Australian food tech company Magic Valley has created a cultivated lamb meat prototype free from animal by-products in what it says is a world first.
A small skin biopsy was taken from Lucy the lamb, who Magic Valley assures is happily residing in a field in New South Wales. Lucy’s cells were then grown in the company’s Melbourne lab where it was made into cultivated into meat using no other animal products.
The process takes the skin cells and turns them into stem cells called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The iPS cells can grow in an unlimited and scalable way and can also be made into muscle and fat, the main components of meat.
According to Magic Valley, using the technology to create a cultivated lamb product is a world first.
The prototype has been created as burgers and tacos that looks and cooks like real lamb but with a healthier nutritional profile.
Founder and CEO Paul Bevan said, “By 2024, cultivated meat products will be indistinguishable from traditionally farmed meat, with the ability to enhance nutrients to positively impact the human population.
“The move away from traditional meat consumption is motivated by many different reasons for Australians, but with the global population predicted to reach 10 billion people by 2050, the traditional methods of animal agriculture are simply inadequate to meet the protein needs of our future generations.
“The science has shown that if we are not feeding livestock and instead feeding ourselves, this is a viable way to nourish the human population beyond 2050,” he says.
Magic Valley is now looking to scale with a planned $5 million seed capital raise ahead. The company said the funding will help it realise plans for beef and pork prototypes and collaborate with other cultivated meat companies on its production to get its range of products regulated by 2024.
The company said it could see means tacos, burgers, ragu and more on the way to Australian dinner tables by 2024, with no animal interaction after the first skin scraping of Lucy and friends.
Bevan said cultivated meats have the potential to save over 70 billion animals per year and lay the groundwork for a more environmentally sustainable future by significantly reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 92 per cent.
