idered by many to be a more environmentally friendly solution to feeding the world’s growing population.  In 2019, Vow became the first company in the world to make a food product – a kangaroo dumpling to be exact – from the cells of an undomesticated animal, instead of the animal itself. Since then, the company has produced meat from 11 different animals, both wild and domesticated, and served up six of these as part of a world-first product demonstration with renowned Australian chef Neil Perry. “Our focus over the last 12 months has been to get to a point where we understand enough about the science to be able to make food regularly, taste it and improve on the quality of that food to create our first set of prototype products that are really distinct from the sensory experience or function of meat we have today,” George Peppou, co-founder and CEO at Vow Foods, told Inside Retail.  Now, the Sydney-based biotech has just raised US$6 million in funding to advance its product development to the next level, and make food “that really excites people”. Beyond beef Not content with the protein options available in the market, Vow has set its sights on outperforming meat, instead of simply replacing what already exists. So, it’s goodbye chicken, beef and pork; hello kangaroo, alpaca, and water buffalo. “We have a chance now with cultured meat to go back to first principles and decide on the characteristics that we want in our protein system 30, 40 years from now. If we had total freedom of choice we probably wouldn’t choose beef, chicken and pork, because each of those meats has a number of things that are wrong with them … chicken breast gets too dry, pork has too much saturated fat,” he said. After all the additional challenges and costs of producing meat via cells, it doesn’t make sense for a company like Vow to go head-to-head with an industrialised animal agriculture industry that can offer the same products at a better price.  With cultured meat, the options are endless. And Peppou is confident that they can create products that are beyond what animals are capable of producing. “We need to offer products which are really distinct and better than those on the market. That might mean better nutrition; there might be something which has, say, the flavour of wagyu but the nutritional profile of salmon. It might be something which is really highly functional, meat that helps you sleep because it’s so loaded full of Tryptophan, or any number of other things.” How does it work? If you’re imagining test tubes, white coats and petri dishes in this food manufacturing process, you’re on the right track. The initial stages of production are all about the science. “We take a small biopsy of muscle from an animal, about the size of an almond, and from that isolate the cells that are responsible for repairing muscle fat and connective tissue. We then can store those cells indefinitely in big vats of liquid nitrogen, before placing them in  nutritional media that contains all the things those cells need to live,” Peppou explained.  By replicating the environment of an injury, the cells continually divide as if to repair damaged tissue. When the environment is altered again, muscle fibres are created.   On a large scale, Peppou likens the manufacturing process to that of a brewery.  “It looks a bit like a brewery with large tanks that maintain environmental conditions comparable to being inside of an animal.” While Vow Foods has some limitations around space and cost, essentially, as with  fermentation-based technologies, those cells will keep dividing until they are stopped.  “It’s a bit like beer; you don’t stop brewing beer because the yeast can’t keep growing, you stop brewing beer because the beer is done.” The small internal test quantities that Vow is producing at the moment take about 30 days. For commercial quantities, that will be between 45 and 90 days depending on batch size and processes. Automation is also helping speed up certain elements, such as liquid handling, freeing up scientists to focus on the important stuff.  Are consumers ready? In December, Singapore became the first country in the world to approve the sale of cultured meat products, suggesting that the rise of cell-based meat may be closer than we think. But will it be tricky to convince consumers about meat that’s been grown in a lab? Rather than aiming to please the masses, Vow will begin by targeting highly motivated consumers who are willing to pay a premium price for early cultured products “Our belief is that there are many groups of consumers that have unmet needs through the current protein system. A lot of our first products are going to be serving those consumers,” Peppou said.  The aim for Vow is to create a range of products, brands and experiences, each with a distinct value proposition.  “If someone is watching macros and really conscious about what they’re consuming, being offered something that is a great sensory experience and a really good set of macros for them is enough to get over that inertia of it being different and novel. Equally, including some potentially nutraceutical-type properties would help certain groups of consumers look past that novelty.  “Our goal is not to launch on day one with a mainstream product. Our goal is to launch on day one with products that mean a lot to a small number of people, and take those learnings so we can make better products that mean a lot to a larger number of people.” Go-to-market barriers According to Allen Zelden, founder of Intrinity Global, Vow’s competitive advantage is its focus on driving mainstream awareness. “Through their continued efforts to build upon exclusive relationships with chefs like Neil Perry, they will be powerfully placed amongst their global peers to capture mind and market share,” Zelden told Inside Retail.  But beyond customer acceptance, cell-based food companies also face the challenges of scale and regulation.  “With mounting investment in the space, the principal ‘use of funds’ is undeniably spent on scale to increase production capabilities so as to meet their conventional counterparts,” Zelden said.  “As many cell-based meat companies are still relatively young brands in a new but fast growing market, the cost of entry is high due to the continued and expensive proprietary cultivation costs.” Beyond the required investment in start-up companies to reduce production costs, Zelden believes that the industry requires government investment to progress.   “From assessing submissions and enforcing regulatory frameworks, to the contentious issue of labelling and lack of data on longer-term consumer safety testing, it’s evident that overcoming the many layers of government regulation will be a critical factor in expediting the pathway for commercial sale,” he said. At Vow, the team is focused on scaling up in order to feed “the largest number of people possible”, in a sustainable way.  “We want to find a way to feed billions of people every day with food that is sustainable and delicious … It’s about people no longer needing to compromise between their experience, and the sustainability and ethical credentials of food. Peppou is hopeful that the coming decades will bring about more impactful change in the food industry as a whole.  “I hope to see an industry that’s really aware of its impact on the planet, and on consumers, and really conscientious about what it’s providing. Food is such a personal thing. It’s such an intimate thing to take it into our bodies, and that’s an incredible responsibility for us and every food company.”