Meatly announces tech updates to cut cultivated meat costs

Meatly has announced a raft of updates to its production process, as part of its goal in scaling cultivated meat and reaching price parity with traditionally reared chicken.

The brand has created a bioreactor which could cut costs for the sector by 95%.

Meatly has concluded the commissioning phase and the first cell growth run in its pilot-scale 320L novel low-cost bioreactor, which was designed by its R&D team.

The new piece of tech should replace the reliance on and use of expensive biopharma bioreactors, which the brand said has been a “significant barrier for many cultivated meat companies”.

The 320L equipment costs £12.5k, compared to traditional biopharma reactors which can cost £250k.

The new bioreactor has the biocompatibility, longevity, scalability and overall performance to meet the requirements for cell culture for an industrial cultivated meat facility comprising multiple 20,000L-scale bioreactors, which Meatly intends to develop as part of its next funding stage.

Additionally, Meatly has cut the costs of its protein-free medium to an industry-leading £0.22/L, which means at an industrial scale costs will be priced out at around £0.015/L.

The medium has also proven it can support cell growth for over 175 doublings, meaning that once scaled it can be priced competitively with average EU chicken breast prices.

“At Meatly, we have worked tirelessly with the team to bring to reality both our new low-cost bioreactor, as well as a record cheap medium to be used within it,” said Helder Cruz, chief scientific officer at Meatly. “Many have cast doubt that the industry would ever reach this point, but we’re pleased to prove these critics wrong.

“We are showing the world that we can produce meat in a kinder, better way, and we can make it at a price which makes it easy for brands to incorporate Meatly Chicken as an affordable ingredient in their existing product range,” he added. “By reaching price parity, it then becomes a simple and easy choice for consumers to buy better meat for their pets.”

Meatly is currently in the midst of its Series A funding round, which seeks to raise finance for a state-of-the-art industrial facility to scale production of its chicken.