Cultivated fat startup Mission Barns has engineered a new bioreactor to optimize cultivated meat production, aiming to replace the single-cell suspension bioreactors traditionally used in the pharmaceutical industry.
“We’ve invented a novel bioreactor that allows us to scale the production of cultivated meat, whether it’s pork, beef, chicken, fat, or muscle,” Mission Barns explains in conversation with Cultivated X.
Founded in Berkeley by Eitan Fischer, former director of cellular agriculture at fellow US food tech company Eat Just, Mission Barns’ first product is a cultivated pork fat called Mission Fat, set to transform analogs with new heights of taste and texture. To produce it, the company has developed a technology platform that starts from non-GMO adherent cells and grows them using an animal-free cell culture medium.
The “right bioreactor”
Mission Barns’ bioreactor has been adapted to match the natural growth needs of non-GMO adherent cells, and according to the company, it can produce high volumes cost-effectively. “Rather than changing the meat cells to suit a suspension culture bioreactor, our bioreactor recreates the same adherent growth conditions inside an animal’s body,” states Fischer.
Mission Barns explains that the redesigned machine provides efficient cell growth and harvesting, supports multiple species, uses less space, and bypasses lengthy cell line adaptation processes. It can also mature cells while considering geometry, density, and buoyancy changes and produce whole-cut products in a single vessel.
In addition to the latest development, Mission Barns’ team has scaled the new bioreactor to over 500 times its original size and completed over 100 successful runs in their pilot GMP facility in San Francisco.
“Functionalizing a larger-scale version of our bioreactor will allow us to […] demonstrate that cultivated meat can be produced in large quantities and at sustainable costs with the right bioreactor.”
Reaching price parity
Other milestones enabling the biotech to scale the production and reach price parity with traditional pork products include pairing the bioreactor with food-grade coating and harvest reagents and demonstrating the potential to supply global annual demand for pork fat from a single cell line.
After achieving these milestones, the company’s primary goal is to demonstrate large-scale production and sustainable costs, addressing the key challenges in the cultivated meat industry. “Our bioreactor’s high volumetric productivity does not compromise its ability to harvest cultivated cell and tissue products efficiently, allowing us to reach industrial scale and provide more affordable options for delicious, sustainable, and ethical meat for consumers,” the company adds.
Mission Barns employs a dual B2C and B2B business model. B2C efforts include creating a consumer-facing brand and partnering with grocery stores, restaurants, and food distributors. “From our pilot plant, we’ll be able to service a handful of restaurants and retailers.”
The B2B approach involves licensing technology to large food companies or co-developing co-branded products. To demonstrate the fat’s capabilities in hybrid products (plant + cells), the company has created bacon, breakfast patties, burgers, nuggets, dumplings, hot dogs, poultry sausages, and meatballs.
“We have a B2B partner we are currently working with to co-develop a product, which we also plan to launch soon,” the company stated to Cultivated X.
