Ivy Farm Opens the Largest Cultivated Meat Factory in Europe

The first cultivated meat pilot plant of its kind in the U.K. is now open. Ivy Farm says its new 18,000-square-foot Oxford cultivated meat plant can produce nearly three tons of cultivated meat per year.

While the world awaits regulatory approval of cultivated meat, companies are wasting no time in prepping for production. The latest, U.K.’s Ivy Farm, is gearing up with expanded R&D and production.

“Making real meat in a new and more sustainable way has never been done at real scale and so the completion of the pilot plant, R&D facility, new office, and innovation kitchen represents a really exciting milestone on our growth journey as a company,” Ivy Farm CEO Rich Dillon said in a statement.

“By building Europe’s largest pilot plant and by expanding our R&D facilities, we have taken a huge step towards our mission of producing guilt-free, real meat that’s good for the planet, people and animals.”

Advancing cultivated meat technology

The new plant, which is near the Oxford University Engineering Department, houses a terminal 600L bioreactor, which will play a key role in Ivy Farm’s novel manufacturing process.

The company says it’s now entering the next phase of its technology as it moves to “boost its R&D capabilities, with the aim of reducing costs, scaling up production and making cultivated meat accessible to consumers on a global scale in the near future”. 

The plant opening follows the company’s $30 million in funding as well as a recent paper that detailed the impact cultivated meat could have on the economy and the planet. That paper was in collaboration with Boston Consulting.

“The first step is for the U.K. government to support the introduction of cultivated meat technology and the Food Standards Agency to approve its safety,” said the paper.

“Advances in this field are happening quickly: by the time a company receives approval for their cultivated meat product, the technology might have moved to a new level—with new considerations and requirements.

“By establishing a suitable approach to regulation that takes into account the rapid pace of innovation, the burden on both industry and regulator can be reduced.”

Cultivated meat is expected to drastically reduce carbon emissions by up to 92 percent compared with conventional animal products, and reduce land use by as much as 95 percent.

Ivy Farm says it’s been negotiating with Heck Foods—leading U.K. sausage manufacturer—to bring its cultivated pork sausages to U.K. supermarkets.

Lead image courtesy Ivy Farm