World's Largest Cultured Meat Factory Coming to North Carolina

With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.

The world’s largest cultured meat facility is in production now in North Carolina. In fact, Wilson, North Carolina. Construction is ongoing for Believer Meats as they build that world’s largest cultured meat factory with a ribbon cutting expected next summer. Gustavo Burger, CEO of Believer Meats, explains just how cultured meat works…

“The process is producing meat from animal cells. We go for the extraction of the cells and we grow the cells providing them all the nutrients that they need. And we grow those cells in a very controlled environment and moving from flasks to tanks. Once the cell reaches a specific density and growth in that tank, we harvest that product. It goes to a washing process to separate what are the nutrients and the ingredients and the cells and then we have the biomass. Part of what we have comes back to the tank for the next production cycle. So after that harvesting process we have the biomass which is the basis of the meat. And then from there we get to the final product.”

He calls it a continual process but says that it can take up to six to eight days to harvest a specific cut of cultivated “meat.”