Start-up dreams of feeding world with cheap lab-cultured meat

It was with this bold vision that Hanyu, 34,co-founder and CEO of startup IntegriCulture Inc., quit his job as a corporateresearcher five years ago to join the ranks of entrepreneurs around the worldseeking to tackle the still formidable challenge of moving synthetic meat fromthe lab to the dinner table.

«Cultured meat has been appearing in a lot ofsci-fi animation series, but it doesn't exist in our daily lives. So I thoughtI would take (the challenge) on,» said Hanyu, who has a doctorate inchemistry from Britain's Oxford University.

With both a growing and developing world population,the demand for meat is expected to continue to rise globally, creating achallenge for supply.

But while this trend has already spurred interest in«pseudo meats» made from plants and, as a protein alternative, evendishes made from insects, Hanyu is looking for ways to make it practical tomass-produce «cultured meat,» which is grown from cells in a lab butstill far too costly for the average consumer.

The global consumption of beef in 2028 is estimated toamount to 72.5 million tons, up 17 percent from the average figure for the2015-2018 period, according to a report released by the Agriculture, Forestryand Fisheries Ministry's Policy Research Institute in March. Pork consumptionis predicted to reach 130.8 million tons and chicken 116.1 million tons, up by16 percent and 24 percent, respectively.

After obtaining his doctorate from Oxford, Hanyuworked as a researcher at Tohoku University in northeastern Japan and thenJapanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp.'s Corporate Research and DevelopmentCenter before co-founding his company with a colleague in Tokyo in 2015.

Its doors opened for business just two years after a«lab-grown» hamburger with a 140-gram cultured beef patty developedby a Dutch researcher attracted worldwide attention when it was served at atasting event held in London. The headlines partly focused on the fact that itcost some 250,000 pounds (33.9 million yen) to produce.

Hanyu says the key to addressing the cost hurdlefacing cell culture technology has been finding a way to artificially producethe growth hormones needed to stimulate cell growth rather than usingprohibitively expensive naturally produced hormones.

«Originally, growth factors are made by organsinside the body, so we tried to 'reproduce' the internal system in which organsmake growth hormones and cells interact with each other,» said Hanyu.

«For example, we make a pseudo liver by culturingliver cells in a tank, then connect them with other 'organs' through 'bloodvessels,' namely, tubes.»

Since being installed at the company's office lastNovember, the laboratory-scale system, which has already been patented, hasundergone repeated trial runs.

But while Hanyu believes the cost of producing 1kilogram of cultured meat can be reduced to as little as 200 yen in theory, thefirm's process still costs about 20,000 to 200,000 yen per kilogram, dependingon the type of cells used.

«I have no idea when we will realize this, butthe key is how we will be able to increase the system in size and improve itsefficiency.»

Another major issue facing the realization of hisdream is the «unmeat-like» appearance and lack of texture of thecultured meat that can be achieved with current technology. Hanyu admits thatit is «no more than a mass of cells, or meat paste.»

In cooperation with a research team from Tokyo Women'sMedical University, the company has begun a study to determine how to createfiber or intramuscular fat inside cultured meat.

Hanyu believes that global expectations for theestablishment of mass production methods for cultured meat are high, not onlyfrom the viewpoint of food shortage issues but also environmental conservation.

On a calorific basis, over a third of all farmproducts in the world are consumed as livestock feed, and more than 80 percentof all croplands in the world are used for the livestock industry in one way oranother, according to reports written by European and American researcherswhich IntegriCulture cites.

«The impact made by eating meat on the globalenvironment is huge,» said Hanyu.

The company believes it is technologically possible toproduce any kind of meat including pork, chicken and even fish, and has set agoal of selling «cultured foie gras» to restaurants by 2021 andputting it on the consumer market by 2023.

Hanyu's company is far from alone in its ambitions inJapan or the world at large. In March, for instance, Nissin Foods Holdings Co.,a Japanese instant noodle maker known for its signature product Cup Noodle,announced that it had succeeded in creating a diced steak, about 1 cubiccentimeter in volume, from cow muscle cells.

Japanese stock farmers are also trying to enter thefield. Toriyama Chikusan Shokuhin Co., a meat producer in central Japan,established a partnership with San Francisco-based food company Just Inc. lastyear, aiming to bring cultured «wagyu» beef to the global market inthe future.

But Hanyu has an even bigger dream, which is to seehis synthetic products one day being made and consumed in outer space.

Many believe that if human life is ever to becomesustainable on other planets, it will be essential to come up with methods tosupply some foods on the spot. The focus among experts in some countries hasbeen on the potential of cultured plants or algae.

Hanyu said, however, that cultured plants are an«imperfect source» of protein, let alone a basis for a«satisfying» diet.

His company, he said, is already working with TokyoWomen's Medical University and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA,on a project to cultivate animal cells together with algae.