A Bit Late, World’s Largest Vats For Growing ‘No-Kill’ Meat To Be Built In US

The building of the world’s largest bioreactors to produce cultivated meat has been announced, with the potential to supply tens of thousands of shops and restaurants. Experts said the move could be a “gamechanger” for the nascent industry. The US company Good Meat said the bioreactors would grow more than 13,000 tons of chicken and beef a year. It will use cells taken from cell banks or eggs, so the meat will not require the slaughter of any livestock. There are about 170 companies around the world working on cultured meat, but Good Meat is the only company to have gained regulatory approval to sell its product to the public. It began serving cultivated chicken in Singapore in December 2020.

The creation of Good Meat’s 10 new bioreactors is under way, the company says, each of which has a capacity of 250,000 liters and will stand four stories tall, far bigger than any constructed to date. The US site for the facility is due to be finalized within three months and operational in late 2024, reaching 11,800 tons a year by 2026 and 13,700 tons by 2030. The bioreactors are being manufactured as part of an agreement with ABEC, a leading bioprocess equipment manufacturer, which is also making a 6,000-liter bioreactor for Good Meat’s Singapore site — this is scheduled to begin production in early 2023 and will itself be the biggest cultured meat bioreactor installed to date. Cultivated meat has not yet been approved for sale by the US Food and Drug Administration. “Weâ(TM)ve submitted our application,” said Josh Tetrick, the chief executive of Good Meatâ(TM)s parent company, Eat Just. “Weâ(TM)ve found the agency to be fully engaged, asking all the questions youâ(TM)d expect, from cell identification to final product. Weâ(TM)d prefer not to try to predict if and when [approval] will occur.”

Tetrick also said the company had produced a cell growth serum that does not require the use of bovine fetuses, which were previously widely used.