Bene Meat Technologies, a Czech cultivated meat company that made headlines this year by introducing a cultivated pet food product at Interzoo, announces it has developed cultivated beef burgers.
The company explains that the team prepared 100% beef cell burgers — that closely mimic the appearance, aroma, and texture of conventional ground beef — after successfully cultivating a batch of meat at its pilot-scale plant.
“Our goal is to focus on formulations that contain only cultivated beef cells along with spices, just as a regular burger is prepared,” Tomáš Kubeš, Head of Strategy Project, told Cultivated X.
This milestone marks Bene Meat’s first showcase of a food product prototype. Since its establishment in 2020, the company has been committed to developing a sustainable and cruelty-free alternative to meat. Nonetheless, the company expanded its efforts to include other cell lines and markets along the way.
“While the tempting scent made it difficult to resist a taste, current regulations do not permit the consumption of cultivated meat at this stage, so we had to forgo the tasting. As soon as we pass through all the necessary approval processes, there will be an opportunity for tasting,” Kubeš said.
Making slaughter-free meat
Kubeš explains that the slaughter-free process starts with the isolation of cell tissue or acquisition from a cell bank, both technologies developed in-house, and then selecting and developing the appropriate cell line — all steps of a “classical” cell cultivation process. Once the cell line is optimized, “we scale up the process to suspension cultivation, allowing us to efficiently produce the necessary volume of cells.”
Since many companies, including Mosa Meat, have focused on cultivating fat for its role in the flavor and texture of meat, we asked if they were also using fat cells. “The cells we use are tissue-type cells, and we do not utilize fat cells in our process,” Kubeš answered.
The entire production process is rigorously monitored for safety and purity, and antibiotic residues and other additives typically used in conventional animal production are avoided, Kubeš explained, adding that the company is actively working to meet the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) standards for novel foods.
Bene Meat aims to introduce a cultivated meat product that is comparable in price and quality to premium beef in the European market in the future. “The outlook for the next 10 years involves several key steps for us – completing the technological process, specifying the formulations, and the most crucial step will be preparing all the documentation required by EFSA and successfully passing the entire approval process at the EU level,” Kubeš said.
Cultivating beef vs cultivating feed
According to Kubeš, the cultivation process does not differ significantly between food and feed. “We maintain the same high standards, ensuring that our cultivated meat for pets is a safe, high-quality alternative to existing products — one that is also ethical and sustainable.”
However, he explained that producing pet food ingredients and human food is strictly separated, and using the same cultivators for both processes is not possible. Both productions are conducted in separate, dedicated spaces to ensure compliance with regulations and maintain the highest standards.
In addition, cultivated cells for pet food are registered as cells of mammalian origin and as “feed material” in the EU, which is an entirely different process than the EFSA’s official regulatory approval for novel foods.
“There is still much work ahead of us, but if I look to the next ten years, I am confident that cultivated meat will already be on the plates of consumers who choose this source of sustainable, clean, ethically produced protein as an alternative source of animal protein.”
