Steakholder Foods Ltd. announced that the company's biology team has reduced the cost of its in-house growth media for bovine cell cultivation in suspension by just over 75% from prices two years ago.

The high cost of growth media has been a challenge across the industry, hindering scalability and affordability, the company says. The increased affordability of growth media is significant as it is believed that technological challenges to the commercialization of cultivated meat will be overcome before the economic challenges are met, and cultivated meat becomes affordable to the consumer. 

While reducing costs is essential, maintaining the highest yield and product quality is equally crucial, which is why Steakholder Foods says its research and development efforts over the years have focused not only on cost reduction but also on optimizing growth media in suspension to ensure that yields remain consistently high. Steakholder Foods' R&D team's achieves this by testing replacements for individual growth media components to optimize the formulation for beef cells without compromising the quality and quantity of the cells.