Portfolio Company SuperMeat Meets Kosher Standards for Its Cultivated Chicken
DOUGLAS, ISLE OF MAN / ACCESSWIRE / September 7, 2023 / Agronomics (ANIC:LSE), the leading listed company focused on the field of cellular agriculture, is pleased to announce that its portfolio company, SuperMeat The Essence of Meat Ltd ("SuperMeat"), has met Kosher standards for its chicken cell line.
This represents a historic milestone for the industry being the first time that cultivated poultry has been recognised as meeting Kosher, under the stringent Mehadrin standards. OU Kosher, the Kosher certification division of the Orthodox Union ("OU") determined that SuperMeat's product met the necessary standards. The OU oversees the kosher certification of over 1.3 million products and over 14,000 facilities in 104 countries.
Following this recognition, the parties involved are embarking on a thorough examination of the entire supply chain and the cultivated meat production process, thereby establishing clear guidelines for other enterprises in the cultivated meat sector. This endeavour is expected to initiate a Kosher meat certification process for the entire industry and is a pivotal moment in the overlap of religious dietary standards and advanced food technology in the cultivated meat industry.
Agronomics has invested a total of US$ 12.5 million to date and has equity ownership of 7.8% in SuperMeat on a fully diluted basis which, subject to audit, represents 9.3% of the last published Net Asset Value of the Company (30.06.23) including post-balance sheet adjustments.
The OU's recognition came after a series of in-depth discussions and scientific reviews. These reviews focused on avian embryogenesis and stem cells, including the observation of the excision of embryonic stem cells from a fertilised chicken egg.
Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO of OU Kosher and Rabbi of Congregation Shomrei Emunah, author and teacher at Yeshiva University, stated:
"The kosher certification for cultivated meat poses a unique halachic challenge, requiring innovative guidelines that mirror the scientific and technological advancements integral to these novel products. This collaboration aims to bridge the gap between scientific understanding and halachic adjudication, setting unprecedented standards in the cultivated meat industry."
Jim Mellon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Agronomics, commented:
"We are delighted that our portfolio company, SuperMeat, is paving the way for cultivated meat products to achieve kosher certification. This demonstrates the cutting-edge nature of SuperMeat's technology, as well as Agronomic's ability to identify the leading innovators in cultivated agriculture. This development opens up a considerable global market opportunity, with an estimated $11bn a year being spent on kosher foods in the US alone. It is also another major step forward for the industry toward broad regulatory approval following FDA assent issued earlier this year."
Ido Savir, CEO of SuperMeat, stated:
"Aligning our technology with kosher dietary laws holds immense significance for us. This step represents our commitment to inclusivity and respect for diverse dietary needs, making our cultivated chicken meat accessible to audiences around the world. This recognition of our process is a testament to our meticulous attention to detail and the high standards we uphold. We believe this historic initiative with the Orthodox Union not only broadens the options for Kosher consumers worldwide but will also set clear guidelines for other companies in the cultivated meat industry seeking Kosher certification, opening new avenues for the Kosher food industry."
About Orthodox Union The Orthodox Union is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organisations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the disabled, localised religious study programs, and international units. Its OU Kosher division is the world's largest and most widely recognised kosher certification agency. OU Kosher maintains a kosher certification service, whose circled-U hechsher symbol - Ⓤ - is found on the labels of up to 70% of kosher commercial and consumer food products. For more information, please visit https://www.ou.org/.
About SuperMeat SuperMeat is a food-tech company working to supply the world with high-quality meat grown directly from animal cells. The company's products offer a delicious meat experience and a high-quality nutritional profile while being manufactured in a sustainable, GMO-free, and slaughter-free way. SuperMeat's proprietary cultivated meat platform allows food companies to be at the forefront of the emerging cultivated meat industry and manufacture a wide range of products containing cultivated meat inside. SuperMeat is the first B2B company to address the entire poultry meat category from fat to muscle, providing a complete solution to cultivated meat production. For more information, please visit https://supermeat.com/.
About Agronomics Agronomics is the leading listed venture capital firm with a focus on cellular agriculture. The Company has established a portfolio of over 20 companies at the Pre-Seed to Series C stage in this rapidly advancing sector. It seeks to secure minority stakes in companies owning technologies with defensible intellectual property that offer new ways of producing food and materials with a focus on products historically derived from animals. These technologies are driving a major disruption in agriculture, offering solutions to improve sustainability, as well as addressing human health, animal welfare and environmental damage. This disruption will decouple supply chains from the environment and animals, as well as being fundamental to feeding the world's expanding population.
About Cellular Agriculture Cellular Agriculture is the production of agriculture products directly from cells, as opposed to raising an animal for slaughter or growing crops. This encompasses cell culture to produce cultivated meat and materials, and fermentation processes that harness a combination of molecular biology, synthetic biology, tissue engineering and biotechnology to massively simplify production methods in a sustainable manner.
Over the coming decades, the source of the world's food supply traditionally derived from conventional agriculture is going to change dramatically. We have already witnessed the first wave of this shift with the consumer adoption of plant-based alternative proteins but today, we are on the cusp of an even bigger wave of change. This is being facilitated by advances in cellular agriculture. This change is necessary, given scientists' claims that if we maintain existing animal protein consumption patterns, then we will not meet the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting warming to 1.5℃.
AT Kearney, a global consultancy firm, projects that cultivated meat's market share will reach 35% by 2040. This combined with the Good Food Institute's estimate that a US $1.8 trillion investment will be required in order to produce just 10% of the world's protein using this technology, means that we are on the cusp of a multi-decade flow of capital to build out manufacturing facilities. Funding in the field of cellular agriculture is accelerating, however, still, less than US$ 5 billion has been invested worldwide since the industry's inception in 2016.
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