Israeli slaughter-free meat production startup Future Meat Technologies has opened the world's first industrial cultured meat facility in the city of Rehovot, home to the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Faculty of Agriculture, the company announced Wednesday.

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With the capability to produce 500 kilograms (1,102 pounds) of cultured products a day, equivalent to 5,000 hamburgers, this facility makes scalable cell-based meat production a reality.

"This facility opening marks a huge step in Future Meat Technologies' path to market, serving as a critical enabler to bring our products to shelves by 2022," says Rom Kshuk, CEO of Future Meat Technologies. "Having a running industrial line accelerates key processes such as regulation and product development."

Currently, the facility can produce cultured chicken, pork and lamb, without the use of animal serum or genetic modification (non-GMO) with the production of beef coming soon. Future Meat Technologies' unique platform enables fast production cycles, about 20 times faster than traditional animal agriculture.

Professor Yaakov Nahmias, founder and chief scientific officer of Future Meat Technologies, explains that "After demonstrating that cultured meat can reach cost parity faster than the market anticipated, this production facility is the real game-changer."

"This facility demonstrates our proprietary media rejuvenation technology in scale, allowing us to reach production densities 10-times higher than the industrial standard. Our goal is to make cultured meat affordable for everyone, while ensuring we produce delicious food that is both healthy and sustainable, helping to secure the future of coming generations," Nahmias says.

Future Meat's cruelty-free production process is expected to generate 80% less greenhouse emissions and use 99% less land and 96% less freshwater than traditional meat production.

Future Meat Technologies aims to reach shelves in the United States in 2022 and is currently in the process of approving its production facility with regulatory agencies in multiple territories. The company is eyeing several locations in the United States for its projected expansion.

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An Israeli startup that seeks to disrupt the global meat industry has partnered with a Brazilian meat and food corporation to bring its lab-grown, slaughter-free meat to Brazilian tables.

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Aleph Farms, based in Rehovot, announced Thursday that it had signed an MoU with Brazil's BRF S.A. to co-develop and produce cultivated meat using Aleph's patented production platforms.

Under the terms of the agreement, BRF will also distribute Aleph-backed cultivated beef products in Brazil. This partnership is expected to "beef up" BRF's supply chain and reduce its environmental impact, while diversifying its product offering to meet growing consumer demand for a variety of meat products.

Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia said his company was "thrilled" to team up with BRF.

"Leveraging the expertise and infrastructure of leading food and meat companies will drive a faster scale-up of cultivated meat and eventually lead to a broader positive impact. As one of the largest beef producers in the world, Brazil is a strategic market for us. We have been impressed by the strong commitment from BRF management to innovation and sustainability," Toubia said.

BRF is one of the largest meat producers in the world. It reports revenue of some $7.25 billion and has invested over $28 million in projects to reduce environmental impact. The partnership with Aleph Farms is part of BRF's 2030 Vision strategy.

"BRF is ready and charged to play a leading role in this food revolution and be an active participant in one the greatest industry transformations of this generation," said CEO Lorival Luz.

"Since 2014, we have witnessed an increasing global demand for new sources of protein driven by several factors, namely environmental concerns, new diets and lifestyles, which has spurred the growth of new dietary genres including flexitarianism, vegetarianism and more," Luz said.

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In another step toward viable, sustainable meat production, Israeli foodtech startup Aleph Farms and the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have successfully cultivated the world's first slaughter-free ribeye steak, the company announced Tuesday.

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Researchers used three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting technology and real cow cells, without genetic engineering and immortalization. Aleph Farms' new technology was unveiled only two years after it rolled out the world's first cultivated thin-cut steak, in 2018.

Aleph Farms says the new bioprinting technology allows it to produce any type of steak, and that it intends to expand its offerings.

Aleph Farms' 3D bioprinting technology prints living cells that are then incubated to grow, differentiate, and interact to acquire the texture and qualities of a real steak. A proprietary system, similar to the vascularization that occurs naturally in tissues, enables the perfusion of nutrients across the thicker tissue and grants the steak with the similar shape and structure of its native form as found in livestock before and during cooking.

Didier Toubia, co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, said that the breakthrough "reflects an artistic expression of the scientific expertise of our team" and that he was "blessed to work with some of the greatest people in this industry."

"We recognize some consumers will crave thicker and fattier cuts of meat. This accomplishment represents our commitment to meeting our consumer's unique preferences and taste buds, and we will continue to progressively diversify our offerings," Toubia added.

"Additional meat designs will drive a larger impact in the mid and long term. This milestone for me marks a major leap in fulfilling our vision of leading a global food system transition toward a more sustainable, equitable and secure world."

Technion Professor Shulamit Levenberg, a co-founder of Aleph Farms, said, "We have broken the barriers to introducing new levels of variety into the cultivated meat cuts we can now produce. As we look into the future of 3D bioprinting, the opportunities are endless."

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Aleph Farms, an Israeli food tech startup that develops slaughter-free, lab grown meat, has signed an MoU with Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Corporation to bring cultivated meat to the Japanese table.

Aleph Farms and Mitsubishi Corporation are both members of the Cellular Agriculture Study Group, a consortium implementing policy proposals under the Japanese Center for Rule-Making Strategy. The consortium brings together a range of experts on the definition and construction of cellular agricultural foods. It also adds clarification of conditions for Japanese products and technologies to have international competitiveness and establishes mechanisms for coexistence and division of roles with existing industries.

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The MoU will play a major part in fighting climate change, especially now that the Japanese government stipulated a goal of achieving zero greenhouse gas emissions. In April 2020, Aleph Farms committed to eliminating emissions associated with its meat production by 2025 and reach the same net-zero emissions across its entire supply chain by 2030.

According to the agreement, Aleph Farms will provide its BioFarm manufacturing platform for the cultivation of whole-muscle steaks, and Mitsubishi will provide its expertise in biotechnology processes, branded food manufacturing, and local distribution channels in Japan.

"The MoU with Mitsubishi Corporation's Food Industry Group marks an important milestone for us, as we methodically build the foundations of our global go-to-market activities with selected partners," notes Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.

"The cooperation demonstrates Aleph Farms' strategy of working together with the food and meat industries to ensure a successful integration of cultivated meat within the ecosystem, while maximizing the positive impact we make," adds Toubia. "We are excited to bring cultivated meat production closer to the Japanese market."

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Israel's Aleph Farms food tech startup is nearing the transition of its cultivated slaughter-free thin-cut beef steaks into five proprietary modules for its mass production platform, the company announced Wednesday.

The Rehovot-based company's steaks are grown directly from non-GMO cells of a living cow. Aleph Farms says its product offers the nutritional, culinary, and sensory attributes of conventionally produced meat.

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The prototype of its commercial product will be first introduced at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit in Singapore on Nov. 20 in a virtual cooking demonstration hosted by Aleph Farms' resident chef, Amir Ilan.

The move marks a major leap in Aleph Farms' goal of making cultivated meat widely available in the global community. The company is currently transitioning its commercial products to its pilot plant, and intends to launch at the end of 2022.

"One of the big challenges of cultivated meat is the ability to produce large quantities efficiently at a cost that can compete with conventional meat industry pricing, without compromising on quality," says Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.

"We have developed five technological building blocks unique to Aleph Farms that are put into a large-scale production process, all patented by the company," Toubia says.

Aleph Farms' technique for meat cultivation mirror the natural process of tissue regeneration processes that occur in an animal's body, in controlled conditions. The startup has designed patented tissue cultivators to facilitate the biological process occurring in vivo, providing the warmth and basic animal-free elements needed to build tissue in nature. This includes water, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, and minerals.

The process is designed to use a fraction of the resources required to raising an entire animal for meat, and without the need for antibiotics.

"Aleph Farms is establishing a new category of meat, imbued with its own culture and a new world of meaty experiences," enthuses Ilan, the company's chef-in-residence.

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