Great news for Gourmey, the start-up where Nadine Bongaerts, one of the Love Tomorrow Conference 2022 hosts, is the Chief Innovation Officer. The Parisian company just raised a record-breaking € 48 million in funding!
Gourmey produces artificial foie gras and aims to be Europe’s largest cultivated meat production site. First step: building a production facility in Paris.
What’s cultivated meat?
Cultivated meat is not real meat. Rather, it is produced using fermenters. For artificial foie gras, the flagship product of Gourmey, they take stem cells from a fertilized duck egg and put them in fermenting tanks where the cells replicate automatically.
Why is it a good idea?
Cultivated meat does not need land and crops to be produced, thus reducing emissions enormously. Some studies suggest a cut in emissions by 92%. It also ensures that humans become less reliant on animal-derived products.
What’s next for Gourmey?
First, they aim to refine their foie gras and other premium quality meats. But as Gourmey founder Nicolas Morin-Forest puts it: “we can create any type of poultry meat product from the same starting cells”.
With the raised money they want to expand their R&D facility and their team (from 40 to 120 people) by 2024. Another crucial step is to get the products approved by food safety authorities and agencies so they bring the products to market.
Good luck, Nadine and team!
Source: Sifted.
