Peace of Meat, a Belgian developer of cultured meat, was bought for 15 million euros by the Israeli company Meat-Tech 3D. The very young start-up exists since 2019 and specialises in animal fat without animal suffering.
Foie gras without ducks
Peace of Meat comes into Israeli hands barely two years after its creation: Meat-Tech 3D buys the Belgian start-up for 15 million euros, according to newspaper De Tijd. The takeover is partly in cash and partly in shares. Meat-Tech 3D is a specialist in 3D printing of meat substitutes, i.e. vegetable products, but would find it interesting to supplement them with Peace of Meat’s ‘cultured fat’. Meat-Tech 3D hopes to launch such a hybrid product as early as 2022.
The specialty of Peace of Meat is breeding fat from ducks and chickens, without having to slaughter the animals. With the help of stem cells, the founders succeed in producing animal fats in bioreactors. This is laboratory meat or cultured meat, comparable to that of Mosa Meat, the Dutch start-up that managed to grow the first ‘real’ but cowless hamburger. Singapore is the first and so far the only country that allows the commercial production and consumption of cultured meat.
Originally, the Belgian company wanted to develop, among other things, a farmed alternative to foie gras, known for the non-animal friendly forced feeding of ducks and geese. The necessary high-tech research was partly financed with 3.6 million euros in subsidies from the Flemish government and investments from various German financiers. Meat-Tech 3D, which is listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, is worth around 70 million euros.
