Build a factory to produce 13,700 tons of artificial meat per year

US company Good Meat on May 25 announced plans to build the world's largest bioreactors to produce artificial beef and chicken. The reactor will use cells taken from a cell bank or egg, so there is no need to slaughter animals.

Picture 1 of Build a factory to produce 13,700 tons of artificial meat per year
Good Meat started serving cultured chicken in Singapore in December 2020.

About 170 companies around the world are developing artificial meat, but Good Meat is currently the only company licensed to sell its products to the public. The airline started serving cultured chicken in Singapore in December 2020.

Russian scientists have made artificial meat in laboratory conditions, so this special food can appear on stalls in Russia in 2023 .

Livestock and poultry have a great impact on the environment by creating methane emissions, destroying forests and consuming water. Many scientists argue that rich countries need to reduce their traditional meat consumption to get through the climate crisis. Cultured meat advocates also say the product can taste and feel like traditional meat but with much less impact on the environment.

Good Meat is building 10 new bioreactors, each with a capacity of 250,000 liters and four stories high, much larger than any reactor built to date. The company will decide on the location of the plant in the US within the next three months. The plant is expected to go into operation by the end of 2024, reaching 11,800 tons per year in 2026 and 13,700 tons per year in 2030.

The bioreactor was built under an agreement with ABEC, a bioremediation equipment manufacturer that is also building a 6,000 liter reactor for Good Meat's plant in Singapore. The plant is expected to begin production in early 2023 and will become the largest cultured meat bioreactor to date.

"Cultural meat is very important because it allows us to eat meat without harm, without deforestation, without slaughtering animals, without using antibiotics and without increasing infectious diseases from animals. ", said Josh Tetrick, CEO of Eat Just - the parent company of Good Meat.

"The bioreactors will be the biggest, not only in the cultured meat industry, but also in the biopharmaceutical industry. So the design and engineering challenges are huge, the capital investments are also huge. and the potential to shift society away from slaughtered meat is also significant," he added. Another issue is making sure that the flesh cells will grow as well in large reactors as they do in today's small reactors.

Artificial meat has not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Tetrick said the company has applied for and also successfully created a cell growth serum that does not require the use of a bovine fetus - something that has been used in the past.

"The size of Good Meat's plant demonstrates the companies' real and growing belief in the commercial potential of cultured meat. This plant, with its potential to reduce production costs, could become what it takes The 'game changer' in the race to bring cultured meat to restaurants, supermarkets and tables," said Caroline Bushnell, vice president of the Good Food Institute (GFI).

The consulting firm Kearney's 2019 report predicts that much of the meat people eat by 2040 will not come from animals for slaughter, with 60% cultured in tanks or replaced with real ingredients. object.

Even, SpaceX tests making artificial meat in orbit.