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BioBetter extracts growth factors for scaled cultivated meat production from tobacco plants
Israel-based foodtech startup, BioBetter, has assigned a new role for the much-maligned Nicotiana tabacum plant upon discovering it can overcome the greatest hurdle in cultured meat—that of scaled production.
Working behind the scenes of the emerging cultured meat industry, BioBetter is repurposing tobacco plants to create the growth factors necessary for the cellular development of cultivated meat. This landmark botanical breakthrough could significantly reduce the cost of cultivated meat and advance it rapidly to scale-up.
As numerous cultivated meat start-ups move beyond the proof-of-concept phase, they run against one of the biggest challenges facing this budding industry. Developing a scalable and cost-effective production platform to make cultured meat affordable for the mass market has proven to be a primary stumbling block.
Cell-derived meat requires a culture medium composed of a mix of amino acids, nutrients, and most importantly growth factors (GFs) without which cells cannot multiply. Currently, such media are costly due to the complexity of producing GFs.
The startup applies a proprietary protein extraction and purification technology that enables it to exploit nearly the entire plant, and at the same time deliver a high purity product at broad scale production. The company currently sources tobacco plants from local growers but the goal is to eventually source the raw material from tobacco growers globally. Based on cultivation in open fields and BioBetter’s proprietary purification technology, the cost of growth factors production is dramatically reduced, finally bringing cost efficiency to cultured meat production.