FoodTech start-up, BioBetter, has assigned a new role for the much-maligned Nicotiana tabacum plant upon discovering it can overcome the greatest hurdle in cultured meat—that of scaled production.

Working behind the scenes of the emerging cultured meat industry, BioBetter is repurposing tobacco plants to create the growth factors necessary for the cellular development of cultivated meat.

This landmark botanical breakthrough could significantly reduce the cost of cultivated meat and advance it rapidly to scale-up.

BioBetter harnessed the inherent advantages of tobacco plants by turning them into bioreactors for expression and the large-scale production of proteins. Plant bioreactors use renewable energy and fixate CO2. They are self-forming, self-sustaining, and biodegradable.

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There are multiple advantages to using Nicotiana tabacum as a hardy vector for producing GFs of non-animal origin,” enthuses Amit Yaari [CEO] “It is an abundant crop that has no place in the food-and-feed chain due to its extremely bitter taste and content of undesirable alkaloids. The global trend for reducing tobacco smoking also is raising concerns among tobacco growers that the crop might eventually become obsolete. Yet the tobacco plant has huge potential to become a key component in the future of food.”

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