Pluri’s Technology is Making Sustainable Meat a Reality

Cultivated meat can now be produced at price parity with traditional meat, and it's ready to hit supermarket shelves.

Dec 08, 2023

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At 300,000 dollars, the world’s first lab-grown meat burger may have been the most expensive piece of meat ever produced. That was in 2013 – it proved that we can grow meat in a lab, but the cost, engineering, and biological challenges meant that cultivated meat was a far cry from being a viable alternative for supermarkets.

10 years on, that’s all changed. For the first time, the science behind cell cultivation has progressed to the point where mass production and consumption of meat from cultivated cells is possible at a price point that’s on par with traditionally farmed meat.

An Israel-based biotechnology company, Pluri, is at the heart of this transformation. In 2022, Pluri established a joint venture with Tnuva, Israel’s largest food producer, Ever After Foods, to utilize Pluri’s technology to create a pathway to bringing cultivated meat to the consumer market: “Our technology requires lower capital expenditures and provides a 700% increase in productivity compared to other cultivated meat technology platforms. Using the current scale and technology Ever After can produce more than 10 kilos of cultivated meat mass with just a 35-liter production bioreactor and have a proven path to scale and reach price parity,” says Pluri CEO & President Yaky Yanay.

“In the next couple of years, we expect to launch the 1,400-liter bioreactor that can produce 400 kilos of cultivated meat per run with very competitive COGS.”

It’s hard to overstate the implications for humanity, nature, and our ability to live and thrive in a world that can sustain us over the long-term.

Animal farming is having an outsized impact on our planet. Every year, we consume 360 million tonnes of meat. Every day, we slaughter hundreds of millions of animals.

About 1/3 of the world’s land and water resources are used for animal farming: more than a third of habitable land and 29% of freshwater is used for raising livestock. Animal agriculture is also a leading cause of continued deforestation and biodiversity loss.

The facts are clear: it’s not possible to continue with current farming practices and sustain the health of our planet. These issues will compound as population growth creates higher demand for food, while food supplies are threatened by extreme weather events and water scarcity. To preserve life on earth for future generations, we need more than incremental change to how we produce food, we need 360- degree transformation.

Yanay believes that learning to farm cells – the building blocks of life – is the radical, systemic agricultural change that provides more than just hope, it offers reasons to be optimistic about the future. Pluri’s cell-based meat production methods use 95% less land, 94% less water, and produce 93% less air pollution. It’s also hormone and antibiotic-free, with a superior nutritional profile to that of traditional food due to precision control of fat content and added nutrients. And with one of the world’s largest food producers, Tnuva, as a partner, and a ready-to-go product, Pluri’s subsidiary Ever After Foods is well-positioned to take its lab-cultivated meat to supermarkets.

In this age of climate anxiety, it remains possible to both imagine and build a brighter future, one in which we sustainably support a large human population and allow the earth and wildlife room to breathe and flourish.

“I believe that we are at the beginning of a biotechnology revolution, and cells, in particular, can influence nearly every aspect of human well-being, including health, food security, agriculture, and even aesthetics,” says Yanay. “This tiny organism represents to me a world of hope and opportunities.”

What is cultivated meat?

The meat we consume is derived from different animals. We can replace these meat products, if instead of growing them in animals, like a cow or a chicken, we can mimic the same forces to naturally grow the meat cells in other bioreactors, in a lab or manufacturing facility, instead of using livestock for our meat consumption.

We see living bodies and animals walking this planet daily. But it takes a sophisticated technological system to build tissue and cells at scale. Most of the challenges we’ve seen are around how scalable the process has been. We need to feed the cells different proteins, this has been a costly procedure, but in the last few years, we’ve seen huge progress, so we can see a clear path to market and bring this concept into reality.

What’s unique about Pluri innovation?

We draw on 20 years of experience in cell expansion

To talk about our innovation, I need to take you back approximately 20 years when we first started. Pluri is a biotechnological company based in Israel, and for over a decade, we’ve been manufacturing and developing cells. We started with the vision to develop placenta cells for therapeutics; we collect donated placenta cells from healthy deliveries and we have developed a technology to grow the cells efficiently. Placenta cells are a new drug, a new way to treat and support the regeneration capabilities of the human body. We are using this same product for a variety of clinical implications including muscle regeneration, there are big projects underway in the U.S. with the NIH, DOD, and we even have a project with NASA.

We developed our system originally for pharmaceuticals, but we decided to leverage our technology for industries that have a need for cell production like the cultivated meat industry.

Pluri technology mimics nature

Over the years we developed a very novel technology for cell expansion. We are not trying to reinvent the wheel with cell production, we very carefully observe what is happening in nature and understand the wisdom of nature and we mimic it in our technology.

So while most of the technologies in the world produce cells using huge tanks in suspension, we mimic the tissue environment, using cells as scaffolding. We understand that if you look at your own body, you are built from tissue. The cells in the body, other than the cells that are in the bloodstream, are not in suspension, they need to be in a tissue-like environment with 3-dimensional interaction.

The body is one of the most amazing controller systems in the world, the level of control is unbelievable. What great work the engineer did here, everything is controlled in balance: you cannot get out of control of temperature, pH, glucose consumption and gases in the body – it’s amazing – it works 24/7. We take a humble approach in mimicking nature: that’s what allows us to build systems that are very, very effective in the number of cells that we can produce and the cost of goods.

We know that our technology may position us as one of the most significant enablers in the industry: compared to the second-best technology in the field, we offer a 90% reduction in costs, a 700% increase in efficiency.

What is your path to taking cultivated meat to market?

Pluri is a publicly traded company on NASDAQ. Two years ago, we pivoted from being solely pharma focused, to becoming a cell-based technology platform. We recognised significant demand in the cultivated meat market. Our strategy is straightforward: we understand that technology is our core competitive advantage; we can develop a product and ensure manufacturing on a large scale. We are excellent in technology and we know how cells work in a lab – we know how to think like cells.
We have over 140 patents that are granted for the concept of cell expansion. Our system is scalable and proven, we have full-manufacturing facilities that give us a short time to market.

We work as partners in joint ventures with food producers

The second part of our strategy is that we work as partners with companies that have access to the market and understand how to develop the product. We approached Tnuva – a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate and the largest food producer in Israel, their parent company is the second largest food producer in China. They operate on a massive scale, dealing in thousands and millions of metric tonnes of food.
Six months later, we launched a spin-out joint venture, Ever After Foods, in which our partner made an investment and we granted them a global exclusive license to use our technology, specifically for cultivated meat production, utilising all the blue infrastructure we possess. This infrastructure includes state-of-the-art labs, a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), a manufacturing facility, and a skilled team to support it. The first product we developed is a high-end, premium meat offering.

We are also open to additional joint ventures and collaborations, possibly offering access to our technology to other companies in the field.

Do you face regulatory barriers?

As pioneers in the cell therapy field, we understand that being the first brings its unique challenges. Our journey began in the pharmaceutical industry, known for its stringent regulatory standards: with nearly two decades of experience, we’ve learned to apply our expertise effectively. We collaborate closely with regulators as our interests align – we all want safe and successful products in the market. Collaborating with larger companies is part of our strategy to navigate this complex journey, connect with consumers, and enter the market.

What market adoption do you anticipate for cultivated meat?

Food is the essence of our culture, and cultivated meat is not just another fad, it’s a big deal, it’s a new concept. That’s why we’re partnering with companies who know how to approach the market and how to reach customers. It’s going to be a process. We need to ensure its tasty, at least as good as traditional options, and healthy.We are committed to using wholesome ingredients, in contrast to some products that may appear “veggie” or “vegan” but reveal a different story when you read the label.

A remarkable study shows that 90% of the Chinese population is open to consuming cultivated meat, signalling a potential transformation. While the numbers may not be as high elsewhere, the shift is evident, and we must prepare for it. By 2030, we anticipate a conversion rate of 10% in this $1.4 trillion market. This transition represents a significant opportunity.

What are your top tips for other Green Techpreneurs?

Listen to the market

Entrepreneurs can fall in love with the technology – don’t develop anything because you think it’s a cool idea. From the beginning, speak with the market, listen to them, they know much better than you do what they need. Work with your clients and work with them closely.

You may be the most brilliant guy in technology, but you don’t know, at least at the beginning, a lot about your market. Study it like hell. Work with the best people, and listen. We don’t always listen because that’s part of what makes you think like an entrepreneur.

Kill projects quickly

It is essential to define your objective, what would you like to achieve, and when? Be as hard as you can with yourself. We tend to try to keep the project alive, because most of the time it’s not 0 or 100% – it’s in between. Sometimes 60-70% is not good enough. You might need to push it a little bit further, we are living in a world that is pursuing excellence to be successful. So kill projects quickly and don’t fall in love with them.

Think big from the beginning

How will it look at scale? Most of us think that if something worked for 3-15 people, we’ve got a solution. Hell no.

Ease of use is much more important than the technology itself; so try to push your technology and understand if it’s going to work at scale. And if not, kill it quickly.

Be involved in missions bigger than you

Be involved in missions that are bigger and more important than you are. If this is the case, you will never give up and never want to stop, you will recover quickly and make sure you do what you have to do.

What daily rituals keep you grounded?

I have quite a lot of daily rituals, including:

Morning prayer- I am thankful for the good things I have in life
Sport- I am a runner- it keeps me balanced and strong
Daily call with my parents- it reminds me to quickly push the developments, our time on this planet is limited
Reading every day before I go to sleep

What’s your mantra?

Everyone should have two pockets and use them as needed.

In one pocket there should be written: “For me the world was created” (from the MISHNA), and in the other pocket, “I am dust and ashes.” (Genesis)(Rabbi Simcha Bunim who lived in the 17th century)

Why are you passionate about cultivated meat?

My passion is cells. I’m deeply in love with these tiny organisms that we call cells. It’s a whole universe, even though everything on this planet is built from cells, people don’t appreciate it enough. Cells are the building blocks of life, I’m so amazed by that. Life on earth begins and ends with cells. My passion and vision lie in using these tiny organisms to build products that will serve humanity.
That’s going to be the biggest revolution, in my opinion, in the next decade. We’re going to transform cells into solutions that will help humanity improve the health of this planet and humanity’s health. That’s something that keeps me very optimistic, we’re going to see more solutions that are cell-based.

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