Cultured Foods

The Challenge of making sustainable and economic cultured meat, fish, eggs and dairy a reality, lies in identifying the best methods for scaling the production effectively and sustainably. 

• Scaling up the production of cell-based meats has presented unique challenges during the upstream portion of the cell culture process, associated with the fragile nature of cells.
• Cell-based meat startups have considered developing their processes with single-use cell culture equipment. At AES we have recommended our customers to re-evaluate this approach given the cost of disposable bags is likely to make the production at scale economically nonviable. Ideally the upstream process would be developed using stainless steel bioreactors; however, to reduce additional challenges at scale, we recommend scaling up to a 2,000 L scale followed by scaling out. This approach allows better control as well as drastically simplifies the selection of a suitable manufacturing facility with the proper supporting space and utilities.
• As cell-based meat startups continue to develop their upstream processes, AES recommends considering equipment which supports adherent cell growth to mimic the natural growth patterns of animal muscle cells.