Czech startup Mewery announced today they have created the world’s first cultivated meat prototype using microalgae according to a release sent to The Spoon. The company says it used a hybrid culture medium with microalgae extracts to create cultivated meat consisting of 75% pork and 25% microalgae cells.
Why microalgae? The company says there are several benefits to using the hard-working microorganisms, including eliminating FBS (Fetal Bovine Serum) as a cultivating medium. Mewery says its process also lowers costs and provides additional nutritional benefits, including additional vitamins, antioxidants, minerals, fiber, and essential fatty acids. The company also says its cultivated meat is one hundred percent cellular, contrasting with many prototypes that rely on soy or pea proteins.
Based in the Czech Republic, Mewery was founded by longtime entrepreneur and event producer Roman Lauš. After becoming interested in the nascent cultivated meat space while developing the agenda for the Future Port Prague event in 2018, Lauš eventually decided to create his own company. By 2020, he had assembled a team, and after a couple of years of research and development, they made the company’s first prototype. Now, Lauš and his team aim to have its first consumer-ready products – the first of which will be pork meatballs and pork sausage – on the market in two years.
To get there, the company is seeking additional funding this year to fund continued work on its biobank cell repository and the buildout of large-capacity bioreactors to scale volume.
“In this way, we want to ensure a more or less unlimited source of pig cells, which will move us closer to large-scale production,” said Lauš.
