The $280,000 lab-grown burger could be a more palatable $10 in two years

Bell Food AG

09/07/2019 16:40

* Growing demand for meat alternatives drives research and
funding
    * Production costs falling dramatically, say start-ups
    * Biotech Foods targets industrial scale production by 2021
    * Plant-based meat already widely available

    By Andrés González and Silke Koltrowitz
    MADRID/ZURICH, July 9 (Reuters) - Lab-grown meat, first
introduced to the world six years ago in the form of a $280,000
hamburger, could hit supermarket shelves at $10 a patty within
two years, European start-ups told Reuters.
    Consumers concerned about climate change, animal welfare and
their own health are fueling interest in so-called clean meat,
with the number of associated business start-ups climbing from
four at the end of 2016 to more than two dozen two years later,
according to the Good Food Institute market researcher.
    Plant-based meat alternatives are also booming. Shares in
Beyond Meat  BYND.O  have more than tripled in price since its
initial public offering in May. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods
each sell 100% plant-based meat alternatives to retailers and
fast food chains across the United States.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N23I3DP urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N23D0Y4
    And cultured meat grown from animal cells could be next on
the mainstream menu, with producers eyeing regulatory approval
as they improve the technology and reduce costs.
    It was Dutch start-up Mosa Meat's co-founder Mark Post who
created the first "cultured" beef hamburger in 2013 at a cost of
250,000 euros ($280,400), funded by Google co-founder Sergey
Brin, but Mosa Meat and Spain's Biotech Meats say that
production costs have fallen dramatically since then.
    "The burger was this expensive in 2013 because back then it
was novel science and we were producing at very small
scale. Once production is scaled up, we project the cost of
producing a hamburger will be around 9 euros," a Mosa Meat
spokeswoman told Reuters, adding that it could ultimately become
even cheaper than a conventional hamburger.
    
    PRICE PARITY
    Biotech Foods co-founder Mercedes Vila also highlighted the
importance of moving from lab to factory.
    "Our goal is to reach production scale and have regulatory
approval by 2021," Vila said.
    She said the average cost of producing a kilogram of
cultured meat is now about 100 euros, significantly below the
$800 cited a year ago by Future Meat Technologies, an Israeli
biotech company that has received funding from U.S. meat
processor Tyson Foods  TSN.N .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1S91CV
    Biotech Foods, Mosa Meat and Higher Steaks, a London-based
competitor also contacted by Reuters, have yet to file
applications for EU approval because they are still working to
improve their growth serum.    
    To make cultured meat, stem cells from the muscle of an
animal are placed in a culture medium that is then put in a
bioreactor - similar to those used for fermentation of beer and
yoghurt - to support growth of new strands of muscle tissue.
    Liz Specht, associate director at the Good Food Institute
market research firm that focuses on meat alternatives, said in
a white paper this year that it was likely that cell-based meat
would achieve price parity with conventional meat once
production is on an industrial scale.
    Specht identified the cell culture medium as the most
significant cost driver and said it was possible to produce it
without animal-derived components and at much lower prices.
    
    ENERGY EFFICIENCY    
    Proponents of this new technology say it's the only
environmentally sustainable way to satisfy meat demand that the
United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization expects to
double between 2000 and 2050.
    But John Lynch, an environmental scientist at the University
of Oxford, said it remains unclear whether scalable lab-grown
meat production can really convert energy and nutrients into
meat more efficiently than conventional meat production.
    "Some studies have suggested that cultured meat may require
less of a 'feed' source than conventional livestock production,
but require more energy. If this is the case, then their impact
on the climate will depend on where this energy comes from," he
said.
    Interest in the category has ensured start-ups have had
ample access to funding.           
    Biotech Foods' Vila said the company had sufficient funds up
to 2021, the year it hopes to generate its first revenue, thanks
to a capital injection from an unidentified investor.
    Mosa Meat has meat processors Bell Food Group  BELL.S  and
Merck KGaA's  MRCG.DE  venture capital arm M Ventures among its
investors.
    In May food and agriculture group Cargill  CARG.UL 
announced it had invested in cultured meat company Aleph Farms. 
($1 = 0.8916 euros)

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FOCUS-Beyond Meat's home in the meat aisle sparks food fight   
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 (Reporting by Andres Gonzales in Madrid and Silke Koltrowitz in
Zurich
Editing by David Goodman)
 ((silke.koltrowitz@thomsonreuters.com; +41 58 306 7454; Reuters
Messaging: silke.koltrowitz.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))