Boston – As the cultivated meat category continues to evolve, manufacturers and investors take on new, unexpected opportunities for this segment to trigger growth, according to speakers at Tufts University’s 3rd Cellular Agriculture Innovation Day. I’m paying attention.
One recent shift in the industry has been moving away from the entire cutting application. Although such products have been the focus of innovators, difficulties in media supply and edible scaffolding have led some manufacturers to focus their attention on other locations.
“We’re committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our customers,” said Dr. Naya McCartney, a Sydney-based Pledge regulatory safety scientist. “I’m thinking about technology seeing a lot of companies while being a little creative and finding other alternative revenues. I’m really excited because I think it will help me get through this learning period. ”
Steve Simitzis, a partner at Food Technology Startup Investor Solvable Syndicate, has identified alternative areas of interest, including working with meat processors to create applications that use both traditional and cultivated meat.
“I think meat producers will ultimately become customers of this, so we can see an approach that involves bringing, merging, and blending ground meat into the existing supply chain,” he said. I said. “Let’s take fast food, perhaps 1% or 2% of fast food from the start. If we can do that, rather than trying to push consumers to buy a brand of cultivated steak, then that’s it. It’s very influential.”
Simitzis also pointed out the pet food market as another category where mixing opportunities may exist.
“I think there will be a lot of opportunities to work with existing brands (in pet food) to put ingredients into the supply chain,” Simitzis says. “Now you need to be careful because pet owners actually hate the risk a little more than people who eat food for themselves. “My pets get sick, they’re What if you can’t tell me about it?”
“So you know, it’s an area where there may be some conservatism and that’s where some existing pet food makers can help.”
Differentiated cell culture is another region where cultivated meat makers see that there may be openings for innovation. For example, Vow experimented with 200 cell types to investigate which non-standard cultures could be easier to produce and better tasting products.
“We’ve been developing pork, beef for years and years, and we did that because the farm is the easiest,” McCartney said. “That doesn’t mean that they are the most delicious cells or are the easiest to grow in this way. The first principle is how to use diversity that cannot be used in agriculture for cellular agriculture. I think so. When you see it that way, we give us such a wide range.”
Co-cultures may also improve taste, McCartney said. Co-culture of different species can also create unique and exotic flavor profiles. McCartney said the pledge developed a joint culture line of crocodile and quail grown meat that was well received by the company’s foodservice customers.
