Livestock farming is a major contributor to global warming and depletes water and land resources. There is demand for alternative approaches to meat production, such as cultivated meat that involves culturing animal cells to produce meat-like products. The goal of cultivated meat is for it to be indistinguishable from conventional meat in terms of appearance, texture and taste. Growing cultivated meat requires materials that cells can grow on. Currently there are very few materials suitable for doing this and most are not suitable for eating and are produced using environmentally unfriendly methods. For the cultivated meat industry to develop into a producer of mainstream products requires new, game-changing materials that are abundant, affordable, and food-safe.

Cellulose is a material widely found in nature and is an insoluble dietary fibre, helping to push food through the digestive system. Once source of cellulose is from bacteria. Growth of bacterial cellulose requires liquid feed that is costly when used at scale. Alternatively, it is possible to produce bacterial cellulose using liquid feed derived from organic waste material produced by the brewing industry. We intend to use this bacterial cellulose produced using this waste material to create innovative materials that can be used in production of cultivated meat. This will provide a sustainable approach to material manufacturing that will help the cultured meat industry 'go green', adding to the beneficial impact that this sector is already delivering towards net zero CO2 emission targets. The project will utilise existing expertise at Luna for the production of novel materials. It will enable Luna to establish whether it is feasible to produce the required materials from bacterial-derived cellulose, something that has not previously been reported. Characterisation of the materials and estimates of manufacturing costs will enable Luna to establish whether this is a viable business opportunity and create useful data that will be used to start meaningful dialogue with potential customers and/or business partners.