By Cath Isabedra

Food security is a complex issue that involves many factors, including population growth, climate change, natural disasters, political instability, and economic challenges. Significant progress is in ensuring food security, but much work still needs to be done. 

Food engineering has played a crucial role in developing new technologies and methods for food production, and one that prominently pops into the conversation is the development of cultivated meat.  

Didier Toubia, CEO and Co-Founder of Aleph Farms, shares, “Cultivated meat is one of the most resourceful ways to produce protein. And that’s one aspect that we’re very serious about. We’re solid on sustainability issues. The second pillar is food security. Providing a food system that is resilient. Resilient to shocks, resilient to climate change, which is distributed, and production with short production cycles, shorter supply chains, close to the consumption areas, and a giant and reactive production system which can provide secure high-quality protein, animal protein independently to the climate or the availability of land and water.” 

One of the most significant challenges facing the world today is the need to produce enough food to feed a rapidly growing population. The United Nations estimates that the global population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050, meaning we will need to produce 70 percent more food than we currently do. 

Aleph Farms works closely with different countries, specifically those that face the challenge of food security.  

Toubia adds, “We’re working closely with Singapore on the 30 by 30 and with Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. It’s also why we’re backed by the State of Israel. In Israel, we import 88 percent of our beef, either before or after slaughter. And this issue of being unable to farm cattle locally is shared between the Middle East and a large part of Asia for the same reasons: resource scarcity, climate, and water. It is the food security issue. So sustainability, on the one hand, and food security, on the other hand, the different configurations or potential benefits of cultivated meat, are related to the public.” 

Precision fermentation: what is it, exactly? 

Precision fermentation is a technology that involves using microbes to produce specific ingredients or compounds through controlled fermentation processes. In the context of the cultivated meat industry, precision fermentation plays a crucial role in producing animal-free proteins that can be used to create meat-like products without the need for actual animal slaughter. 

The method creates essential ingredients for cultivated meat production, such as plant-based proteins, fats, and flavorings. These ingredients are produced by genetically engineered microbes, such as yeast or bacteria, to produce specific proteins or compounds that mimic the taste and texture of animal meat. 

One of the significant advantages of precision fermentation is that it allows for producing large quantities of these ingredients in a highly controlled and consistent manner. This makes it possible to scale up production quickly and efficiently, essential for meeting the demand for cultivated meat as it becomes more widely adopted. 

Another significant advantage of precision fermentation is that it is a much more sustainable alternative to traditional animal agriculture. The production of animal-based proteins is associated with various environmental issues, such as deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and water pollution. In contrast, precision fermentation produces ingredients that have a much lower environmental impact and can be made with significantly fewer resources. 

Precision fermentation also benefits the distribution and processing of cultivated meat products. Since the ingredients used in cultivated meat production are produced in a controlled fermentation environment, they are free from contaminants and pathogens that can be found in traditional animal agriculture. This makes processing and distributing the products more accessible, essential for consumer acceptance. 

The era of precision fermentation 

Many experts in food and biotechnology consider today to be the era of precision fermentation. Precision fermentation has revolutionized the food industry by allowing for the production of various ingredients and compounds, such as proteins, fats, and flavorings, through controlled fermentation processes using microbes such as bacteria or yeast.  

The precision fermentation industry is rapidly growing, with many startups and established companies investing in the research and development of new products and scaling up production. Investors and venture capitalists have also shown significant interest in the potential of precision fermentation, with many funding rounds and partnerships being announced in recent years.  

One of them is ScaleUp Bio, a joint venture of ADM and Temasek’s Nurasa. During the Agri-Food Summit held in Singapore in October of 2022, I had the opportunity to talk to ScaleUp Bio’s CEO, Francisco M. Codoñer, who shared insights about the precision fermentation industry and how ScaleUp Bio aims to provide state-of-the-art precision fermentation physical labs and facilities, technical and business assistance and access to potential investors/funders, targeted to support global food tech start-ups. 

Codoñer explains, “Precision fermentation relies on classical fermentation. You have naturally fermenting things—for example, cheese. In precision fermentation, what you are doing is trying to exactly and precisely produce one protein. So, I precisely design an organism that is going to be able to provide calcium. And then, with that casein, I can build different products that will be on the market or whey protein for making other products. So precision fermentation is like targeted fermentation, using fermentation technology to produce an ingredient.” 

Precision fermentation has been instrumental in developing plant-based meat substitutes and cultivated meat, offering a sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional animal agriculture.  

Producing meat depends on how many cows are slaughtered. In precision fermentation, you don’t need cows to be present. With fewer cows, the elimination of greenhouse emissions from farming is possible. Plus, it allows cows to graze on good land.  

Codoñer adds, “What we’re trying to do in ScaleUp Bio is set up an infrastructure to help companies that need to produce the final ingredients. We are going to have all the downstream processing that they need to fortify that problem for the end to have as much as possible. He explains, “It will be like an end-to-end process. They only need to take care of having the idea and the good microorganisms to produce what they want to produce.” 

ScaleUp Bio will provide a lending hand. “We want to be enablers and work in a collaborative way. We don’t want to be taking ownership of anything. We want to be an integral part of the team to see how they can improve the process, how they can improve the downstream processing, how they can improve even the strain if it’s needed, and what they needed to be changed to get a real good foot at the end of the like the entire ecosystem,” Codoñer comments.  

Is it the key to sustainable meat production? 

With food supply a significant issue, cultivated meat can be the answer to addressing the gaps in the supply chain. Traditional cattle raising variability is a common issue. Various factors can impact cattle raising, such as climate, farming conditions, and cattle feeds, to name a few.  

Since the production of cultivated meat does not involve animal slaughter, it eliminates the need for complex supply chains and transportation logistics associated with traditional meat production. This can significantly reduce the costs and environmental impact of the meat industry. 

“It’s not just the fact that we can adjust supply and demand and delivery attractive in terms of product delivery. Customers can come to us strict requirements, which is not possible with conventional meat because of the variability in traditional cattle raising,” Toubia explains. 

Toubia adds, “And there are always differences between two animals. In our case, we can provide a product exactly one million times. It’s also a tremendous advantage for customers.” 

But it does come with challenges.  

Codoñer claims, “The first one is funding. So, venture capital needs to fund these companies to put that idea into a working idea. Most of the venture capitals are mainly willing to develop IP, not invest in infrastructure, and try to reduce the cost of infrastructure.”  

He adds, “Infrastructure is difficult to maintain, and you will use it for a short period because whenever you are in big volumes, you will need that bigger infrastructure. So, these two things are the main caveats that they need to overpass.” 

And this is where ScaleUp Bio hopes to make a difference. The organization can connect and guide them on what else they can do for the product.  

Codoñer says, “We can avoid them spending money on that. And we can take care of the fermentation expertise and the infrastructure required for the downstream processing.” 

In conclusion, precision fermentation is a game-changing technology for the cultivated meat industry. It allows for the production of animal-free proteins and other ingredients that mimic the taste and texture of animal meat in a highly sustainable and efficient manner. As technology continues to evolve, we expect to see even more innovation and improvements in the cultivated meat industry. 

With insights from Didier Toubia, CEO and co-founder of Aleph Farms and Francisco M. Codoñer, CEO of ScaleUp Bio.