May 18, 2021
 

Company seeks to be first in UK to produced cultured meat

Ivy Farms Technologies has revealed plans to become the first British commercial producer of sustainable, cultured meat in the United Kingdom. 

The company aims to produce 12,000 tonnes of cultured pork a year by 2025.

With the just-announced Animal Welfare Bill focusing on improving livestock animals' lives in the UK and abroad, Ivy Farm has ambitions to put Britain on the map in the emerging global industry by producing products made from meat that has been made without genetically modified additives, antibiotics or the need to slaughter animals for supermarkets and the restaurant trade from 2023.

It has launched a £16 million (US$22.7 million) fund-raising to build a pilot production facility in the first step towards producing 12,000 tonnes of cultured pork a year by 2025 – equivalent to removing 170,000 pigs from the food production chain.

Ivy Farm is confident it will co-exist with progressive, traditional farming methods, offering an opportunity to reshape the conventional UK farming system, and ensure it is ready to deal with 21st century pressures. 

The company is responding to a shift in consumer attitudes. Based on its own research, Ivy Farm found two thirds of people said they'd be happy to try cultured meat – and more than half said they'd be willing to buy it, demonstrating a huge potential market in the UK.

Ivy Farm said what sets it apart from the small number of pioneers in the cultured meat market is its ability to scale up the process. It added that the 'scaffold' system it has developed to grow cells is more efficient, faster and considerably cheaper than any other technology available.

Ivy Farm said it can confidently claim it will be the first company in the UK to produce cultured meat to market at scale, making it available – and affordable – for consumers via restaurants and supermarkets.

Ivy Farm is already in talks with the UK government to explore ways it can support the UK's nascent cultured meat sector.

- Meat Management