UK Publishes Its First Safety Guidance for Cultivated Products
The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has partnered with Food Standards Scotland (FSS) to publish the country’s first safety guidance for cultivated products. The documents have been produced by the FSA and FSS’s CCP Sandbox Program, which focuses on cultivated foods derived from animal cells. Several pieces of safety guidance are set to be published; of these, two are already available. The first confirms that cultivated products made using animal …
BSF Enterprise Targets £15 Million Equity Raise to Advance Lab‑Grown Leather and Bio‑Tissue Projects
BSF Enterprise PLC, a company specializing in tissue-engineered materials, has announced plans for a £15 million equity fundraise to accelerate the commercialization of its core technologies in lab-grown leather, corneal repair, and cell culture media for biomedical applications. The investment is part of a broader strategy to expand the company’s capabilities and market presence in these emerging sectors. The fundraise, which includes a combination of convertible loan notes and warrants, …
UK Launches First Dog Treat Made with Sustainable Microbial Protein
British pet food brand THE PACK and German biotech company MicroHarvest have introduced a new dog treat featuring microbial protein. The product, called Gut Bites, is made using a fermentation process that transforms agricultural side-streams into a sustainable, high-quality protein. Turning waste into protein MicroHarvest’s proprietary microbial protein is produced through fermentation, utilizing agricultural byproducts and requiring no additional farmland, pesticides, or fertilizers. The company claims that this method significantly …
New Wave Biotech and CPI Address Lipid Extraction Bottleneck with AI-Powered Solutions
New Wave Biotech has announced a partnership with the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) to address challenges in lipid extraction, a key process in industries such as food, personal care, and pharmaceuticals. The collaboration will focus on optimizing both solvent-based and non-solvent methods for extracting lipids, using AI-powered simulations to improve efficiency and reduce reliance on trial-and-error methods. The goal of the partnership is to use New Wave Biotech’s …
Clean Food Group Gains a Million Litres of Fermentation Capacity by Acquiring Assets of Algal Omega 3 Ltd
Clean Food Group (CFG), a UK company creating sustainable oils and fats through fermentation, has acquired the assets of Algal Omega 3 Ltd from administration. The acquisition will grant CFG access to a million litres of fermentation capacity, along with extensive R&D facilities and the opportunity for future expansion. The company claims that the 12-acre site in Knowsley, Liverpool city region, could position it as the world’s largest manufacturer of …
Research Says New Fermentation Methods Could Add Almost £10B to UK Economy by 2050
New research conducted by Systemiq, with support from GFI Europe, has estimated that innovative methods of producing food using fermentation could add £9.8 billion to the UK economy by 2050. However, this will only hold true if the right support is in place. The analysis modelled a range of scenarios to assess how fermentation techniques could fuel economic growth in the UK food and drink sector. It estimated the potential …
Cellular Agriculture Ltd Strengthens Industry Position with New Facility and Breakthrough Bioreactor Systems
UK-based Cellular Agriculture Ltd has announced a series of developments that advance its position as a technology provider for the cultivated food sector. The company, which focuses on modular bioreactor systems, has expanded its infrastructure, secured new collaborations, and laid out its pathway to industrial-scale production. Bench-scale to pilot-scale The company recently moved into a new 20,000-square-foot R&D facility at Corsham Science Park in Wiltshire. The site includes nine laboratories …
Umami Bioworks and Friends & Family Set to Pilot Cultivated Seafood Pet Food Across Europe and Asia
Umami Bioworks has announced a new partnership with Friends & Family Pet Food Company to launch cultivated pet food in select international markets. The collaboration will focus on introducing sustainable, high-quality protein sources for pets, with a particular emphasis on cultivated seafood. The initiative will pilot in Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. This partnership follows a recent milestone for Umami Bioworks, which has successfully registered two cultivated …
Cell Manufacturing Innovator CellRev Enters Administration
CellRev, a UK company producing proprietary media additives to optimise cell manufacturing, has ceased trading. In a LinkedIn statement, CEO Chris Green explained that the company had not been able to deliver commercial milestones quickly enough to secure Series A funding. Despite this, he noted that CellRev had achieved several goals since it was founded in 2018 as a spinout from Newcastle University. These included developing a continuous adherent cell …
Biotech Companies MilaK and iLoF Move Into Discovery Park’s CoLab in UK
Discovery Park in Kent has expanded its tenant portfolio with the addition of two early-stage biotechnology companies: MilaK, a precision fermentation protein startup, and iLoF, a digital health company working in the field of personalised drug development. Both firms have moved into new laboratory and office space at the park’s CoLab facility, a shared lab environment managed in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University. Precision fermentation for nutrition applications MilaK, …