The world population is estimated to reach 9.8 billion by the year 2050. And with social and economic advancements, the demand for animal protein-rich diets is set to increase anywhere between 60-70% with the changing consumer patterns.

Will the global resources be ready to accommodate the world’s dietary needs?

We don’t know the answer to that yet, but what we do know is that we’re moving closer to finding alternatives for meat. The best part being they’re mostly sustainable and eliminate the need to grow animals on farms only to slaughter them later.

One of the world’s leading manufacturers of such meat, Aleph Farms, is one step closer to achieving commercialization of cultivated meat by the year 2024.

The Israel-based manufacturer is now expanding its business into Singapore, the only country in the world where consumers can eat lab-grown meat.

Cultivated meat or cultured meat looks, tastes, smells, and feels just like your run-of-the-mill meats like chicken, fish, pork, and beef. And in essence, it is real meat. The production method used is through cultivating animal cells in a laboratory. This is done by taking muscle stem cells from a real animal and cultivating them in a temperature-controlled vessel to turn them into meat.

In a statement, the company said it had signed two agreements to increase its production capabilities ahead of the commercialization of its lab-grown specialty.

Aleph Farms has acquired a manufacturing facility in Modi’in, Israel, and related equipment from biotechnology company VBL Therapeutics. This will enable it to locally produce cultured meat in Israel by 2024.

In addition, they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with ESCO Aster, the world’s first and only company with full regulatory approval to produce cultivated meat for commercial sales, to produce cultivated meat in Singapore. The cultured meat is stipulated to be rolled out in Singapore by 2025.

Both these strategic agreements come at a time when Aleph Farms is looking to introduce its thin-cut steak grown from cells to market.

Didier Toubia, CEO and co-founder of Aleph Farms, said, “Israel and Singapore are the first two markets where we intend to launch our cultivated thin-cut steak. Building up production capacity quickly in those locations while keeping capital investment lean provides a clear roadmap to scalability. Beyond Israel and Singapore, we plan on building additional strategic assets worldwide as part of our effort to bring more security and resilience to food systems.”

In recent news, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, David Baruch Lau, ruled Aleph Farms’ cultivated steak to be kosher, which means permitted for consumption by Jews under religious law.

According to interestingengineering.com