BioTech Foods
TypePrivately held company
IndustryFood technology
Founded2017
FoundersMercedes Vila and Iñigo Charola
Headquarters
San Sebastián
,
Spain
Websitebiotech-foods.com

BioTech Foods is a Spanish biotechnology company dedicated to the development of cultured meat from the cultivation of muscle cells previously extracted from animals.

History

Origins

The company is based in Donostia–San Sebastián, Basque Country and was co-founded in 2017 by the CTO of the project, Mercedes Vila,[1] and CEO Iñigo Charola.[2]

This project is based on the construction of tissues from the natural proliferation of animal cells in a controlled environment of humidity and temperature, without genetic modification or antibiotics.[3] Cultured meat based on tissue engineering aims to help alleviate three serious sustainability problems: the high increase in global demand for animal proteins, the environmental impact of factory farming, associated with the production of greenhouse gases and deforestation[4] and animal welfare.

Development

The start-up obtained the support of the CIC Nanogune, a research centre promoted by the Basque government. In 2019 BioTech Foods received the Entrepreneur XXI Award and came first in Expansión's Start Up awards in the Food and Agrotech category.[5]

By February 2020, BioTech Foods was in the development phase of Ethicameat,[6] its brand of pig protein products for the general public and the meat sector. BioTech Foods was one of the first companies to emerge in the global cultured meat sector[7] which could help increase food safety and prevent zoonotic diseases.[8]

Pilot plant and JBS investment

As of July 2019, one of the main challenges of the cultivated meat was the high production costs of products.[9][10] BioTech Foods stated it sought 'to reach pilot scale by 2021'.[9] By the end of 2019, BioTech had opened its first pilot plant.[11]

In November 2021, BioTech Foods announced an agreement by which JBS S.A. was going to acquire a majority of shares in the company, including the pilot plant it operated in San Sebastián. JBS was going to invest in the construction of a new production plant to help BioTech achieve commercial production capacity in mid-2024.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Stock, Andrea Núñez-Torrón (28 October 2018). "Mercedes Vila (Biotech Foods): "La carne ética mejorará el..." TICbeat (in European Spanish). Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  2. ↑ Oliver Morrison (5 November 2019). "'Everybody accepts the cultured meat trend is happening': Biotech Foods". Food Navigator. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  3. ↑ Ruiz, Alfonso Simón (11 October 2018). "Una empresa vasca compite con Bill Gates por llevar al mercado carne cultivada". Cinco Días (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  4. ↑ Doncel, Luis (25 May 2019). "Carne 'in vitro' a la conquista de nuestras mesas". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "Biotech Foods, Nucaps y Green Killer Weeds, las mejores en 'Alimentación y Agrotech'". EXPANSION (in Spanish). 4 November 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  6. ↑ Pellegrino, Roberto (2 February 2020). "Macellazioni addio. Sulla tavola arriva la bistecca biotech". ilGiornale.it (in Italian). Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  7. ↑ "New GFI State of the Industry Reports Show Alternative Proteins Are Poised to Flourish Post-Covid-19". The Good Food Institute. 13 May 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  8. ↑ Quetteville, Harry de (16 July 2020). "The future of meat: plant-based, lab-grown and goodbye to the abattoir". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  9. 1 2 Vincent West/Reuters (10 July 2019). "The €250,000 lab-grown burger could be a more palatable €9 in two years". Irish Independent. Retrieved 7 December 2020. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  10. ↑ "La viande de laboratoire pourrait se vendre à des prix abordables en supermarché d'ici à deux ans". Le Monde.fr (in French). 11 July 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
  11. ↑ Agnieszka de Sousa (10 December 2020). "Lab-Grown Meat Is Getting Closer to Supermarket Shelves". Bloomberg. Retrieved 8 December 2021. [Aleph Farms Ltd.] is also working on a pilot plant. Companies such as BioTech Foods, SuperMeat and Eat Just have already started testing sites.
  12. ↑ AgE (7 December 2021). "JBS takes over Bio Tech Foods". AgrarZeitung. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
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