Levelling up: Cultured meat bioprocess intensification for scalable commercial production

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Cultured Meat offers enormous potential for addressing concerns around sustainability, animal welfare and environmental impact of the traditional meat industry. However, technoeconomic challenges remain in scaling production to meet market demand, estimated to reach $20Bn by 2030\.Cultured meat is produced by directly culturing animal cells. This production method eliminates the need to raise and farm animals for food, meaning that cultured meat production has a considerably lower environmental impact than its conventional counterpart. Cultured meat consists of the same cell types that can be arranged in the same structure as animal tissues to replicate the taste, texture and nutritional profiles of conventional meat.Producing cultured meat can be challenging due to longevity of most cell lines and their abilities to differentiate into required cell types, including muscle and fat.Roslin Technologies (RTL) are the first and leading provider of high quality cell lines for the cultivated meat sector. We develop induced pluripotent stem cell lines (iPSC) that can differentiate into muscle and fat, supported by customised cell culture media and processes. Our cells are well suited to the cultured meat industry as they are non-GMO, grow quickly, are genetically stable and can grow in suspension culture without the need for additional scaffolds. At RTL we have demonstrated our cells can grow in small-scale benchtop bioreactors, but the next step is to transfer this to industry relevant pilot-scale bioreactors.With Innovate UK and Innosuisse support RTL are excited to partner with The Cultured Hub (TCH) in Kemptthal, Switzerland. TCH is a dedicated cultured meat contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) that provides expertise in process intensification and scale-up. In this project RTL and TCH will work together to realise the full potential of RTL stem cells. Researchers will work to optimise cell yields, quality and safety through media and bioprocess development. The data and know how generated by this project will help demonstrate the commercial potential of RTL cells and position TCH as a leading CDMO for cultured meat bioprocess development. The projects focus on cultured meat safety will also provide valuable information to regulators and policy makers to help define UK CM quality and safety standards. We believe this will benefit cultured meat producers and the industry as a whole to reach mass consumer markets faster. Ultimately this will support a more resilient food system and contribute to Paris Agreement goals and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.