Fermentation for Cultivated Meat

It is impossible for traditional animal husbandry to meet all the meat and dietary protein demands that increase with population growth. In addition, the risk of major zoonotic disease epidemics, such as influenza, HIV/AIDS, Ebola, and COVID-19, may be associated with the use of animals for food. Therefore, over the past decade, cultivated meat (CM) has emerged as a breakthrough technology for producing meat outside the body of animals, as it has the potential to deliver not only nutritious (protein-rich) but mimic the traditional organoleptic properties of real meat products. However, due to its infancy, CM technology faces various limitations.

BOC Sciences is good at using microorganisms (such as yeast, bacteria) to produce single-cell proteins through fermentation. The single-cell protein we produce can not only be used as an ingredient of "cultivated meat", but also can be used as a food additive to supplement protein or vitamins and minerals.

Advantages of single-cell proteins

• With extremely high production efficiency, the growth and reproduction rate of microorganisms far exceeds that of animals and plants
• Wide source of production raw materials, can rationally utilize various resources
• Less labor force, not restricted by region, season and climate, can be industrialized with high output and good quality

Figure 1. General steps during industrial production of single cell proteins.^[1]

Fermentation Technologies for Cultivated Meat

With a good understanding of single-cell proteins, we provide production methods based on various substrates and using different microbial sources (microalgae, yeast, fungi and bacteria), aiming to help customers through the selection of the most suitable potential microorganisms and cost-effective technology to create proprietary single-cell protein products as cultivated meat ingredients.

Bacterial Metabolism

Our strains for single-cell protein production meet reaction conditions (heat and oxygen requirements during fermentation and foam generation), performance (yield, growth rate, pH and thermotolerance), behavior during fermentation (growth morphology and genetic Stability), final product (bacterial protein composition and structure, purification rate and recovery rate) and other standards stipulated requirements.

Algal Metabolism

Algae are autotrophs characterized by wide genetic diversity. By converting solar energy, microalgae have the ability to utilize most of the SCP to produce cellular biomass. Our microalgae-based large-scale cultures achieve high yields while also providing healthy lipids, are environmentally friendly and very "green".

Fungal Metabolism

Many fungal species are used to produce single-cell proteins. The fungi we use include Pleurotus floria, Aspergillus niger, and Fusarium venenatum, among others. When the fungi were used for SCP production, their amino acid profiles also meet the FAO criteria for proteins and amino acids in human nutrition. Mycoprotein is rich in lysine and threonine. Our single-cell protein derived from fungi also provides B-complex vitamins such as riboflavin, niacin, thiamine, biotin, pantothenic acid, choline, pyridoxine, glutathione, aminobenzoic acid, and folic acid.

We fully consider the fermentation scale, cost and sustainability, adopt a new type of bioreactor, and increase production capacity by adding parallel small-volume production units instead of increasing unit volume, thereby reducing the technical risks and capital costs associated with scale-up.

In short, we aim to develop large-scale, low-cost, sustainable, and high-quality protein production methods, and strive to make the protein composition of cultivated meat safe and nutritious to meet the needs of the human body.

If you are interested in our fermentation services for cultivated meat, please contact us today.

Reference

1. Bratosin B C, et al. Single cell protein: A potential substitute in human and animal nutrition. Sustainability, 2021, 13(16): 9284.