It’s been a banner year so far for cultured meat. In addition to all of the funding that’s been flowing into the space since the start of 2021, there is also a growing number of startups from around the world attacking the issues of creating cell-based meat in unique ways.
The latest such startup to come to our attention is South Korea’s Seawith, which is leveraging algae to differentiate itself from other cultured meat players. The company uses algae to replace the fetal bovine serum (FBS) that has historically been used as a growth medium for cells. FBS is expensive and controversial, so most cell-based meat startups we cover are developing technologies that don’t require it. But Seawith is also using algae as a scaffolding to grow meat, which the company says yields thicker “cuts” of meat.
Following is a brief Q&A conducted via email with Heejae Lee, CTO of Seawith, who provides a little more insight into the company and what it is creating. Answers have been lightly edited for clarity.
1.) What makes Seawith different from other cell-based meat companies?
Seawith has the distinction of making the world’s first perfect steak at a price similar to slaughter meat. Based on algae engineering technology, it has replaced most of the bovine serum, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the cost of culturing meat, and the cell culture scaffold technology can make cultured meat thicker than 1cm.
2.) What makes algae so useful in creating cell-based meat?
The key principle of cultured meat is that one muscle cell takes nutrients and synthesizes them to make large meat. Algae is rich enough to be used as a nutritional supplement, which allows efficient cell culture by supplying it to cells. Also, algae are one of the most abundant resources on Earth, and they have the advantage of being cheap and available everywhere because they can grow anywhere with water and sunlight.
3.) Where are you at with your product right now?
We just finished our research and held a cultured meat tasting event. Cultured meat made with Korean bovine cells was evaluated well by attendees, who said it had the taste and aroma of beef, and the texture of meat could be seen. Currently, it is a muscle-only culture, but we are preparing various features such as taste of fat cells. We are preparing to get permission to produce enough to supply large quantities of products to restaurants by 2023.
4.) What types of cell-based meat will you be creating?
Seawith is making beef steak. There are many different types of meat, but the reason why we are making
difficult steaks is that only the technology we have can implement them. After perfecting the texture of muscle tissue, we plan to develop various meat products such as chicken, pig, and fish as well as meat products and animal feed.
5.) What is your timeline to bring your product to market?
We are currently discussing with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to make a trial sale in Korea with the aim of
launching a restaurant at the end of 2022. To this end, we are planning an urban cultured meat factory and will introduce a minimum production model by 2021. From 2023, we are preparing for local tasting event and product launch in different locations such as North America and Singapore.
