Cultured meat
Last month, a new entity for developing cellular agricultural products was established by Swiss companies Givaudan (Vernier; www.givaudan.com), Bühler AG (Uzwil; www.buhler.com) and Migros (Migros-Industrie Migros-Genossenschafts-Bund; Zurich; www.mgb.ch). The Cultured Food Innovation Hub, located in Kemptthal (near Zurich), Switzerland, aims to accelerate the development and market penetration of cultured meat — meat produced without slaughter or factory farming, a significantly better climate balance, no use of antibiotics and ensured food security.
With operations expected to begin next year, the Cultured Food Innovation Hub will be a self-sustained, standalone company wholly owned by Givaudan, Bühler and Migros. The new entity will provide facilities and knowledge to accelerate other companies on their cultured meat, cultured fish and seafood, and precision-fermentation developments. The Hub will be equipped with a product-development laboratory, as well as cell culture and fermentation capabilities to help start-up companies develop and go to market with the right product.
Cellular agriculture for cultured meat provides the means for the farming of animal products without raising animals. Instead, animal cells are used as a starting point, and then technologies, such as fermentation are employed for the cultivation of meat products. The result is meat that is identical in structure and in taste to its animal counterpart with vastly reduced environmental impact and no mass farming or slaughter.