Swiss meat-processing company Bell Food Group has announced that it is to invest €2 million in Dutch 'cultured beef' company Mosa Meat.
Mosa Meat has created a technology that directly uses animal cells to produce cultured beef, with the research headed by University of Maastricht professor Mark Post.
The investment from Bell Food Group will fund the further research and development of cultured beef until 2021, with the goal of bringing cultured beef to the market by that year.
Alternatives To Agriculture
The move comes in response to figures that show meat consumption across the globe is projected to increase significantly.
The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation has calculated that by 2050, global meat demand will have increased by 70%. According to Bell Food Group, current methods to produce meat will not be able to meet this demand sustainably.
With this decision to invest in Mosa Meat, the Bell Food Group said that it wants to support meat production methods that offer consumers a sustainable alternative.
Cultured Meat: A New Future?
Cultured meat is developed from growing animal cells, as opposed to slaughtering a live animal. Several cells are taken from the muscle of a cow and placed on a dish with various nutrients, where they will proliferate. The process relies on the use of a bioreactor, which is similar to the technology used to make products such as cheese.
Under a microscope, cultured meat is indistinguishable from meat from livestock. One sample from a cow can produce 800 million strands of muscle tissue, or enough meat to produce 80,000 quarter-pounders.
In 2017, Bell Food Group posted growth of 5.9% compared to the previous year, with sales of CHF 3.6 billion.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Padideh Aghanoury. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
