United Nations‘ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates suggest that global meat supply reached 364 million tonnes in 2023, and could increase to 455 million tonnes by 2050 as the global population continues to grow.
This urgent need to meet rising meat demands worldwide and at the same time address the impact of livestock farming on the environment and climate change means that new solutions are needed - beyond pastures. Cultivated meat that is grown in bioreactors as cultured cells is expanding the new food sector. According to one report there are in excess of 170 publicly announced cultivated meat and seafood companies, and more than $3.1 billion has been invested in the industry.
The good news is that GEA offers a wealth of expertise in bioreactor design and configuration for cultivated meat production. Whether you are at the lab bench R&D stage or looking to progress from bench to pilot-scale, or if you are ready to scale up and establish an end-to-end commercial production line for cultivated meat or seafood, experts at our global centers of excellence can provide in depth process and engineering knowhow. And at the dedicated GEA New Food Application and Technology Center of Excellence (ATC), we can work together with you to design and test your cells in pilot scale bioreactors, and use the latest digital tools to accurately model the optimum parameters and setup for scaling up healthy cell growth and productivity to allow production at industrially viable volumes.
Toward cellular agriculture
Cultivated animal meat, also known as cultured, cell-based or lab-grown meat, is a real animal product. It’s created by taking cells from established collections of pluripotent stem cells - derived from a cow or a chicken egg, for example – and propagating these cells in bioreactors. The cells are supplied with all the oxygen and nutrients they need to grow and replicate. The exact composition of the growth medium can be tailored to trigger differentiation of the immature cells into the desired cell type, say muscle or fat cells. These replicating cells can then be harvested from the bioreactor and processed into the desired product.
Cell cultivation is carried out in a closed system. The required gases and nutrients are fed into the system, and unwanted byproducts and waste generated by the cells are removed. It’s all precisely controlled to support cell health and growth. This may all sound high-tech, but the basic process uses proven methods and technologies that have been around for a long time.
Upstream first – with bioreactors
GEA can configure and supply both standardized and customized high-performance bioreactors for pilot plants and for large-scale industrial applications – whether as a stand-alone plant or as part of an automated process unit.
In addition to sterile working conditions, permanent media quality is not just wishful thinking, but technically achievable. With perfusion technology, separation is carried out permanently over a number of days or weeks – i.e. growth-inhibiting substances are continuously removed and replaced by new medium. The cell concentrate is returned to the bioreactor. This creates precisely the right environment for the cell to continue growing.
In downstream processes, it’s all about maximum concentration!
Importantly, we don’t just configure and supply bioreactor technology, we’ll collaborate to configure a downstream process line designed so you can process your end product as efficiently as possible. Our globally recognized centrifugation technology is an ideal fit for separating out and concentrating the cells from your cell culture solution.
Further equipment includes grinding and mixing technologies to prepare the cell concentrate for further processing – which may include forming, coating, cooking or frying – as well as systems that can freeze, slice and pack your final product. We’ll always aim to help you establish a top-performing, effective line for creating innovative high quality nutritional products for emerging markets.
Where food pioneers are testing and scaling
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GEA Axenic® C for Cell Culture
The GEA Axenic C product line is an industrial-scale bioreactor system that has been designed specifically for cultivating mammalian and other eukaryotic cells in the food industry.
GEA Axenic® P for Pilot Processes
GEA Axenic® P is a flexible pilot-scale bioreactor designed to help you scale up cell cultivation and precision fermentation processes for a wide range of new food application.
GEA New Food Application & Technology Center of Excellence
Eine Pilotanlage für Zellkultivierung und Fermentation, um Innovationen schnell vom Labor in den kommerziellen Maßstab zu überführen.
GEA Virtuelle Bioreaktortests
GEA hat die neuesten Tools der numerischen Strömungsdynamik und kinetische Modelle mit fortschrittlicher Rechenleistung kombiniert, um eine Technologie zu entwickeln, die so gut wie jede Bioreaktorumgebung digital abbilden kann, vom Labortisch bis zum industriellen Maßstab.
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