RCS - Agronomics Limited - Portfolio Company Update: SuperMeat

AgronomicsAnnouncement

07/09/2023 07:00

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RNS Number : 6321L  Agronomics Limited  07 September 2023

07 September 2023

Agronomics Limited

("Agronomics" or the "Company")

Portfolio Company SuperMeat Meets Kosher Standards for Its Cultivated Chicken

 

Agronomics (ANIC:LSE), the leading listed company focused on the field of
cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that its portfolio company,
SuperMeat The Essence of Meat Ltd ("SuperMeat"), has met Kosher standards for
its chicken cell line.

This represents a historic milestone for the industry being the first time
that cultivated poultry has been recognised as meeting Kosher, under the
stringent Mehadrin standards. OU Kosher, the Kosher certification division of
the Orthodox Union ("OU") determined that SuperMeat's product met the
necessary standards. The OU oversees the kosher certification of over 1.3
million products and over 14,000 facilities in 104 countries.

Following this recognition, the parties involved are embarking on a thorough
examination of the entire supply chain and the cultivated meat production
process, thereby establishing clear guidelines for other enterprises in the
cultivated meat sector. This endeavour is expected to initiate a Kosher meat
certification process for the entire industry and is a pivotal moment in the
overlap of religious dietary standards and advanced food technology in the
cultivated meat industry.

Agronomics has invested a total of US$ 12.5 million to date and has equity
ownership of 7.8% in SuperMeat on a fully diluted basis which, subject to
audit, represents 9.3% of the last published Net Asset Value of the Company
(30.06.23) including post-balance sheet adjustments.

The OU's recognition came after a series of in-depth discussions and
scientific reviews. These reviews focused on avian embryogenesis and stem
cells, including the observation of the excision of embryonic stem cells from
a fertilised chicken egg.

 

Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher and Rabbi of Congregation Shomrei
Emunah, author and teacher at Yeshiva University, stated:

"The kosher certification for cultivated meat poses a unique halachic
challenge, requiring innovative guidelines that mirror the scientific and
technological advancements integral to these novel products. This
collaboration aims to bridge the gap between scientific understanding and
halachic adjudication, setting unprecedented standards in the cultivated meat
industry."

Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics, commented:

"We are delighted that our portfolio company, SuperMeat, is paving the way for
cultivated meat products to achieve kosher certification. This demonstrates
the cutting-edge nature of SuperMeat's technology, as well as Agronomic's
ability to identify the leading innovators in cultivated agriculture. This
development opens up a considerable global market opportunity, with an
estimated $11bn a year being spent on kosher foods in the US alone. It is also
another major step forward for the industry toward broad regulatory approval
following FDA assent issued earlier this year."

Ido Savir, CEO of SuperMeat, stated:

"Aligning our technology with kosher dietary laws holds immense significance
for us. This step represents our commitment to inclusivity and respect for
diverse dietary needs, making our cultivated chicken meat accessible to
audiences around the world. This recognition of our process is a testament to
our meticulous attention to detail and the high standards we uphold. We
believe this historic initiative with the Orthodox Union not only broadens the
options for Kosher consumers worldwide but will also set clear guidelines for
other companies in the cultivated meat industry seeking Kosher certification,
opening new avenues for the Kosher food industry."

 

For more information, please contact press@supermeat.com
(mailto:press@supermeat.com) .

 

About Orthodox Union

The Orthodox Union is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organisations in the
United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth
programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the
disabled, localised religious study programs, and international units. Its OU
Kosher division is the world's largest and most widely recognised kosher
certification agency. OU Kosher maintains a kosher certification service,
whose circled-U hechsher symbol - Ⓤ - is found on the labels of up to 70% of
kosher commercial and consumer food products. For more information, please
visit https://www.ou.org/ (https://www.ou.org/) .

 

About SuperMeat

SuperMeat is a food-tech company working to supply the world with high-quality
meat grown directly from animal cells. The company's products offer a
delicious meat experience and a high-quality nutritional profile while being
manufactured in a sustainable, GMO-free, and slaughter-free way. SuperMeat's
proprietary cultivated meat platform allows food companies to be at the
forefront of the emerging cultivated meat industry and manufacture a wide
range of products containing cultivated meat inside. SuperMeat is the first
B2B company to address the entire poultry meat category from fat to muscle,
providing a complete solution to cultivated meat production. For more
information, please visit https://supermeat.com/.

 

About Agronomics

Agronomics (https://agronomics.im/) is the leading listed venture capital firm
with a focus on cellular agriculture. The Company has established a portfolio
of over 20 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly
advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning
technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of
producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived
from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in
agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as
addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This
disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as
well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population.

 

About Cellular Agriculture

Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from
cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter or growing crops. This
encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and
fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology,
synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify
production methods in a sustainable manner.

 

Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally
derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have
already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of
plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even
bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular
agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists' claims that if we
maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet
the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃.

 

AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market
share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's
estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to
produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we
are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing
facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating,
however, still, less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide since the
industry's inception in 2016.

For further information please contact:

 Agronomics           Beaumont              Canaccord Genuity Limited       Cenkos                Peterhouse Capital    SEC Newgate

 Limited              Cornish Limited                                       Securities Plc        Limited
 The Company          Nomad                 Joint Broker                    Joint Broker          Joint Broker          Public Relations
 Richard Reed         Roland Cornish        Andrew Potts                    Giles Balleny         Lucy Williams         Bob Huxford

 Denham Eke           James Biddle          Harry Rees                      Michael Johnson       Charles Goodfellow    George Esmond

                                            Alex Aylen (Head of Equities)                                               Anthony Hughes

                                                                                                                        Alice Cho
 +44 (0) 1624 639396  +44 (0) 207 628 3396  +44 (0) 207 523 8000            +44 (0) 207 397 8900  +44 (0) 207 469 0936  agronomics@secnewgate.co.uk

 info@agronomics.im

 

 

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