Challenges in manufacturing capacity, particularly for cultivated meat and precision fermentation, present a significant bottleneck in companies’ ability to grow cells for food production. Currently, the UK's capacity is limited, with the largest known facility being Abzena or Extracellular, which have a terminal vessel capacity of 2,000L, far below the needs of food companies in the Cultivated Meat sector. These companies require facilities with capacities ranging from 10,000L to 200,000L to scale their production efficiently. The existing facilities are not only insufficient in size but are also prohibitively expensive, primarily because they are designed for bio-pharmaceutical products and processes. Consequently, companies are compelled to seek manufacturing solutions abroad, exacerbating the UK's food security challenge.
The UK already relies heavily on imports for traditional farmed meat, spending around £8 billion annually. This situation could worsen unless the UK takes decisive steps to either import Cultivated Meat or, preferably, establish domestic production facilities to enhance future food security. Addressing the bottleneck in Bio-Manufacturing is crucial for this transition.
The UK is behind with regards to investment in cultivated meat and precision fermentation. For e.g. the state of Illinois has recently committed $680M to the iFAB Tech Hub, which works on precision fermentation crops, to advance the region’s biomanufacturing capabilities.
This document proposes a high-level inquiry by Uncommon and Ivy Farms into the interest in forming a UK Bio-Manufacturing consortium, bringing together the top UK cultivated meat companies. Such a consortium would aim to create a multi-use facility benefiting not only the leading companies in the UK's cultivated industry, like Uncommon and Ivy Farms, but also attracting companies from abroad as well as the broader sector, including precision fermentation technologies and early-stage companies, as they expand.
Although we are exploring opportunities to scale up production globally, the preference is to establish such a facility in the UK, assuming the commercial conditions are favorable. The critical need for the industry lies beyond pilot scale facilities; it is the development of infrastructure capable of handling multitude of vessels over 10,000L capacity that allows companies to find product market fit - Currently this represents the major hurdle for most startups, often referred to as the ‘Valley of Death’.
Currently Uncommon and Ivy Farms are the key partners closely working with the Altnerative Protein Association (APA) however are already in discussion with the majority of the players above to join the consortium, with a broader list as well. This could be an exciting opportunity to leverage both private and public investment to develop a one-of-kind facility and put the UK at the forefront globally with regards to engineering biology and alternative proteins.
Uncommon and Ivy Farms bring Oxford and Cambridge to make the UK win. Together we bring a broad range of skills critical to the cultivated meat sector ensuring as well the facilities can be adequate to different companies: