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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

MeaTech

MeaTech Achieves Cultured Meat Milestone by Developing Muscle Fibers from Stem Cells

MeaTech3D, an Israel-based cultured meat startup, announced this week that it had demonstrated progress in the differentiation process from stem cells to muscle fibers.

According to the announcement, MeaTech has achieved the formation of living muscle fibers to a point where they “mirror key characteristics of farm-raised meat.” To achieve the results, MeaTech isolated bovine stem cells, which were then proliferated in the lab. From there, they were able to differentiate these cells into matured muscle cells with improved muscle fiber density, thickness, and length.

This news from MeaTech is just the latest from the startup as they assemble a toolbox of technologies to replicate whole cut animal meat using cell-cultured processes. In September of last year, they announced they had developed a new stem cell manipulation technology that uses plant inputs to transform embryonic mesenchymal stem cells (or eMSCs) into fat cells. That process could be used to replicate intramuscular fat, the fat structures that ribbon through a sophisticated cut of meat such as a ribeye steak. Before that, the company filed for a patent for its technology that 3D prints cell-cultured meat products.

MeaTech isn’t the only group working on developing technology to create muscle fibers via cellular agriculture. Last year, a group of researchers at the University of Tokyo in Japan were able to replicate muscle fibers via cell culture process. The Japanese group achieved a level of elasticity, as the strands contracted in the same way muscle fibers contract.

MeaTech 3D Files Provisional Patent Application For Cell-Cultured Fat Process

MeaTech 3D announced last week that it has filed a provisional patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to cover its new stem cell manipulation technology. The Israel-based company’s proprietary process uses plant inputs to transform embryonic mesenchymal stem cells (or eMSCs) into fat cells.

The patent-pending process can be used to produce intramuscular fat: the fat structures that ribbon through a sophisticated cut of meat such as a ribeye steak. The company envisions the technology working hand-in-hand with its meat bioprinting process, which involves extruding bio-inks made from muscle and fat cells to create complex structures.

This isn’t the first patent application that MeaTech has filed in the U.S. In June, they applied for a patent to secure their bioprinting process. This push to accumulate intellectual property should help the company to protect its investments in research and development as international cell-cultured meat producers prepare to compete for consumers’ affections. (The company spent $2.5 million on R&D in 2020, up from $0.2 million the year before.)

This latest patent application marks a milestone in MeaTech’s push to reduce its dependence on animal-derived materials. The most common method for turning eMSCs into fat cells involves the use of animal hormones insulin, dexamethasone, and isobutylmethylxanthine.

Yet despite this advancement, the company’s production process isn’t free of animal inputs. The eMSCs that the company relies on are generally derived from bone marrow or fat, and are most commonly grown in a substrate of fetal bovine serum.

Meanwhile, other food tech startups are vying to find alternative fat solutions that will further scale down animal intensivity. We recently reported on Nordic startup Melt&Marble’s ambitions in this arena: The company uses a fermentation process to produce fatty acids, and can customize its recipe to create fats that complement different plant-based proteins. Motif Foodworks is pursuing a different approach, tweaking plant oils to taste and feel more like animal fat.

Excell, a spinoff of Ecovative Designs, is working on another solution to the industry’s animal fat problem. The startup is currently working with cell-cultured companies to test its mycelium (or mushroom root system) materials as alternative growing scaffolds for their meat products.

Despite MeaTech’s eagerness to secure its fat production process against competitors, it’s hard to predict whether the stem-cell reliant technique will remain relevant for long in the rapidly advancing industry. As cell-cultured meat startups like MeaTech seek out ways to scale up production while cutting costs and reducing environmental impacts, it may ultimately make more sense to go hybrid, turning to plant-based fat sources.

MeaTech 3D Will Produce Cultivated Fat, Whole Steaks at Its Forthcoming Pilot Facility

Israeli bioprinting startup MeaTech 3D this week became the latest cultivated meat company to announce a pilot production facility, which the company intends to have operational in 2022. The plant’s location is yet to be announced. MeaTech said they will use the facility to increase the production of cultured chicken fat from Peace of Meat, a Belgian company MeaTech acquired in December of 2020. 

MeaTech says cultured fat can “significantly enhance” the texture, flavor, and mouthfeel of plant-based meat alternatives, giving them an altogether “meatier” taste than is available with current plant-based meat analogues. MeaTech said in this week’s announcement that it plans to license its cultivated fat tech — including cell lines and bioprocesses — to other companies wishing to improve their plant-based products.

However, cultivated fat is only one part of MeaTech’s overall plan. In tandem, the company will continue to develop a process for whole cuts of cultivated meat — namely steak and chicken breast — using 3D bioprinting tech.

Developing full cuts of cultivated meat is far more difficult than making minced products for burgers or chicken bites. With full cuts of meat, the various cells, including those for muscle, fat, blood vessels, and connective tissue, have to grow together, on scaffolding, to achieve the desired cut of meat. This is a significantly more intricate process than simply growing the different cells then manually combining them at the end, as can be done for a patty or nugget.

Aleph Farms, also based in Israel, is the other notable company attempting to produce whole cuts of cultivated meat. Earlier this year, the company said they had developed a 3D bioprinted Ribeye steak from cultivated protein.

So far, MeaTech has printed a carpaccio-like layer of meat. A full steak or chicken breast is in all likelihood years away. While the forthcoming pilot production facility will first be used to scale up production of Peace of Meat’s cultured fat, it will eventually incorporate MeaTech’s bioprinting tech to produce the aforementioned whole cuts of meat.