Opportunity Overview
(i) Background and Context
Traditional approaches to producing meat are no longer fit for purpose. Cultivated meat is one promising solution to overcome the shortcomings of conventional meat farming, requiring only 46% of the energy, 5% of land and 22% of water use, which potentially results in a 92% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Cultivated meat is a nascent but rapidly growing industry that has several priority areas of development if the promise is to be delivered. These include: (1) cell line development, (2) cell culture media, (3) bioreactor and bioprocessing, and (4) scaffolding and biomaterials. Production of cheap, scalable cell culture media (CCM) is a major bottleneck for all cultivated meat companies. Active research is now being undertaken to find new ingredients that are active, animal-free and economically viable, or to engineer new properties into pre-existing CCM components. Hydrolysates are one such ingredient that will be the focus of this study. Hydrolysates are chemical or enzymatic digests of proteins rich in essential amino acids, bioactive peptides, vitamins, and lipids that are vital for cell growth. Previous works have demonstrated that yeast or plant hydrolysates could act as a supplement or even partial substitute for CCM.
(ii) Aim and Objectives
The overall aim of the project is to achieve an understanding of how upstream fermentation conditions affect biomass accumulation in order to establish optimum and robust operating conditions for industrially scalable production of hydrolysates used in cultivated meat production. The specific project objectives are as follows:
1. To replace conventional carbon sources by optimizing fermentation media containing more sustainable, industry-derived carbon sources.
2. To investigate the effect of fermentation parameters, and scale, on biomass accumulation of industrially relevant yeast.
3. To design a downstream processing pipeline for the preparation of yeast hydrolysate, from the cells...
Traditional approaches to producing meat are no longer fit for purpose. Cultivated meat is one promising solution to overcome the shortcomings of conventional meat farming, requiring only 46% of the energy, 5% of land and 22% of water use, which potentially results in a 92% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Cultivated meat is a nascent but rapidly growing industry that has several priority areas of development if the promise is to be delivered. These include: (1) cell line development, (2) cell culture media, (3) bioreactor and bioprocessing, and (4) scaffolding and biomaterials. Production of cheap, scalable cell culture media (CCM) is a major bottleneck for all cultivated meat companies. Active research is now being undertaken to find new ingredients that are active, animal-free and economically viable, or to engineer new properties into pre-existing CCM components. Hydrolysates are one such ingredient that will be the focus of this study. Hydrolysates are chemical or enzymatic digests of proteins rich in essential amino acids, bioactive peptides, vitamins, and lipids that are vital for cell growth. Previous works have demonstrated that yeast or plant hydrolysates could act as a supplement or even partial substitute for CCM.
(ii) Aim and Objectives
The overall aim of the project is to achieve an understanding of how upstream fermentation conditions affect biomass accumulation in order to establish optimum and robust operating conditions for industrially scalable production of hydrolysates used in cultivated meat production. The specific project objectives are as follows:
1. To replace conventional carbon sources by optimizing fermentation media containing more sustainable, industry-derived carbon sources.
2. To investigate the effect of fermentation parameters, and scale, on biomass accumulation of industrially relevant yeast.
3. To design a downstream processing pipeline for the preparation of yeast hydrolysate, from the cells...
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Start FreeSolicitation Details
| Issuing agency | EPSRC |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Category | Research Development |
| Published | September 25, 2022 |
| Procurement stage | Active solicitation |
| Response due | September 24, 2028 |
| Status | Open — accepting responses |
| Official source | View original notice |
| Last verified | August 10, 2026 |
Source: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) — Open Government Licence v3.0.
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