Mzansi Meat (now also known as Newform Foods) is a South African food-tech startup that became the first cultured (lab-grown) meat company in Africa, and it made headlines by unveiling the continent’s first cultivated beef burger.

Mzansi Meat was founded in 2020 in Cape Town by entrepreneurs including Brett Thompson and Tasneem Karodia, with the goal of using cellular agriculture technology to grow real meat from animal cells without raising and slaughtering animals. Their work focuses on producing sustainable, cruelty-free meat products that could help meet growing protein demand in Africa while reducing environmental impacts associated with traditional livestock farming.

The company’s scientists take a tiny cell sample from a cow at a farm sanctuary, then grow those cells in a controlled lab environment (in bioreactors with nutrients) so they multiply and form muscle and fat — the same components found in conventional meat. The result is actual beef, biologically identical to regular meat, but produced without the need to raise and kill animals.

Mzansi Meat’s work sits at the intersection of food innovation, sustainability, and food security, as Africa’s population grows and demand for protein increases.

According to the internet