Good Meat permitted to promote serum-free cultivated meat in Singapore • TechCrunch

Good Meat introduced right this moment it has acquired regulatory approval from the Singapore Meals Company to make use of serum-free media for the manufacturing of its cultivated meat. The model, which is the cultivated meat division of U.S.-based meals startup Eat Simply, says it’s the solely cultivated meat producer on the planet with the power to promote to shoppers. Its lab-grown rooster is presently accessible in Singapore, the place Eat Simply gained regulatory approval to promote its lab-grown rooster meat in 2020.

“Immediately’s information is one other historic milestone for us and for the whole business because it brings us all nearer to a extra scalable and sustainable manufacturing of actual meat with out slaughter,” stated Eat Simply head of communications Andrew Noyes. “Our R&D staff labored diligently to switch serum with different vitamins that present the identical performance and their exhausting work over a number of years paid off.”

The newest approval from the SFA means Good Meat will be capable to promote rooster meat cultivated with out utilizing animal serums. Serums like fetal bovine serum (FBS), which is constituted of the blood of fetuses extracted from cows in the course of the slaughter course of, are often wanted for cells from a residing animal to duplicate. Discovering option to produce cultivated meat with out animal serums is among the key challenges alternative protein startups are trying to solve.

Good Meat is presently engaged on its Singapore manufacturing facility, which it says will home the biggest bioreactor (a 6,000-liter vessel constructed with ABEC) within the cultivated meat business. As soon as it opens subsequent 12 months, the power might be able to utilizing the serum-free manufacturing course of and producing tens of 1000’s of kilos of meat.

Eat Simply’s backers include the Qatar Investment Authority (the sovereign wealth fund of the state of Qatar), Vulcan Capital and C2 Capital Companions, which has Alibaba as its anchor investor.

The Singaporean authorities has supported alternative protein startups because the island nation seeks to make its meals business extra self-sustaining. In a press release, Singapore Financial Growth Board government vp Damian Chan stated, “Good Meat is a key member of our rising ecosystem of greater than 70 different protein corporations and we stay up for their continued contributions in driving agrifood innovation from Singapore for the area and past.”