South Korean cell-based meat start-up TissenBioFarm has received ‘Cultured Meat Product of the Year’ in the fourth annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards programme.

AgTech Breakthrough is a market intelligence organisation that recognises the top companies, technologies and products in today’s global agri-tech and food-tech markets.

The programme awarded TissenBioFarm for its proprietary technologies that can produce whole-cut marbled steaks – the start-up's novel bio fabrication system allows ultrafast fabrication of muscles and fat in fibre form.

Compared to conventional 3D bioprinting, the company's lab-scale bio-fabrication system is up to 35,000 times faster, enabling it to produce around 300kg of fibres per hour. TissenBioFarm's optogenetics technology, which uses light to induce cell proliferation and differentiation, results in lower production costs, as it eliminates the need to use traditional foetal bovine serum and other expensive proteins.

The product also uses a biomimicry technique that results in the ‘realistic’ appearance of meat. TissenBioFarm can replicate meat texture and marbling by mimicking the structure of muscle tissue and marbles of real meat. One test successfully produced a 10kg alternative meat prototype, and the technology allows TissenBioFarm to produce various cuts of meat such as sirloin, tenderloin and ribeye.

Marbling is an important factor in beef grading as it enhances the flavour and texture of beef – TissenBioFarm creates marbling by stacking fat and muscle microfibres for a desired pattern. The pattern or nutritional profile of the final product can be customised to meet consumers’ taste preferences or needs, by adding or subtracting certain nutrients to create a healthier, targeted product.

Wonil Han, CEO of TissenBioFarm, said: “Today's alternative meat technologies are limited to making ground meat products such as patties and nuggets. We aim to produce products that are competitive in every way with conventional prime cuts of steak and offer solutions that have overcome technical limitations such as mass production. Thank you to AgTech Breakthrough for recognising our efforts as we get close to commercial scale and get our system ready for mass production. We’ll continue to enhance the ‘world’s first’ technology to mass-produce whole-cut cultivated meat with realistic marbles.”

TissenBioFarm expects that, by 2027, it will have developed its technology and lowered the costs of producing cultivated meat to around $10 per kilogram.

Bryan Vaughn, managing director of AgTech Breakthrough, commented: “TissenBioFarm is creating a future where people, the environment and animals are safe. This era of agriculture and food technology marks the next major period of sustainable future foods but the low scalability and high costs of producing cultivated meat have caused a gap in the industry. The solution lies within sustainable and scalable technologies used for production.”

Vaughn continued: “TissenBioFarm is delivering low-cost, scalable technologies that produce whole-cut cultivated meat products, bringing alternative proteins. We’re pleased to award [the start-up] with ‘Cultured Meat Product of the Year!’ With [its] capabilities, [TissenBioFarm] can quickly and cost-effectively bring the sustainable future of food from the lab to tables everywhere.”

Images: ©TissenBioFarm

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