Credit: Clever Carnivore

Clever Carnivore, a technological leader in the cultivated meat industry, reveals breakthroughs in low-cost, scalable cultivated pork production. The company is on a mission to prove that cultivated meat is not only technically feasible but also can be produced cost-effectively at scale, and they’re ready to announce exciting milestones.

The spread of animal-borne infections and fluctuations in feed prices have farmers working harder than ever to put reasonably priced food on consumers’ tables, and food scientists are seeking innovative solutions to supply chain constraints. The scientists at Clever Carnivore have been working to demonstrate that cultivated meat is a viable option for hungry consumers. Clever Carnivore is ready to announce exciting milestones accomplished on a budget of only $9 million since the company’s founding in 2021 — a fraction of the amount spent by many competitors.

Dr. Paul Burridge, chief science officer and co-founder of Clever Carnivore explained, “Necessity is the mother of invention. Describing our team as scrappy doesn’t begin to cover it. When you relentlessly minimize day-to-day consumable costs and start out buying your equipment secondhand on eBay, you make your life considerably more challenging. But ultimately our conscientious resource management has built a culture of science-first capital efficiency and has allowed us to focus on derisking a platform that is ready to scale and will be profitable in a production plant.”

Landmark scientific advances reduce key cost drivers

Clever Carnivore’s success hinges on innovations in three crucial areas:

• Low-cost, limited-ingredient cell culture media (providing the nutrients in which cells grow)
• High-performance pork cells that grow efficiently and are produced without genetic modification
• Factory design that minimizes costs and maximizes bioprocess robustness

Without these three elements working in tandem, cost-effective cultivated meat production would remain out of reach. Clever Carnivore’s process leverages an iterative continuous development methodology — ensuring all parts of production are tailored to work together seamlessly.

Leading the industry in low-cost cell culture media

Clever Carnivore’s highly optimized cell culture media costs $0.07 per liter to produce at the current pilot scale (with further reductions expected at full plant scale). Previous reports of industry-leading media costs range from $1 per liter to $10 per liter. The cost of cell culture media at Clever Carnivore has been at or below $0.07 per liter for the past two years, enabling scientists to conduct large-scale multivariable simulations to optimize production efficiency while minimizing a key driver of cultivated meat cost of goods sold (COGS) at scale.

Burridge stated, “$0.07 per liter is our current real-world cost of our food-grade cell culture media. That’s what we’re paying today — including our in-house growth factor production, water purification and mixing. We anticipate further reductions as we scale to a production plant with a capacity of thousands of liters. Low media cost is essential for a production plant, as this is one of the larger inputs to our COGS.”

Acceleration of pork cell proliferation

Clever Carnivore has developed unique non-GMO porcine highly proliferative cell lines capable of less than 14-hour doubling times in adherent culture — pushing the limits of what was believed scientifically achievable just a few years ago and making high-yield cultivated meat production possible.

Burridge said, “We continuously develop new cell lines in the latest version of our optimized media formula to keep innovation moving and maximize proliferation and robustness.”

Proprietary bioprocess design lowers cost, increases efficiency

Clever Carnivore’s team found creative engineering solutions to source the most cost-effective array of small-scale bioreactors they could find — enabling them to collect as many data points as possible on key bioprocess variables. Recognizing this strategic advantage early, they focused on reducing capital expenditure (CapEx) at the plant scale by working directly with steel fabricators to design inexpensive large-scale bioreactors.

Clever Carnivore currently produces cultivated pork in a pilot facility with two 500-liter stainless steel bioreactors — equipment similar in appearance to what you’d find at a brewery. With a third 500-liter bioreactor on the way, production optimization will progress even more rapidly. With low-cost inputs and equipment, Clever Carnivore’s demonstration scale plant is designed with low CapEx in mind, projecting buildout costs of less than $4.5 million and forecasting profitability in its first year of full production.

Burridge stated, “When designing a plant, it is important to consider that this is an FDA-and USDA-approvable facility that will operate in a traditional food production manner. We will have a well-validated process, high-level quality controls, and equipment that is proven and can be amortized under known schedules. We can’t have cost cutting result in lack of robustness and diminished uptime in the production plant. That would be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Our factory is designed with all these considerations and more in mind.”

Delicious, market-friendly products

Clever Carnivore has developed a wide range of pork products including bratwursts, breakfast sausages, hotdogs and meatballs. Taste testers — including professional chefs — have given rave reviews. Clever Carnivore’s product development team crafted comfort food favorites that cook just like traditional sausages and — most important — taste just as delicious. Clever Carnivore’s goal has always been to bring consumers the products they love at a competitive price, and with Clever Carnivore’s current technology and production design, their products are expected to sell at cost parity with comparable conventional products.

Clever Carnivore is in the process of submitting a comprehensive dossier to the FDA, with plans to make delicious and price-conscious cultivated pork available to a wide consumer audience as soon as possible.

Clever Carnivore is currently raising funds to sustain current efforts and support further growth.

To learn more about Clever Carnivore’s work to bring delicious and affordable cultivated meat to market and to receive updates on our progress, please visit clevercarnivore.com.

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