CULT Food Science Corp., an innovative investment platform that focuses entirely on cellular agriculture, announced that its portfolio company, Mogale Meat Co., has created its first cultivated chicken breast product. The company said it is the first of its kind in Africa.
The cultivated chicken breast is composed of real chicken muscle and fat cells blended with a mushroom matrix. Showcased on 30 March, it is the first of many prototypes Mogale is planning to spotlight.
Mogale has been working over the past eight months to produce Africa’s first chicken breast prototype using cultivated meat technology to compete in the global $15million XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion competition.
“Our next goal will be game meats, a variety of meats that are not only widely consumed in Africa, but also sought after as healthy lean meats in many countries around the world,” said Paul Bartels, founder and CEO of Mogale. “Game Meats are also the tastiest of the venison meat family, due to the great variety of species found in southern Africa.”
“Cultivated meat is destined to play a significant role in conserving biodiversity and wildlife species in Africa and beyond,” he added.
Approximately thirteen million people across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia face severe hunger and, over the course of 2022, fifteen to twenty million people in those three countries could face serious food insecurity.
“The opportunities presented by advancements in technology to allow for Mogale to be able to cellularly cultivate chicken in a more sustainable fashion is incredible and will undoubtedly lead to a better future in Africa and the rest of the world,” said Lejjy Gafour, president of CULT.
Addressing shortages due to avian influenza
The current outbreak of avian influenza across North America is the worst in seven years and it is causing a significant increase in the price of eggs and poultry. In the view of CULT’s management team, each avian influenza outbreak serves as yet another reminder that cellular agriculture is the way of the future. Poultry and eggs, as well as other proteins and foods, produced in a controlled environment are much less likely to be susceptible to disease, viruses and harmful bacteria.
The company is devoted to developing its own intellectual property to foster the evolution of cellular agriculture, as well as investing in promising ventures in order to build its portfolio of investee companies and foster communication between them, for the benefit of the industry overall.
