NEWS F&A Alternative Proteins Edition October 2023 17 CULT Food Science announces world’s first cat treat with cell-cultivated fish CULT Food Science Corp., a pioneer in the investment, development, and commercialization of cellular agriculture technologies and products, introduced Marina Cat™, a hybrid cell-cultivated pet food brand for cats developed in partnership with Umami Bioworks. “My vision for the future is that we no longer have to slaughter other animals to feed our cats,” said Joshua Errett, VP of Product at CULT. “This brand brings me one very great step closer to making that a reality.” “We are pleased to be embarking on this partnership with Marina Cat to power a new category of cultivated pet food products that are healthier for cats and better for our oceans. As a platform technology provider, we are committed to delivering the technology stack that powers commercialization of cultivated products across a range of applications. This first collaboration with Marina Cat and CULT Food Science is the first step to delivering on that promise,” said Mihir Pershad, CEO of Umami Bioworks. Read more>> Novel Farms, Inc., a food technology startup based in Berkeley, California, has been awarded the highly competitive Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The company explained that the $999,967 two-year grant is a testament to Novel Farms’ groundbreaking work in the field of cultivated meat production and will provide critical funding to support the scale-up of their proprietary scaffolding platform. This innovative platform leverages a novel microbial fermentation approach and tissue engineering techniques to significantly reduce the costs associated with cultivated meat. According to the company, at the core of this project lies the ambition to address the profound sustainability and public health challenges posed by conventional industrial animal agriculture. By developing more efficient and economical ways to produce real meat directly from animal cells i.e., cultivated meat, Novel Farms aims to disrupt the current damaging meat production paradigm. The primary challenge faced by the cultivated meat industry is the cost of cell culture media, which must be competitive with conventional meat production to establish cultivated meat as a viable alternative. To confront this challenge headon, Novel Farms’ Phase II project is geared towards further lowering media costs by eliminating costly components through the continued refinement of their proprietary scaffolding technology. This crucial funding injection will empower the company to expand its scientific team and transition its processes from bench scale to bioreactor scale—a pivotal step towards establishing an efficient and scalable cultivated meat production system. Read more>> NSF grants to Novel Farms to advance cultivated meat production
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