Canadian Food Business Spring 24

the rise of cell-cultured food

PUBLISHER & CEO Christopher J. Forbes cforbes@dvtail.com

MANAGING EDITOR Sean Tarry starry@dvtail.com

COPY EDITOR Mitchell Brown

CONTRIBUTORS

Erik Dassof

Mitchell Scott

Amanda Wright

SENIOR ACCOUNT Leesa Nacht EXECUTIVE lnacht@dvtail.com

ART DIRECTOR

Charlene Everest ceverest@dvtail.com

SECRETARY/ Susan A. Browne TREASURER

MARKETING Stephanie Wilson MANAGER swilson@dvtail.com

PRODUCTION Crystal Himes MANAGER chimes@dvtail.com

CANADIAN FOOD BUSINESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Zack H. Abdi, Managing Director and Founder, Provectus Enterprising Inc.

Anton Angelich, CFS

Melanie Budicky, VP, R&D and Regulatory, Giraffe Foods

Dr. Hamed Vatankhah, Chief Executive Officer, Scipertech

Heidi Loney, Executive Director, Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST)

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THE RISE OF CELL-CULTURED FOODS

As we continue to move forward amid a global food crisis, many companies and organizations around the world are working feverishly toward finding solutions to some of the challenges and issues. One potential solution, which is garnering as much controversy and pushback as it is generating positive and optimistic dialogue, is cell-cultured foods. With this growing market in mind, we dedicate this issue of Canadian Food Business to the promise of cell-cultured foods and their associated benefits and drawbacks.

Amanda Wright and Eric Dassoff from the University of Guelph contribute a comprehensive article that attempts to analyze the latest in cell-cultured food technologies and the potential implications relating to production to nutrition, and everything in between.

We profile Vancouver-based foodtech pioneer Cult Food Science, speaking with the company’s founder, Mitchell Scott, about cellular agriculture’s potential to revolutionize the food industry, by offering sustainability, safety, and health benefits. And, we chat about the challenges concerning consumer acceptance, and the critical need for education and familiarity to help drive adoption.

In addition, we dive into the Canadian Food Innovation Network’s recent Foodtech Trends Report. With a focus on cellular food and an ever-increasing interest and curiosity among the public, we take a look at some of the factors that are helping to contribute toward this growing practice.

And, we take a look back in Moments in Time to the history of modified foods. From modified processes to genetic engineering, humans have a long and illustrious relationship with food when it comes to our attempts to improve quality and yields. Within this article, we present a condensed timeline of the most significant food modifications made over the course of the past 150 years or so.

As always, we hope that you and your teams enjoy this issue of Canadian Food Business, and we look forward to your comments and suggestions to help us improve the content we provide.

In 2022, the Canadian Institute

and Canadian Food Business launched a partnership to create a platform for leading experts, innovators, and scientists to showcase the latest trends, knowledge, and developments that are changing the face of Canada’s food industry today. For further information, contact sbrowne@dvtail.com.

Publisher of BioLab Business Magazine

Sean Tarry EDITOR

CULT FOOD SCIENCE: PIONEERING A NEW ERA OF FOOD PRODUCTION

REPORT: INTEREST AND CURIOSITY IN CELLULAR FOOD CONTINUES TO GROW AMONG CONSUMERS

SHORT HISTORY OF FOOD

The importance and benefits of advances in the area of cell-cultured foods

By Mitchell Scott, Founder and CEO, Cult Food Science

As our world (and Canadian) population surges, there are consistently a lot more mouths to feed. Mouths that want to eat good, healthy, nutritious food. A lot of this food comes from industries that rely on large-scale animal agriculture operations and factory farms. This is where the field of cellular agriculture (or cellag for short) comes in.

At its core, cellular agriculture is the production of animal-sourced foods from cell culture. Beef and milk without the cow. Honey without the bee. Pork without the pig.

Think meat and dairy products that are exactly the same in terms of taste and texture as the products you’re used to but produced in a way that is better for the environment, human health, and of course the animals.

A meaty problem

Global meat demand is set to double by 2050. Currently, onethird of the world's land is used for animal agriculture. We can’t just double that, we’re going to run out of space! More than 99% of North America’s meat is produced in factory farms with a devastating environmental impact, significant health risks, and unbelievably inhumane conditions for the animals involved. We need a solution to this, and I believe that solution is cultivated meat.

By taking a small DNA sample from an animal (a biopsy from a cow or even a feather from a chicken), scientists then place this in a bioreactor and are able to grow or cultivate the meat we crave without the animal.

Cultivated meat from a few different companies has been approved for sale in Singapore, the United States, and recently in Israel.

Ten years ago, the first cultivated meat burger cost close to $500,000 to produce. That same burger now costs less than $20 to produce. There is still a way to go to bring prices

in line with conventional beef, but I am confident that with the advancements in the field, price parity will be achieved sooner rather than later.

Coffee, chocolate, and more

It’s not just meat and dairy that can benefit from the advances in the field of cellular agriculture.

Demand for coffee and chocolate is set to triple in the next 10-15 years. With a 2C increase in global temperature, 90% of current cacao farmland will be unfit for production by 2032. Add in the issues with deforestation and child labour and these two industries are ripe for a better, more sustainable method of production.

Canada’s role in the future of food

Where does Canada fit into this exciting new field of cellular agriculture? There are a number of companies in the space here in Canada including Opalia foods out of Quebec, which just closed a $2 million investment to help it scale its dairy platform based on mammary cells.

To truly become a leader in the space of cellag, our government needs to streamline its regulatory process for these new foods so that companies can bring products to market and show consumers the benefits of these technologies.

Scaling these technologies is also expensive. Bioreactors are giant steel tanks and they are expensive. I believe our government should invest aggressively in this space and support the startups innovating in this field. Let’s take some of the massive subsidies we are paying to traditional animal agriculture operations and put it towards new solutions that are tackling the same problems; namely, how we get more high-quality meat, dairy, and other animal products to Canadians in a safe, efficient, and cost-effective way.

You

need a food safety licence

NOW

Canadian Food Innovation Network awards $465,000 to six foodtech startups

In a release from the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN), it was announced that $464,518 is being awarded to six foodtech projects through the organization’s Innovation Booster Program. And, after matching contributions made by Industry, projects valued at nearly $1 million will be enabled through to execution. The Innovation Booster funding recipients are:

Project lead: GreenCo Robots Inc. (Alberta)

Project title: Integrated Table Tracking Solution for Quick Service Restaurants

Funding: $97,922

Project lead: Cheffer Technologies Inc. (Ontario)

Project title: Intelligent Menu-Planning Assistant

Funding: $94,415

Project lead: ProFillet (Nova Scotia)

Project title: Pilot Trails of Plant Based Nutritious Catfish

Funding: $94,107

Project lead: Dispension Industries Inc. (Nova Scotia)

Project title: Intoxication Detection System for Unattended Alcoholic Beverage Kiosks

Funding: $89,562

Project lead: Transport Genie Ltd. (Ontario)

Project title: Smart Real-Time Gas Sensors Development and Integration

Funding: $60,107

Project lead: JAKS Automation Inc. (British Columbia)

Project title: Robotic Paneer Handling & Packaging System

Funding: $28,405

The funding continues CFIN’s commitment to enabling and facilitating foodtech innovation and growth. And, according to the organization’s CEO, Dana McCauley, it’s funding that places Canadian companies at the fore of global innovation.

“These six projects represent CFIN’s vision for a future where new ideas and technologies create a more efficient, sustainable, and customer-centric food industry.

As we introduce intelligent solutions, autonomous robots, and state-of-the-art technologies, it’s clear that Canadians aren’t just embracing change in the food sector—we’re the ones driving it.”

Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN), has announced that $464,518 is being awarded to six foodtech projects through the organization’s Innovation Booster Program.

AI-generated cola?

Coca-Cola recently launched a brand new flavour profile to its historic lineup. Only this time, it’s a flavour that was co-created by the wonders of artificial intelligence. Coca-Cola Y3000 Zero Sugar is a new limited-edition flavour that is being hailed as the very first glimpse into the future of beverage creation, and includes a new AI-powered experience that will give fans a perspective concerning what the year 3,000 might be like. A product of the Coca-Cola Creations Hub, it’s something that the company hopes will serve to tap into human and artificial intelligence to understand how fans of the beverage might envision the future through emotions, aspirations, colours, flavours, and more.

Canadian Pork Council launches

new office overseas

As part of the Canadian government’s significant investment in the Asia-Pacific market, the Canadian Pork Council recently announced the opening of a new Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada office in Manila, the Philippines. A joint venture between Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the initiative emphasizes Canada’s commitment to strengthening partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region and enhancing Canada’s pork industry on the international stage. René Roy, Chair of the Canadian Pork Council, believes that the launch of the office is significant for the country’s pork industry. “We’re in Manila because the establishment of the IndoPacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada office marks a significant milestone for the Canadian pork industry. This initiative reflects our commitment to strengthening global partnerships and expanding market access for Canadian pork producers. By working collaboratively with our partners in the Indo-Pacific region, we aim to showcase the high quality and sustainability of Canadian pork while meeting the growing demand for safe and nutritious food products.”

Danone and its partners invest big to drive new ingredient and food product innovation

With an eye on satisfying the evolving tastes of the Canadian consumer, Danone, in collaboration with its partners, is investing $19.2 million to spark ingredient and food product innovation. The project has yielded new oat and pulse ingredients that have been created by Avena Foods that are currently being used by Big Mountain Foods, Danone Canada, and Old Dutch, and which are replacing several common ingredients and processing aids in their respective products. The result will be new offerings for consumers, including allergy-friendly alternatives. Pierre Morin, Danone Canada Vice-President of Research & Innovation, recognizes the importance of the project in meeting consumer desires. “Danone Canada’s mission is to bring health through food to as many people as possible, so we are thrilled to be part of this project with Avena Foods, which will allow us to produce even more healthy and sustainable products locally. This collaboration will facilitate access to cutting-edge technology in plant-based ingredient production—allowing us to continue delivering on our promise of offering innovative and quality options for consumers.”

The best new products of 2024

BrandSpark International recently named its hotly anticipated list of its best new products. The 2024 edition, which is the 21st installment of the annual list, recognizes the best new products in Food, Beverage, Beauty, Health, Personal Care, Kids, Pet, Household Care, Home Goods & Footwear, Restaurant Menu Items, and Services based on a nationwide survey of Canadian consumers. It’s been noted that many of the leading food and beverage innovations have embraced alternative ingredients in order to cater to evolving dietary preferences, while several of the highest-rated products in the study delivered amazing taste in plant-based formats, accessible to those on vegan or lactose-free diets, or simply looking for an alternative. For instance, these five winning products all rated within the top 10 this year: Häagen-Dazs Plant-Based Frozen Dessert, Hershey's Oat Made Vegan Chocolate Creamy Almond & Sea Salt, Gardein Supreme Chick'n, Silk Probiotic Plant-Based Yogurt, and Gay Lea Pumpkin Spice Coconut Whipped Topping.

A NEW ERA OF FOOD PRODUCTION AND NUTRITION

By Amanda Wright and Eric Dassoff

Asdemand for resource-intensive food production continues to rise in a time when resources are increasingly constrained, ways of producing and consuming food will need to adapt. Still, many foods hold personal meaning and consumers find them hard to give up. Thus, there is a case for finding new ways to produce the foods we know and love. Everything from (or bio-)printed salmon, to cell-cultured steaks, chicken, coffee, and chocolate are already commercially available or under development. When it comes to these technologies, it appears we are only just seeing the beginnings of what is possible. However, while calls for responsible production have been echoed around the world, possible impacts of these foods on human health are not always clear.

New routes from farm to fork

Before talking about nutrition, let’s consider how 3D-printed and cell cultured foods are made. There is lots of variation between producers in terms of processes and ingredients but, on a basic level, bioprinting involves the use of food “inks”, extrusion technology, and computer systems to assemble

complex food structures. Cell-cultured foods are produced by isolating cells via tissue biopsies, and then growing these cells in nutrient-rich media before differentiating them into their respective tissues. The resulting amorphous biomass then gets structured into the final product, which may involve combining multiple types of cellular tissues, such as fat or connective tissue, that have each individually undergone the same processes. In some cases, cellular biomass gets combined with other ingredients, such as plant proteins, to reduce costs and/or to improve texture. Ultimately, cell culture and bioprinting are complementary tools that can be used to reconstruct a complex food matrix.

Zooming in on the beef matrix

You may have heard about the concept of the food matrix. Essentially, this means there is more to foods than meets the eye (and our taste buds). The food matrix encompasses everything that characterizes a food, ranging from individual components to how these elements combine into complex structures. What are all the compounds present? How do

they interact with one another? How are components located in relation to one another? How hard or soft is the food? How big are any lipid droplets present? How solid are these droplets? The list goes on.

Beef is an excellent example of a complex food matrix, and it is worth considering further because of the environmental case to reconstruct it without the cow. Through cell culture and bioprinting, it is becoming increasingly possible to create products that look remarkably like beef, taste like beef, chew like beef, and perhaps eventually cost the same or less than beef. However, it remains imperative to note that these alternative products are not nutritionally identical to beef. It is an immense challenge to recapitulate every aspect of a food matrix by combining their individual components. Beef, for example, is made up of many components: essential amino acids, fatty acids, structural tissues (e.g., collagen and elastin), vitamins (e.g., B6 and B12), minerals (e.g., zinc, iron, selenium), and other lesser-known nutrients (e.g., creatine, carnosine, squalene, etc.). This list is a mere fragment of the diverse array of nutrients present. Moreover,

these can be packaged into unique structures, such as the iron-containing heme protein. Such structures are additionally distributed in a heterogeneous fashion, creating pockets of vitamins, lipids, and protein. New technologies, including cell culturing and bioprinting, present exciting opportunities to closely model many of the characteristics of existing foods, but the food matrix is difficult to imitate. Thus, it is worth considering from a nutritional perspective how important true imitation really is.

Nutrition: More than the sum of its parts

Recognizing that foods are incredibly complex is fundamental to fully understanding their nutrition and health associations. Emerging research makes a strong case that the influence of the food matrix can lead foods with even identical composition to behave differently in the body. Moreover, ingredients can differentially impact human physiology, depending on what other foods and nutrients are consumed at the same time. For example, the digestion of saturated fat differs depending on whether it is consumed alone or with calcium-rich dairy because of insoluble complexes that form with the fatty acids, thus reducing lipid absorption. The size of lipid droplets can influence how efficiently digestive enzymes can release fatty acids for further packaging and absorption into the bloodstream. The hardness of a food influences how quickly it is consumed, which can also impact how much we end up eating at a meal. When proteins are delivered alongside certain plant compounds, including polyphenols, molecular interactions can alter protein digestibility. How much a protein is heated can additionally influence the strength of these attractions.

Thus, the above-mentioned and various other processes collectively influence multiple aspects of digestion physiology. They can influence what nutrients get absorbed, how quickly absorption occurs, what is fermented by our gut microbiome, what metabolites are subsequently produced, and how our bodies respond as a result. Consequently, while the information on a nutrition label indicates a food’s nutritional value, it tells an incomplete story in relation to health. When it comes to food manufacturing and product

There is also great interest in personalized or precision nutrition. Bioprinting presents the opportunity to precisely tailor the nutrient profile to meet the unique targets of an individual.

development, this means there is more to developing a functional food than to simply meet nutrient content targets. This consideration brings us back to the question of how closely novel foods need to replicate traditional products. The food matrix is clearly important, and it seems reasonable that consumers will often tend to expect that foods resembling a traditional product (e.g., beef) should have similar or improved nutritional properties. But let’s acknowledge that, even between seemingly similar products, equivalency is not assured. Extensive nutrition research is necessary to make these comparisons.

The challenges of nutrition research

The prospect of cell-cultured and bioprinted foods represents a paradigm shift in how we think about producing and formulating foods. Many whole, unprocessed foods have the benefit of being backed by decades of nutritional research, including multiple experimental models, (e.g., bench top studies, animal models, large-scale clinical trials, and prospective cohort studies). Each research model provides complementary information, despite limitations. For example, animal models can help to quickly evaluate the potential long-term impacts of consuming certain foods or diets, but those results may not translate to humans. Meanwhile, prospective cohort studies in humans provide long-term associations (i.e., 10 or more years) between food or diet consumption and health, but a diverse array of confounding lifestyle factors limits the ability to prove causality of health outcomes to the consumption of a particular food. Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard in health research, but they are costly, and it is tough to study health effects in a free-living population over a sufficient timespan for validated disease risk biomarkers to significantly change. As a result, the strongest nutritional evidence comes from combining information from different models to evaluate the totality of evidence related to the consumption of a food. Research evidence is inherently more limited for novel food products and is lacking in longterm follow-up data. It will be important to pursue clinical

trials to support nutrient-centric research and to ensure that any effects resulting specifically from the food matrix are validated.

Challenges meet opportunities

As our understanding of the food matrix and nutrition grows, it will become possible to apply technologies, like bioprinting and cell culturing, to selectively add or exclude specific compounds from a final product. It may be possible, for instance, to develop an alternative product with an improved nutritional profile over beef (e.g., lower saturated fat), while matching the traditional product’s taste, texture, and price. In this case, nutrition could present a competitive advantage over conventional beef or between alternative products. There is also great interest in personalized or precision nutrition. Bioprinting presents the opportunity to precisely tailor the nutrient profile to meet the unique targets of an individual, (e.g., medical diets in long-term care facilities or remote locations). The food industry should play a proactive role in transforming both food production and population health by conducting and supporting clinical nutrition research. Novel technologies present challenges, but also incredible opportunities to usher in a new era of palatable, sustainable, culturally relevant, and highly nutritious food products.

Amanda Wright is a Professor in the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences at the University of Guelph.

Erik Dassoff is a recent MSc graduate of the University of Guelph where he was an Arrell Food Institute Scholar in the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences.

CULT FOOD SCIENCE: PIONEERING A NEW ERA OF FOOD PRODUCTION

Vancouver-based foodtech company leading the cellular agriculture charge

By Sean Tarry

When discussing the most significant global issues that pose genuine threats to the health and well-being of people on the planet, one would be remiss not to mention the current food crisis hampering most, if not all, corners of the world. In light of this, food scientists and researchers everywhere are feverishly working toward the discovery or development of solutions that might solve for the issues and challenges around growing enough food to feed every mouth, in every community, in each and every country on earth. As a result, some are pushing the foodtech boundaries like never before in search of answers. And some, like Mitchell Scott, Founder and CEO of Vancouver-based Cult Food Science,

are helping to break new ground, pioneering a whole new way of looking at food production.

“Cellular agriculture has the potential to completely change the way we produce food,” he asserts. “And, the impacts can be felt across a spectrum of foods. There's cell-based meat and precision fermented dairy. There are ways to produce honey without bees. And each of these food production alternatives to our traditional methods helps to address a problem we’re currently facing. Even 85% of the world’s chocolate supply, for example, is at risk as a result of climate change caused by deforestation. Global meat demand is set to double in the next 20 to 30 years. Currently,

95% of meat produced in the U.S. is factory farmed in really bad conditions with really negative impacts on the environment. We're using a third of the world's landmass for animal agriculture. And we can't just double that as demand doubles. So, we need to figure out a different way of producing these products. The technologies that we have available today can help us produce the foods we all love that traditionally come from an animal in a way that, for the most part, takes the animal out of the equation, offering a far more sustainable approach to food production that’s much better for the environment, for human health and for the animals themselves.”

Supporting food innovation

Cult Food Science is an investment management company focused on innovators within the cellular agriculture and foodtech space. Scott explains that the company focuses on how it can help bring these cutting-edge technologies forward into the mainstream and incubate and support their developers in order to address the issues that we face.

For instance, there are companies specializing in cultivated meat, enabling small samples, or biopsies, of animals to be taken from them and used to grow the meat that we need without the need to grow the entire animal. This obviously helps solve for a number of different current issues, including our dependence on land to raise animals for food. However, the foodtech pioneer goes on further to suggest that beyond the environmental advantages offered by cellular agriculture, the quality of the product will ultimately win over any detractors of the technology.

“It’s a huge benefit for everyone involved to not require these massive industrial operations to produce animals and kill them at scale,” he says. “With these technologies, we can take a more science-based approach and just produce the part of the animal that we want. But the real benefit is that on a cellular level, the quality of the product is identical to traditional meat product. The technology will become so advanced and precise that cultivated meat and other foods will look, tase, feel and smell exactly the same to the end consumer.

"On a cellular level, the quality of the product is identical to traditional meat product. The technology will become so advanced and precise that cultivated meat and other foods will look, tase, feel and smell."

Plant-based foods are great. But those products just don’t quite deliver on taste, texture, or overall experience. And so, I think that's the true promise of all these different types of technologies is that they're going to produce a product that’s the same as the real thing. They're just going to be made in a very different way that's much, much better for everyone involved.”

Education is needed

To that point, in order to properly present the benefits and quality of cultivated foods to the end consumer, Scott believes that the burgeoning industry needs to be a much better job of informing and providing all of the facts in order to ensure continued growth and increased interest among the public.

“There are a whole bunch of huge opportunities around education,” he says. “The industry’s got to work to change consumer perception. Lab-grown meat still sounds a little

scary to some people. They think that it isn’t natural and can’t seem to get past that perspective. Just as is the case with any new technology, there are questions concerning credibility, quality, legitimacy, and rightly so. If people first understood that the way most meat in North America is produced is not coming from happy cows on farms, and that it's coming from these huge operations that are incredibly disruptive, they might look at things a little differently. If we can educate people to recognize that cell-cultured meat is in so many ways a cleaner, safer, and healthier way of producing meat, then we’ll likely start to see perceptions really begin to change. Many of these technologies and new products are only starting to hit the market. So, it’s going to take a little time for people to come around to it. But, in the shorter term, there are definitely opportunities around providing people with the right information to enable their decision-making.”

World-changing opportunity

Currently, Cult Food Science works with premium pet food brand Noochies!, cell-based sparkling coffee brand Zero Coffee, and cell-based performance gummies brand Free Candy to help enable the production of some of the first cell-cultured foods on the Canadian market, with many more in the works. In fact, it is currently partnering with 18 different companies across the sector in efforts to support the production of a wide range of food products, including cultured proteins, meat, dairy, coffee, seafood, honey, and ethical chocolate. It’s an ambitious portfolio of work and investment that Scott recognizes. However, it’s work and investment that he believes is helping to pave the way forward toward a healthier, safer, and more environmentally sustainable form of food production.

“Because many of these technologies are very new to

the market, there are challenges scaling up production and adoption. Large bioreactors are required, which are not cheap. This is where government support is required. There are a ton of subsidies for traditional animal agriculture. I think our government really needs to do more to invest in and support these companies so they can scale and reach the true benefits of these technologies for all Canadians. It’s what we’re extremely focused on: helping these companies become successful and change the world. It’s going to be important to really grow the cell-cultured food ecosystem over the course of the next couple of years in order to achieve scale and help introduce these amazing products to the market and end consumer. The more consumers see these products available and try them, realizing that they're as good as the traditional product, the easier it will be to accelerate growth of the industry.”

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT: Dr. Yvonne Yuan

- Toronto Metropolitan University

PRESIDENT ELECT: Dr. Marcia English - St. Francis Xavier University

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Lavina Gully - Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN)

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REPORT: Interest and curiosity in cellular food continues to grow among consumers

By Sean Tarry

The Canadian Food Innovation Network recently released a report titled Canadian FoodTech Trends: Interest and Curiosity in Cellular Food Continues to Grow . The report explores the growing practice of cellular agriculture and potential it poses to dramatically alter how we produce, purchase and consume food, while offering enormous financial opportunities to Canadian producers and exporters.

Working with Moncton, NB-based data science company Fiddlehead Technology to develop the report, consumer interest in cellular meat is examined, as well as the progress of and research and development in the sector by Canadian companies.

HERE ARE THREE KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THE REPORT:

Researchers are prioritizing cellular food Food scientists and engineers worldwide are diving into the cellular food sector. Fiddlehead found that there were 22,800 academic papers related to cultivated meat published in the past five years, roughly the same number of papers published in total before 2000.

Patent appllications for cellular meat are increasing

The U.S., where cultivated meat recently hit the market,

had 596 patent applications for cellular meat in 2022, compared to just 48 before 2000. By comparison, there were no Canadian patent applications for cellular meat before 2000, and just 22 by 2022. At the same time, the number of Canadian companies producing cultivated meat continues to grow.

Regulatory hurdles still exist

While countries like the U.S. and Singapore already have regulatory approval for the sale of lab-grown meat, products for sale in Canada will need to go through the lengthy approval process for novel foods, as well as meeting requirements for food safety, labelling, marketing and other existing regulations. That could mean products will be slower to hit the market, while Canadian regulators re-examine the framework for cultivated meat and develop new regulations specific to the category.

The report also pays particular attention to the growth of cell-cultured meats. In addition to the standard regulatory hurdles that must be overcome in order to manufacture cell-cultured meats, the report offers a couple other challenges that are faced by the manufacturers of meat.

Consumer adoption

As with any new food product, the ultimate success of cellular meat depends on consumer acceptance. Current consumer internet searches related to cellular meat in the U.S. and Canada are consistent with the findings of a 2022 study analyzing 43 peer-reviewed articles on consumer attitudes towards the category. The study identified the most important factors influencing consumer adoption of lab-grown meat included public awareness and perceived naturalness. Food neophobia (the reluctance to try novel or unknown food) and uncertainties around health benefits and safety also represent important barriers. The study also found ethical and environmental concerns prompted consumer willingness to pay a premium price for meat substitutes, but not necessarily for cellular meat. Most cellular meat manufacturers are building brand promises based on animal welfare and sustainability. However, additional marketing efforts are required to raise consumer awareness of the cellular meat category and alleviate health and safety concerns. Monitoring news media and consumer internet searches can help identify key issues and inflection points in public sentiment. Consumer doubts about the taste and enjoyment of cellular meat will also need to be addressed by industry to ensure adoption.

Scaling production

According to the Good Food Institute (GFI), global investments in cellular meat total $2.78 billion USD since 2016 and $896 million (32%) was raised in 2022 alone. However, manufacturers will still require significant follow-on funding to scale production and reach price parity with conventional meat. If consumers prove reluctant to pay a premium for cellular meat based on ethical and environmental values alone, this path to price parity becomes even more important. But scaling production may present a significant challenge given the nascent supply chain for key inputs like massive bioreactors and the nutrient mix to feed cells. Manufacturers must therefore closely align with both their investors and supply chain partners on long-term growth plans. This will ensure they can survive a potentially protracted consumer adoption curve and avoid having financing or infrastructure become a bottleneck as the cultivated meet category matures. Monitoring patents and academic research can help identify innovative production technologies and partners to reduce manufacturing costs at scale, while improving key sensory attributes for cultivated meat like taste and texture.

Good vibrations

Whether you need a high-capacity circular vibratory screener or a circular vibratory separator that works with challenging materials, Kason’s Vibroscreen has you covered. Circular vibrating screeners and separators are available in many sizes and configurations, capable of processing varying capacities and carrying out either batch or continuous operations. Precision circular vibratory screeners work hard to ensure that products are free from unwanted by-products and contaminants that can affect overall quality. www.kason.com

Keeping it cool

Lyco’s Mini Flex Chill-flow cooler cuts traditional cooling times in half. Leveraging submerged water agitated cooling makes the product more energy efficient than air cooling, water deluge belt, or belt freezer designs. Food safety is also improved as pouched product passes through the bacterial danger zone of 130 °F (54.4 °C) to 80 °F (26.7 °C) twice as fast as conventional belt coolers or static water tank designs. https://lycomfg.com/

Top treatment

Alfa Laval’s PureBallast 3.1 offers unmatched biological disinfection performance in any type of water: fresh, brackish, or marine. This includes water in liquid form at frigid temperatures. Even in low-clarity waters with UV transmittance as low as 42%, the system can perform at full flow. As a result, it runs at just 50% of its potential operating power in most situations, ramping up to full power only when needed. www.alfalaval.ca

Get chopping

The Talsa k50nb-neo Bowl Chopper contains a stainless steel bowl made of robust cast, with a liquid drain plug. Powerful motors process the most compact and even solid frozen meat. And high energy-efficiency class IE3 globally with high performance ABB motors ensure high cutting speed, variable from 1000 to 4000 rpm, with four programmable knife speeds and four bowl speeds programmable from 6 to 18 rpm. talsanet.com

Check the weight

The Ishida DACS-G/GN Series Checkweigher is an advanced piece of equipment that utilizes unique and proprietary digital load cell technology to deliver unbeatable accuracy and speed when inspecting the weight of packaged goods. Offering enhanced sensitivity over conventional models, the Ishida DACS-G/GN checkweigher satisfies a wide variety of product sizes and speeds. www.heatandcontrol.com

Hot chocolate

Food Supplies’ Chocolate Warmer BOM has been designed to take a container of cooked food from a chilled state (below 40.0 °F [4.4 °C]) through the HACCP “danger zone” of 165 °F (73.9 °C) in less than 90 minutes. The temperature will be maintained above 150 F (65.6 °C) when the food product and pan or inset are used with a standard pan or inset cover, the proper water level is maintained in the well, and the food product is stirred regularly. www.foodsupplies.ca

Spread it out

Vancouver Food Machinery’s Industrial Spreadmatic is a double width model that has an output capacity of up to 6000 slices per hour, and is ideally suited to larger production requirements. Maintaining the simplicity of operation featured throughout the range, the Industrial Spreadmatic ensures that valuable production time is not wasted in machinery maintenance. The model is easily linked to sandwich conveyor lines, affording larger producers the cost saving benefits of streamlining production. vancouverfoodmachinery.ca

Roll of the drum

The Lyco Sanitary Continuous Rotary Drum Water Blancher is one of the most advanced, stateof-the-art machines in the world. Including a number of features, the Lyco Rotary Drum increases capacity, reduces process times, eliminates under-cooking and over-cooking, and reduces required maintenance. lycomfg.com

Fluid control

The SMC Proportional Control Valve JSP is made from solid stainless steel and features the ability to control the flow rate of fluid smoothly according to the current. Ideal for a number of different applications, the SMC Proportional Control Valve JSP has become one of the top choices for those looking for efficient, long-lasting valves. www.smcworld.com/en-jp

Mixing it up

The Ross ISG Motionless Mixer is one of the best low-maintenance choices for efficient mixing. Used extensively but often unseen, the ISG Motionless Mixer is an exceptionally efficient and economical inline mixer that contains no moving parts. This motionless characteristic makes for hassle-free mixing with the benefit of long service life. www.mixers.com

A Short history of food modification

By Sean Terry

Food modification, in one form or another, has been a part of human existence for a very long time. It’s enabled us to evolve, and to continue doing so. From modifications to production and cultivation processes to genetic engineering, here are the most significant food modification milestones achieved over the course of the past 150 years or so.

1866

Gregor Mendel, an Austrian monk, breeds two different types of peas and identifies the basic process of genetics.

1922

The first hybrid corn is produced and sold commercially.

1940

Plant breeders learn to use radiation or chemicals to randomly change an organism’s DNA.

1953

Building on the discoveries of chemist Rosalind Franklin, scientists James Watson and Francis Crick identify the structure of DNA.

1982

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves the first consumer GMO product developed through genetic engineering: human insulin to treat diabetes.

1986

The U.S. Federal Government establishes the Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology. This policy describes how the FDA, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) work together to regulate the safety of GMOs.

1992

FDA policy states that foods from GMO plants must meet the same requirements, including the same safety standards, as foods derived from traditionally bred plants.

1994

The first GMO produce created through genetic engineering - a GMO tomato - becomes available for sale after studies evaluated by American federal agencies proved it to be as safe as traditionally bred tomatoes.

1990s

The first wave of GMO produce created through genetic engineering becomes available to consumers, including summer squash, soybeans, cotton, corn, papayas, tomatoes, potatoes, and canola.

2003

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations develop international guidelines and standards to determine the safety of GMO foods.

2005

GMO alfalfa and sugar beets are available for sale in the United States.

2015

FDA approves an application for the first genetic modification in an animal for use as food, a genetically engineered salmon.

2016

U.S. Congress passes a law requiring labeling for some foods produced through genetic engineering and uses the term “bioengineered,” which will start to appear on some foods.

2017

GMO apples are available for sale.

2019

FDA completes consultation on first food from a genome edited plant.

2020

GMO pink pineapple is available to consumers.

2020

Application for GalSafe pig was approved.

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