Upside Foods, formerly Memphis Meats, a company in the cultivated meat, poultry, and seafood industry, has developed a cell feed that is animal component free.
This is a crucial step towards making meat that is scalable, cost-effective, and delicious, while also protecting the environment and animal welfare, according to the company.
Historically, animal components like fetal bovine serum and animal proteins have been a key ingredient in cell feed because they offer a rich and complete source of nutrients that help the cells grow. Eliminating the use of animal components has been a major goal for the entire cultivated meat industry as animal components pose challenges to both the mission and economics of cultivated meat.
"Since day one, we knew that developing animal component-free cell feed would be crucial to fully realizing our vision of meat that's better for the planet and its inhabitants," said Dr. Uma Valeti, founder and CEO of Upside Foods, in a statement. "Cell feed is among the biggest drivers of cost and environmental footprint for the cultivated meat industry, and optimizing it is key to maximizing our positive impact. Our ultimate goal is to remove animals from our meat production process entirely."
To demonstrate the versatility of ACF cell feed, Upside used it to produce two consumer-favorite products: chicken nuggets and hot dogs. While the initial demonstration of ACF cell feed was in select chicken products, the company is working to integrate ACF cell feed across its entire product portfolio over time.
"Developing animal component-free cell feed for cultivated meat is a breakthrough scientific feat. This unlocks new opportunities for UPSIDE Foods as we focus on scaling and commercializing cultivated meat," said Dr. Kevin Kayser, senior vice president of research at Upside Foods, in a statement.
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