Cultivated pork made using microalgae

The cell-derived meat is cultivated using a microalgae-based growth serum

Spotted: Continuing to produce meat as we do today is no longer sustainable for our growing world. While encouraging people to eat less meat is an important part of the fight against climate change, finding more sustainable and ethical ways of producing meat is an attractive option for meat lovers. Cell-cultivated meat – where meat is grown from cells in a lab – is one possible solution, and Czech food tech startup Mewery is developing a low-carbon cultivated pork that is grown with a microalgae base.

To create its meat-free pork, Mewery uses cells harmlessly taken from a living animal. It then imitates the conditions that make cells grow and divide into muscle and fat cells before feeding the cells with nutrients and growth factors to cultivate larger amounts. What makes Mewery’s approach different is the fact that it uses a growth factor made of microalgae. This stands in contrast to many processes for producing cultivated meat, which use fetal bovine serum (FBS). FBS is both expensive and ethically unsuitable to many consumers. At the end of this process, Mewery can harvest the pork product without having killed a single animal. 

“We love meat but hate the way it’s done,” Mewery explains. “That’s why we’ve decided to change that. We are a team bringing together business and science experience with one common goal – to cultivate meat without killing a single animal or harming the planet.” 

Mewery hopes to bring its first products to market – likely pork meatballs and sausages – by 2025. 

Springwise has previously spotted other innovations keen to get cultured meat onto supermarket shelves, including quick-growing cell-based meat, and a cereal-based growth medium to support the production of cultured meat.

Written By: Georgia King