A leading European poultry producer is investing in clean meat.
PHW-Gruppe has made an equity investment in Israeli company SuperMeat, which is making meat using cells that have been ‘painlessly extracted from a chicken’. The cells are grown in the lab to provide top quality chicken cuts.
Innovators Magazine regularly features the burgeoning developments going on in the global clean meat and plant-based food markets. And SuperMeat looks set to be one of the pioneers that ensure this new ethical food industry is one of the big trends this year.
And the trend is good news for the environment; with clean meat production offering a 98% reduction in ‘greenhouse gas emissions, 99% in land exploitation, and up to 96% in water usage’, according to research conducted by the universities of Oxford and Amsterdam.
PHW-Gruppe’s CEO Peter Wesjohann said: “We at PHW have time and again left the beaten path in conducting our business. This approach not only facilitates the development of best-in-class animal welfare concepts in our core poultry business, but will also lead to the strengthening of our vegan product portfolio, confirming our leading role in the global consumer trend towards a cleaner, more protein-rich diet.
“The equity investment in SuperMeat is evidence of our forward-thinking strategy. SuperMeat is consistent with our pursuit to provide Europe with sustainable, clean foods– we do not see this transaction as a financial investment but rather as the beginning of a long-term strategic partnership.”
SuperMeat secured a total of $3 million in seed funding this month, ‘led by US-based venture capital fund New Crop Capital and mission-oriented VC firm Stray Dog Capital’. Both have previously backed Beyond Meat, another leading name in clean meat, which recently announced that TGI Fridays is rolling out the company’s Beyond Burger product to all of its American restaurants.
