Meatable: startup grows bacon without pig

One of the most irresistible meats is bacon. Whether it’s a savory breakfast or a delicious stew. Bacon is an indispensable part of Dutch cuisine. The Dutch start-up Meatable has succeeded in producing bacon from pig cells. The intention is that in 2025, 5000 kg of meat per day will roll out of the factory, without the use of a pig.

Cultured meat, the way to go

For most people, the taste of meat is irresistible. Meat is also much easier to digest than vegetarian alternatives. It is therefore better to give them meat, especially for growing children. That is why cultured meat is the only really good solution to significantly reduce the enormously environmentally harmful livestock farming.

The good news is that technology continues to advance when it comes to producing meat. One of the pioneers of this future of livestock farming is the Dutch company Meatable, a company that was founded in 2018.

How far is Meatable?

Growing cultured meat from pig cells sounds easier than it is. The body of an animal is quite complicated and each cell has its own role in it. For example, signals from the rest of the body ensure that a cell develops into, for example, a muscle cell, fat cell or skin cell.

Do we want to grow realistic looking meat? That is only possible if we can give every cell the right signal. Companies such as Meatable can benefit from the extensive research that has been done into the cultivation of human donor organs in vitro. So in glass. Biologically, we humans are very similar to pigs and other mammals. This paid off: Meatable produced its first pork sausage in 2020.

Growing medium for cultured meat is still very expensive

A second tricky problem is providing the cells with the right power supply. Unlike plant cells, which are almost completely self-sufficient, animal cells are quite demanding. They need about ten hormones and enzymes, in addition to, of course, about fifty amino acids, minerals, vitamins and energy sources such as fatty acids and glucose. This fifty or so can already make the industry massive and cheap at the moment. The problem is with the hormones and enzymes.

So far, artificial meat makers have had to cheat. They usually use a growing medium that comes from the fetuses of cows. This is very expensive and obviously not animal-friendly. Growing medium makes up 90-95% of the total costs of producing cultured meat. This is the major bottleneck in the field of cultured meat production.

Meatable will collaborate with DSM for this medium

Researchers have now succeeded in developing a completely animal-free medium. Meatable has signed an agreement with DSM to produce this medium on a large scale. That is also necessary, because if you want to set up a factory that will produce 5000 kg of meat per day, which must be done from 2025, huge amounts of medium are needed.

So animal lovers will have to wait a few more years before they can enjoy a piece of bacon without feeling guilty. And we can spare millions of pigs a miserable fate. Meatable needs to hurry up. The Israeli competitor FutureMeat is already in full production.