Cultivated meat company opens production plant in UK
The new 18,000 sq ft facility is located close to the Oxford University Engineering Department where the company was initially spun-out.
The facility hosts a terminal 600L bioreactor that will enable the production of over 6,000 lbs (2.8 tonnes) of cultivated meat per year. It also provides a platform for the company to fine-tune the novel manufacturing process, it said.
The opening of the pilot plant is the next phase in the advancement of Ivy Farm’s technology as it looks to boost its R&D capabilities, with the aim of reducing costs, scaling up production and making cultivated meat accessible to consumers on a global scale in the near future.
Expansion
As part of the expansion, Ivy Farm has also completed the construction of its new offices, which can accommodate its 50-strong and expanding team, while a new innovation kitchen will enable Ivy Farm’s team of inhouse food scientists and development chefs to cook and experiment with the company’s mincemeat products.
The new plant have been designed with sustainability in mind, including using recyclable materials including the building’s cladding, solar panel arrays to generate a large proportion of energy used by the plant on site and EV chargers for staff vehicles.
Ivy Farm grows pork stem cells in large fermentation tanks in order to produce real meat that has a healthier nutritional profile and a more sustainable greenhouse gas footprint. It has raised over $30m to date.
Sustainable
“Making real meat in a new and more sustainable way has never been done at real scale and so the completion of the pilot plant, R&D facility, new office and innovation kitchen represents a really exciting milestone on our growth journey as a company,” said Ivy Farm ceo Rich Dillon said:
“By building Europe’s largest pilot plant and by expanding our R&D facilities, we have taken a huge step towards our mission of producing guilt-free, real meat that’s good for the planet, people and animals.”
In 2021, the company revealed that it believed cultured meat in the form of meatballs and sausages could appear on consumers’ plates as early as 2023.
It also appointed former Barclays investment banker Azamat Kokov as a food technology finance expert at the end of 2021.
