TissenBioFarm Wins “Cultured Meat Product Of The Year” In AgTech Breakthrough Awards Programme
TissenBioFarm, a cultivated meat startup based in South Korea, today announced it has received “Cultured Meat Product of the Year” in the 4th annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program conducted by AgTech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global agricultural and food technology markets today.
TissenBioFarm has introduced proprietary technologies to produce whole-cut marbled steaks. The development of their novel biofabrication system allows ultrafast fabrication of muscles and fat in fiber-form. Compared to conventional 3D bioprinting, the company’s lab-scale biofabrication system is up to 35,000 times faster, allowing them to make 300 kg of fibers per hour.
In conjunction with their optogenetics technology, which uses light to induce cell proliferation and differentiation, the result will be a lowered cost of producing cultivated meat, by eliminating the need to use traditional fetal bovine serum and other expensive proteins.
The product also boasts a realistic appearance of meat due to a biomimicry technique. TissenBioFarm, can replicate meat texture and marbling by mimicking the structure of muscle tissue and marbles of real meat. One test successfully produced a 10 kg alternative meat prototype and the technology allows TissenBioFarm to produce various cuts of meat such as sirloin, tenderloin, and ribeye.
Since marbling is an important factor in beef grading, as it enhances the flavor and texture of beef, the company creates marbling by stacking fat and muscle microfibers for a desired pattern. The pattern or nutritional profile of the final product can be customized to meet consumers’ taste preferences or needs, by adding or subtracting certain nutrients to create a healthier, targeted product.
“Today’s alternative meat technologies are limited to making ground meat products such as patties, and nuggets. We aim to produce products that are competitive in every way with conventional prime cuts of steak and offer solutions that have overcome technical limitations such as mass production,” said Wonil Han, CEO of TissenBioFarm. “Thank you to AgTech Breakthrough for recognizing our efforts as we get close to commercial scale, and get our system ready for mass production. We’ll continue to enhance the world’s first technology to mass-produce whole-cut cultivated meat with realistic marbles.”
By 2027, TissenBioFarm plans to further develop their technology and lower the costs of producing cultivated meat to around 10 USD per kilogram. The mission of the annual AgTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of agricultural and food technology categories, including Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based agricultural technologies, farm management, indoor farming, food quality, data analytics and many more. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.
“TissenBioFarm is creating a future where people, the environment, and animals are safe. This era of agriculture and food technology marks the next major period of sustainable future foods but the low scalability and high costs of producing cultivated meat have caused a gap in the industry. The solution lies within sustainable and scalable technologies used for production,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of AgTech Breakthrough. “TissenBioFarm is delivering low-cost, scalable technologies that produce whole-cut cultivated meat products, bringing alternative proteins. We’re pleased to award them with ‘Cultured Meat Product of the Year!’ With their capabilities, they can quickly and cost-effectively bring the sustainable future of food from the lab to tables everywhere.”
About TissenBioFarm
It is a food and biotechnology company making high-quality and nutritious cultivated meat that replicates the sensory experience of conventional meat. It develops proprietary technologies that enable the mass production of whole-cut cultivated meat at a reasonable cost.