Israeli food tech company, Future Meat Technologies, has announced a breakthrough in its first cultivated lamb product that “looks, cooks and tastes like conventional ground lamb.“
Future Meat CEO Nicole Johnson-Hoffman said she’s optimistic about the commercial potential of the non-GMO product, along with its environmental benefits, and implications for other cultivated meat products.
“In passing this milestone, Future Meat reinforces its position as a leader and pioneer in the cultivated meat industry and shows again the limitless potential of how innovation can drive sustainable solutions,” said Johnson-Hoffman. “The key learnings will be leveraged as we work to produce other meats, including beef and pork, increasing Future Meat’s market offerings for consumers.”
Reaching this milestone with ovine cell lines means the company can now produce cultivated lamb at scale and accelerate its focus on expanding into more animal species.
Future Meat uses animal fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) to replicate animal meat, producing a non-GMO product that is cost-effective, sustainable, and scalable.
Future Meat’s development of cultivated lamb started in 2019 with fibroblast cells isolated from Awassi sheep, generating two independent ovine cell lines, that divide indefinitely.
“Future Meat has been the first company to remove Fetal Bovine Serum, and all other animal components, from its growth media,” said Prof. Yaakov Nahmias, President, Founder and Chief Science Officer of Future Meat Technologies. “Future Meat’s approach leans on the natural spontaneous immortalisation of fibroblasts, rather than genetic modification. This is the key to Future Meat’s cells being non-GMO.”
Lamb is the primary meat source for much of the Middle East, Africa and parts of Asia, and is also a huge market in the European Union. The cultivated lamb product offers huge opportunity in these markets and as the company prepares to enter the US market, Future Meat will shift its focus to scaling up production of its cultivated meat products at its new production facility, expected to break ground this year.
To stay up-to-date on the latest industry headlines, sign up to Future Alternative’s enewsletter.
Posted on: