Aleph Farms

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Aleph Farms
AF logo BlackC (3).png
Type of businessPrivate
Founded2017; 5 years ago (2017)
HeadquartersRehovot, Israel
CEODidier Toubia
Key peopleProfessor Shulamit Levenberg of the Technion
IndustryFood Technology
URLaleph-farms.com

Aleph Farms is a cultured meat startup.[1] The company was co-founded in 2017 with the Israeli food-tech incubator “The Kitchen” of Strauss Group Ltd., and with Prof. Shulamit Levenberg of the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology[2][3] and is headquartered in Rehovot, Israel.[4][5][6][7]

History[]

The technology of the company is based on a process naturally occurring in cows to regrow and build muscle tissue.[8][9] The company isolates the cells responsible for this process and grows them in the same conditions as inside the cow, to form muscle tissue typical to steaks.[10][11][12]

Emerging from the field of regenerative medicine, cell samples are used to grow tissues and whole organs for transplanting into the human body. With cultivated meat, the samples are collected from heatlhy living animals and are being used to grow fat and muscle tissues for food purposes.[13][14]

The company developed a technique that enables different cell types to grow together. The cells grow inside a cultivator which mimics the internal environment of the animal’s body, in terms of optimal temperature, nutrition and other parameters that enable the cells to grow. The cultivators are housed in Aleph Farms' production facility. The cells are provided water and feed to grow. The nutrient-rich liquid feed (“growth media”) contains energy (sugars, fats), vitamins and minerals, protein building blocks (amino acids), and growth stimuli (growth factor proteins). In combination, these components of growth media reproduce the same cells environment as inside the animal's body and enable the cells to multiply and mature inside the cultivator.[15]

Similar to the naturally occurring structural tissue in an animal, our plant-based scaffolding provides a structure on which the cells grow, organize into a shape, and mature into muscle tissue. Our plant-based scaffold plays a similar role as the extracellular matrix in the cow's body (made of animal proteins).[16] After the steak in the cultivator has grown to the desired size and characteristics, the steak is harvested and ready for cooking.[17]

In December 2018, Aleph Farms released its prototype, a steak grown directly from bovine cells.[18][19] In February 2021, Aleph Farms unveiled the world's first cell-based ribeye steak, procued through cell cultivation and 3D bioprinting.[20]

In May 2019, the company announced a US$12M funding round led by Vis Vires New Protein. Other investors includes Cargill and M-Industry (Industrial Group of Migros).[21] In July 2021, the company received $105 million in a Series B investment round.[22] The round was led by L Catterton's Growth Fund and DisruptAD, which is one of the largest venture platforms in the Middle East. Other participants include international food giants Thai Union, BRF, CJ CheilJedang, and more funds from existing investors Strauss Group and Cargill. Skyviews Life Science was another new investor in this round, and existing investors VisVires New Protein, Peregrine Ventures and CPT Capital also participated.[23]

In November 2019, Aleph Farms indicated its current production costs of cultured beef were over 3000 US dollars per kilogram, hoping to reduce it enough to enter the market by 2023.[24] The company aims to reach price parity with conventional meat within five years of its initial market launch.[25]

The company has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with BRF and Mitsubishi Corporation to bring cultivated meat to Brazil and Japan respectively.[26]

In April 2020, it reportedly wanted to start building its first pilot plant in 2021, expecting it to be operational and sells its first cultivated meat cuts to restaurants and food service outlets by the end of 2022.[27] In September 2021, actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he had funded Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms for undisclosed amounts of money, stating: 'One of the most impactful ways to combat the climate crisis is to transform our food system. Mosa Meat and Aleph Farms offer new ways to satisfy the world's demand for beef, while solving some of the most pressing issues of current industrial beef production.'[28] In November 2021, Aleph Farms confirmed that its production facility of 3,000 square metres was under construction, and repeated its intended 2022 market entry.[29]

The technology[]

In order to grow the meat without the need for raising livestock, a small amount of cells is extracted from an animal through a small biopsy and is placed afterward in a broth of nutrients. The cells then multiply, differentiate and form the same tissue as inside the animal's body.

The company developed a technique that enables different cell types to grow together. The cells are then grown on a scaffold, which is a supportive structure, allowing them to form three-dimensional muscle tissue.[30]

To mimic the natural environment and the 3D structure, cultivated meat companies and Aleph Farms in particular, use a scaffold which is required to achieve the appropriate characteristics that allow cell adhesion and subsequent proliferation and tissue development.[31][32]

The extent to which the biology of the muscle is replicated, determines the complexity of the tissue engineering process that must be utilised. A like-for-like piece of muscle (e.g. steaks) requires a system containing multiple cell types growing in an organized manner, on a structure that is similar to the blood vessel network.[33]

References[]

  1. ^ "Aleph Farms: "Unsere Vision ist es, den globalen Wandel des Lebensmittelsystems hin zu einer nachhaltigeren, gerechteren und sichereren Welt anzuführen"". vegconomist (in German). 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  2. ^ Eytan Halon (28 May 2019). "INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP TO INVEST $100M. IN ISRAELI FOODTECH INNOVATION". The Jerusalem Post.
  3. ^ Shani Ashkenazi (7 July 2021). "Cultured meat co Aleph Farms raises $105m". Globes.
  4. ^ Amir Mizroch (3 December 2018). "Something Big Is Cooking In Israel's Food Tech Kitchen". Forbes.
  5. ^ Laura Brehaut (17 December 2018). "Raising the steaks: An Israeli start-up just made the first slaughter-free steak, a lab-grown sirloin". National post.
  6. ^ Al Root (14 May 2018). "Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods Could Be the Coke and Pepsi of Alternative Meat". Barrons.
  7. ^ Shira Feder (18 December 2018). "This Israeli Lab Has Produced Steak, Hold The Cow". The Forward.
  8. ^ Arshad, Muhammad Sajid; Javed, Miral; Sohaib, Muhammad; Saeed, Farhan; Imran, Ali; Amjad, Zaid (2017). "Tissue engineering approaches to develop cultured meat from cells: A mini review". Cogent Food & Agriculture. 3. doi:10.1080/23311932.2017.1320814.
  9. ^ Ben-Arye, Tom; Levenberg, Shulamit (2019). "Tissue Engineering for Clean Meat Production". Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. 3. doi:10.3389/fsufs.2019.00046.
  10. ^ Hasan Chowdhury (6 May 2019). "Made without humans or cows: inside the race to bioengineer milk". Telegraph.
  11. ^ Erin Brodwin (15 December 2018). "An Israeli startup with ties to America's most popular hummus brand says it made the world's first lab-grown steak — a holy grail for the industry". Business Insider.
  12. ^ Jason Bellini (11 December 2018). "From Grass-Fed to Lab-Grown: How Meat Is Evolving". The Wall Street Journal.
  13. ^ Zev Stub (8 July 2021). "Tech Buzz: Another week, another $422m. raised". The Jerusalem Post.
  14. ^ "Aleph Farms to market first cultivated steaks". Globes. 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  15. ^ Anshel Pfeffer (24 February 2021). "How do you like your steak: grass-fed or lab-grown?". The Times.
  16. ^ NoCamels Team (7 July 2021). "Israel's Aleph Farms Raises Whopping $105 Million For Cultured, Slaughter-Free Meat". NoCamels.
  17. ^ Jordan Okumura (20 November 2020). "Aleph Farms Unveils New Cultivated Steak Prototype". Deli Market News.
  18. ^ "World's first lab-grown steak revealed – but the taste needs work". The Guardian. 2018-12-14. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  19. ^ Niall Firth (27 February 2019). "The race to make a lab-grown steak". MIT Technology Review.
  20. ^ "Aleph Farms unveils world's first cell-based ribeye steak". Fooddive. Retrieved 10 February 2021.
  21. ^ "Israeli Startup Aleph Farms Raises $11.65 Million To Create Steaks". Forbes. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  22. ^ "Aleph Farms raises $105 million". www.foodbusinessnews.net. Retrieved 2021-08-28.
  23. ^ "Aleph Farms closes $105M funding round to bring cell-based meat to market in 2022". Fooddive. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  24. ^ Dieter De Cleene (12 November 2019). "Wanneer ligt kweekvlees op ons bord?". Eos Wetenschap (magazine) (in Dutch). Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  25. ^ "From Printing Steaks to Raising Cash for Cultivated Beef Rollout". Bloomberg. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  26. ^ "BRF and Aleph Farms partner to bring cultivated meat to Brazil". Foodbev. Retrieved 4 March 2021.
  27. ^ Oliver Morrison (29 April 2020). "'Cultivated meat will become a necessity': Aleph Farms discusses its commitment to net-zero emissions". Food Navigator. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  28. ^ Bryan Walsh (22 September 2021). "Exclusive: Leonardo DiCaprio invests in cultivated-meat startups". Axios. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  29. ^ Ricky Ben-David (25 November 2021). "Lab to table: Israeli tech kitchens cook up future of animal-free food". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  30. ^ "Aleph Farms completes $105 million Series B round". Calcalistech. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  31. ^ Chan, B. P.; Leong, K. W. (2008). "Scaffolding in tissue engineering: general approaches and tissue-specific considerations". European Spine Journal. 17: 467–479. doi:10.1007/s00586-008-0745-3. PMC 2587658. PMID 19005702.
  32. ^ Vandenburgh, Herman H.; Karlisch, Patricia; Farr, Lynne (1988). "Maintenance of highly contractile tissue-cultured avian skeletal myotubes in collagen gel". In Vitro Cellular & Developmental Biology. 24 (3): 166–174. doi:10.1007/BF02623542. PMID 3350785.
  33. ^ Stephens, Neil; Di Silvio, Lucy; Dunsford, Illtud; Ellis, Marianne; Glencross, Abigail; Sexton, Alexandra (2018). "Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture". Trends in Food Science & Technology. 78: 155–166. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2018.04.010. PMC 6078906. PMID 30100674.

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