SPECIAL STORY 48 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE December 2022 Mosa Meat is a Dutch food technology company that pioneered the ability to grow beef from a sample of cells taken by a veterinarian from a live cow. First introduced in 2013, over a hundred companies worldwide are now using “cellular agriculture” to make pork, poultry, beef, and fish from cells without raising a whole animal. With a rapidly growing population, this can be a powerful complement to the conventional methods. Agriculture has been evolving for thousands of years. From hunting and gathering our food, to domesticating livestock, to the green revolution of the 1970’s - we have made incredible strides in food production through constant innovation. Many of these impressive breakthroughs have been centered in the animal feed industry. As technology has advanced, the pace of innovation has accelerated rapidly. Today, the next iteration of domestication is underway, but it is occurring at a microscopic level with the feeding and domestication of cells - the building blocks of all animals. Inspired by research in human medicine, the founders of Mosa Meat were able to demonstrate that beef can be grown from a peppercorn sized sample of tissue that is extracted from a cow without any harm. The meat is produced outside of the cow in an environment that simulates what happens in nature. The cells are placed in a stainless steel tank or “cultivator” that is filled with a nutrient-rich broth of sugars, amino acids, minerals, and vitamins derived from crops. The cultivator is heated to approximately 38° Celsius and the cells multiply by orders of magnitude, eventually growing into both muscle and fat that is harvested and recombined into the same minced beef products that meat eaters love. This technique is now being used by more than 110 companies worldwide to make a range of animal proteins including poultry, pork, foie gras, fish, shrimp, and more. Some companies are drawing their sample of cells from live animals and some are using fertilized eggs. There are some variations in the methods depending on the animal being made and the intended final product, but the basics of the process are the same. Currently, cultivated chicken is approved and being sold in Singapore and the United States Food & Drug Administration has just given a greenlight for chicken to a company in the U.S. In Europe, companies will apply for pre-market approval through the Europe Commission as a “novel food” and that process takes 1.5-2.5 years from start to finish. CELLULAR AGRICULTURE: A POWERFUL SUPPLEMENT FOR THE FUTURE Robert E. Jones President of Cellular Agriculture Europe Mosa Meat
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