Agribusiness giant ADM has jumped into the cultured meat fray with its first strategic investment in the industry, which will partner it with Eat Just Inc.’s GOOD Meat division.
According to a release, ADM will “build upon GOOD Meat’s foundational work to optimize nutrients needed to enable the growth of the cells” used in cultured, or cell-based, meat production.
“In the same way a chicken or a cow absorbs amino acids, vitamins, and fat through consuming soy and corn, GOOD Meat’s cells require an optimal growth medium for quality, cost and volume,” the release noted.
Aside from the nutrient formula for the cells, the companies also plan to work more broadly on product development for cultured meat products beginning with chicken.
“ADM has been making and innovating in food over 120 years. We are proud to partner with their incredibly talented team of scientists and engineers to take cultivated meat from a few restaurants today to millions of consumers tomorrow,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just.
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Leticia Gonçalves, ADM’s global foods president, said the company’s “strategic focus right now is on developing innovative new technology and solutions to continue expanding our capabilities to serve the fast-growing global demand for protein-based nutritional needs.”
GOOD Meat has received regulatory approval to sell cultured chicken in Singapore. Cost parity for cultured products when compared to conventional proteins has been identified as a major hurdle to broad growth within a price-conscious consumer base, but GOOD Meat says it has “achieved a 90% reduction in total costs when operating in a built-for-purpose plant” since 2018.
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