotto and fellow co-founder Professor Che Connon, has spent the last two years driving forward innovative technology solutions in cell therapy, biologics, and clean meat.
The firm, based at Newcastle’s Centre for Life, is developing a continuous cell culture solution that means clean meat can be produced more quickly, efficiently and in greater quantities.
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Two technologies have been created to make it possible - a synthetic peptide coating that eliminates the need for animal-derived serum, plus a bioreactor technology that means it can move from batch to continuous production.
By moving to continuous cell production, the area needed to grow cells can be drastically reduced, increasing the yield while lowering production costs.
Northern Accelerator helped to get the business off the ground, providing guidance and support to steer the spin-out through the early commercialisation process.
Ms Miotto said: “Clean meat has clear advantages over traditional meat production and is set to be the next big innovation in our eating habits, providing an ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to a purely plant-based diet.
“My PhD focused on tissue engineering and its real-world application, so in many ways looking at commercialisation opportunities was a natural extension of my existing work. Che’s offer to help turn our research into a spin-out business was too good to refuse.”
CellulaREvolution said the clean meat industry is a high growth market with exciting prospects, and that it will help to provide a more ethical and environmentally friendly alternative to meat production.
Ms Miotto says we may be seeing clean meat featured on restaurant menus, alongside vegetarian and vegan options, in the foreseeable future.
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She added: “With Singapore becoming the first country to approve and commercially sell lab-grown meat at the end of 2020, its time for the 海角视频 and the rest of Europe to follow their lead.
“We must be bolder and more decisive in embracing new clean meat production technology and its consumer benefits.”