Op Ed: Harsh Amin – How Cultivated Meat Can Bolster British Food Security and Tackle Price Rise
Harsh Amin, CEO of Ivy Farm Technologies, is a stem cell scientist with a PhD from UCL and postdoctoral experience at Imperial College London. With a strong background in biotech R&D and leadership roles from start-ups to Lonza Biologics, he blends scientific expertise with commercial insight to drive innovation in sustainable protein. In this opinion piece, Harsh discusses the growing pressures on the UK’s food industry, particularly the beef sector, …
Study: Almost Half of Gen Z Brits Would Eat Cultivated Meat Products
New research conducted by Ipsos in the UK has revealed that 47% of Gen Z Brits (defined as those aged 16-29) would consume cultivated meat products. This figure is significantly higher than for other generations — just 21% of Baby Boomers, 22% of Gen X, and 38% of Millennials said they would be willing to eat cultivated meat. However, the survey also indicated a widespread lack of awareness on the …
UK to Provide Direct Support for Cell-Cultivated Food Companies Through New Pilot Service
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), has introduced a pilot support service aimed at assisting companies in the cell-cultivated food sector with the UK market authorisation process. This initiative responds to the increasing number of companies working to bring cell-cultivated products to market, which include foods like cell-grown chicken fillets and beef burgers. The service is designed to provide guidance to businesses throughout the …
Cultivated & Fermented Foods Could Receive Increased Support Through UK Government’s Industrial Strategy
The UK government has published a new Industrial Strategy that pledges £184 million to boost the country’s engineering biology industry by building and upgrading pilot and scale-up facilities. The pledge has been made under the strategy’s Digital and Technologies Sector Plan, and could benefit producers of cultivated meat, cultivated ingredients, and fermentation-based foods. The plan specifically highlights London-based cultivated meat startup Multus to illustrate how clusters of engineering biology expertise …
Self-Renewing Pig Fat Cell Line from Roslin Institute Could Resolve Key Bottleneck in Cultivated Meat Sector
Researchers at the Roslin Institute, part of the University of Edinburgh, have developed a line of self-renewing pig fat cells that could support large-scale cultivated meat production by enabling consistent, efficient generation of fat tissue without genetic modification. The cells, designated as FaTTy, are derived from early-stage pig stem cells and exhibit the rare ability to both proliferate indefinitely and reliably differentiate into fat cells. This capacity addresses a long-standing …
Scotland Gets Its First Open-Access 300L Fermenter Thanks to £847K Grant
Scotland’s biotechnology sector is celebrating the launch of the country’s first open-access 300-litre fermenter, which has been installed thanks to an £847,000 grant from the national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise. The fermenter, which is a type of bioreactor used to cultivate microorganisms, is located at the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre’s (IBioIC) FlexBIO scale-up facility at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. It expands IBioIC’s scale-up capabilities significantly, increasing upstream bioprocessing capacity …
Mosa Meat Requests UK Market Authorisation After Joining FSA’s Regulatory Sandbox
Dutch cultivated meat producer Mosa Meat has submitted its first application for market approval in the United Kingdom. The submission focuses on cultivated fat, which can be blended with plant-based ingredients to create beef-style dishes such as hamburgers, shepherd’s pie, and meatballs. The news comes after Mosa Meat became one of eight companies to be chosen for the UK Food Standards Agency’s regulatory sandbox for cultivated meat and seafood. The …
Multus Launches Scalable, Food-Grade Basal Media for Cultivated Meat
Multus Biotechnology, a UK company producing growth media solutions for the cultivated meat industry, has announced the launch of its food-grade basal media, DMEM/F12. The media was developed in collaboration with several global food and feed ingredient companies, using AI to identify functionally equivalent ingredients from the food industry to replace those traditionally used in biopharmaceutical production. It is scalable and provides essentialnutrients such as sugars, salts, minerals, and vitamins …
BlueNalu Expands Partnership With Nomad Foods, Gains Acceptance Into UK Regulatory Sandbox
US-based cultivated seafood producer BlueNalu has announced an expansion of its partnership with leading European frozen food company Nomad Foods. The collaboration, which began in 2021, will support the future commercialization of cultivated seafood products in Europe. The companies will initially work on market-entry strategies in the UK, with a focus on premium food service and limited-time offerings. The news follows BlueNalu’s acceptance into the UK Food Standards Agency’s novel …
Scottish Enterprise Backs Green Bioactives with £1.1 Million Grant for Plant-Derived Product R&D
Green Bioactives, a Scottish biotechnology company specializing in sustainable plant-based natural products, has secured a grant of up to £1.1 million from Scottish Enterprise. This funding will support an 18-month research and development project focused on scaling up the production of plant-derived bioactive ingredients using the company’s proprietary Plant Cell Culture Technology platform. The project will help enhance the company’s ability to meet growing demand for eco-friendly and ethically sourced …