Lab meat to transform meat industry in 2021

Authored by iol.co.za and submitted by mvea

CAPE TOWN - Memphis Meats aims to turn around the future of the meat industry through its meat production without having to slaughter animals.

A consumer analyst at GlobalData, Chris Lo notes that the new products will not be ready to enter the market until 2021.

International investors and venture capital companies have eyed investment opportunities in this emerging sub-industry.

Memphis Meats - a Silicon Valley-based group is backed by Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Cargill, former General Electric CEO, Jack Welch, and led by DFJ Venture Capital Group.

This 'clean meat' company says it has already produced beef, chicken and duck directly from animal cells, without the need to raise and slaughter animals.

You must be wondering how? The process works by combining self-producing cells in tanks, or bioreactors with oxygen, sugar and other nutrients.

The managing director, co-founder and the CEO of Memphis Meats, Uma Valeti said, "We are going to bring meat to the plate in a more sustainable, affordable and delicious way".

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"The world loves to eat meat, and it is core to many of our cultures and traditions. Meat demand is growing rapidly around the world. We want the world to keep eating what it loves," Valeti added.

Memphis Meats competes with Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, all with the common goal of transforming the way conventional meat is produced.

Impossible Foods, a California company aims at changing the paradigm of the global food system via one product - a burger, Forbes reported.

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This company produces plant-based burger, but it smells, cooks, tastes, and even bleeds like the real one.

Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat said, they started with a simple question of why an animal is needed to have meat, why not build meat directly from plants?

The near future surely holds a full basket of lab meat for consumers.

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M1ghtypen on January 20th, 2018 at 21:59 UTC »

Okay, now the real test. Can you get it shaped like dinosaurs?

Chispy on January 20th, 2018 at 21:36 UTC »

I wonder if the process will eventually be miniaturized so we can grow meat at home. I could see a day where everyone has automated machines that not only grows the meat, but preps it and cooks it as well. The Jetsons future made real.

paulerxx on January 20th, 2018 at 20:52 UTC »

I'm excited, I hope it comes at a do-able-price.