Addressing the talent gaps in Singapore’s budding cultivated meat space

Guests trying cultivated chicken dishes from Good Meat,
the cultivated meat division of food tech company Eat Just in December 2022.

It all began with a research project in 2015 on using stem cells to understand and treat muscle degeneration in cancer patients, but led four scientists on a different journey.

From human cells, they moved on to experimenting with animal cells to cultivate those that could be used in products such as chicken katsu and smoked duck breast.

For scientists, stem cells are clean slates which can be programmed to create other cells of their choosing.

“Each of us focused on different aspects of muscle stem cells.  For instance, my PhD research looked at immortalising these stem cells – creating a cell line that endlessly produces new muscle cells – while my other colleagues looked at cell metabolism and the maturation of these stem cells,” said Dr Elwin Tan, 35.

Dr Tan and two other stem cell scientists, Dr Jason Chua and Dr Benjamin Chua, were working on their doctoral theses under the supervision of Professor Teh Bin Tean, a Senior Principal Investigator on muscle stem cells at A*Star’s Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology.

Dr Tan wondered how the team’s work in muscle stem cells could potentially apply to cultivated meat, the much awaited climate-friendly solution to the increasingly unsustainable livestock industry.

“I recalled hearing about the first-ever cultivated beef burger in London in 2013 by Mosa Meat’s Co-Founder Mark Post, and I was inspired,” said Dr Tan.
 

Cultivated meat entails taking fat or muscle cells from animals, and putting them in a rich, nutrient-heavy broth where the cells can multiply.

Once the cells have grown to a certain density, they can be harvested, and constructed into more familiar meat cuts like chicken breast or steak.

But it was only when the industry began to take off in 2019 that the team felt the time was ripe to build their own start-up.

Two years later, Meatiply was born.

“It’s like the universe telling you that you have this skill set, there’s this exciting opportunity for us to venture into, which is also very purposeful.  We were all in agreement to start the company together,” Dr Tan told The Straits Times.

The company has zeroed in on cultivated pork and chicken and is working on improving the productivity and yield of its animal cells to make it easier to scale up production in the future, said Dr Tan.

Another hurdle the team faces is attracting employees with diverse but complementary scientific backgrounds who can take the leap with them.

“We want to try to encourage those who perhaps want a change from the pharmaceutical or biotech industry to consider a career with us, and are thinking of ways to entice them to join us,” said Mr Kumaresan Thanabal, 37, Meatiply’s Director of Strategy.

Singapore was the first country in the world to approve cultivated chicken when Californian food tech start-up Eat Just got the green light from the Singapore Food Agency in 2020 to sell its product here.

The company sells its chicken nuggets and chicken breast to local restaurants and hawker stalls, and is building a large-scale facility for production which will be ready by this year.

Since then, more than 10 cultivated meat companies have entered the industry, consisting of both local and foreign start-ups.
 

Talent shortages

Other cultivated meat companies are also looking to fill manpower gaps from a limited global talent pool for research and development, production and commercialisation.

To address these talent gaps, changes to the Ministry of Manpower’s Employment Pass framework come into effect from September, to make it easier for companies to hire foreigners who have the right skills in the alternative proteins sector.

Novel food biotechnologists and alternative protein food application scientists are two of the 27 occupations listed with talent shortages locally in areas like the green economy and infocomm technology.

Ms Mirte Gosker, Managing Director of the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, an alternative protein think-tank, said novel food biotechnologists are a “broad job description” referring to scientists or engineers who investigate the genetics, chemical and physical attributes of cells, tissues and organisms to identify possible alternative food applications.

Food application scientists, on the other hand, are usually needed at a later stage of the game and would be involved in coming up with new products using different alternative protein sources.

“Cultivated and fermentation-based protein companies tend to be at a much earlier stage of their commercial development, with the majority of their staff still dedicated to resolving more fundamental biological and engineering challenges,“ said Ms Gosker.

Conversely, those in the plant-based meat sector currently employ the majority of food application scientists, as many of these businesses are in the commercialisation stage and are looking to cook up locally relevant products for different markets of consumers, she noted.

Locally, a wide range of courses is available at local polytechnics as well as universities like the Nanyang Technological University and the National University of Singapore to build the talent pipeline in alternative proteins.

Both universities have teamed up with GFI APAC to offer students introductory undergraduate courses on alternative proteins.

Temasek Polytechnic (TP) students pursuing the Diploma in Medical Biotechnology and the Diploma in Veterinary Technology would also be exposed to the latest curriculum on stem cell culturing, including of fish cells, said Dr Rufaihah Abdul Jalil, who is TP’s Domain Chair of the Future Foods Domain at the School of Applied Science.

Dr Tan said that Meatiply had no problem finding fresh graduates to be food application scientists from the universities in early 2022, but expects it may be more challenging to hire novel food biotechnologists when the company looks to expand its talent pool in a few months’ time.

Some roles which fall under this umbrella include cell development scientists who optimise the best cell types for cultivation, and media development scientists who help determine the best recipe for a nutrient broth that helps stimulate cells to grow and replicate.

Eventually, bioprocess engineers would be needed to scale up production of these cells in a cost-effective, efficient way in a bioreactor, he added.

Umami Meats’ Founder and Chief Executive Mihir Pershad said that the company is also looking to hire bioprocess engineers and media development scientists.

The Singapore-based company, which was founded in 2020, is looking to launch a variety of cultivated fish, such as eel, bigeye tuna and the red snapper in late 2024, before expanding to additional species.

“These are generally tough roles to hire for because we’re looking at a smaller talent pool globally, especially for people with relevant creativity and depth of expertise to develop new approaches for cultivated seafood,” he told ST.

He gets round the talent gap by distributing the company’s operations according to where the talent is in R&D and commercialisation, said Mr Pershad.

It currently operates in Singapore for research and development and product co-development projects with brand partners for Asian markets and the United States, and just announced plans to enter the Japanese market.

Dutch cultivated meat company Meatable is partnering local plant-based butcher Love Handle to create various cultivated pork recipes which are adapted to Asian cuisine and customers.

The recipes combine cultivated meat with other types of plant-based protein, which can enhance the product’s taste, texture and nutrition, to optimise the properties of cultivated meat.

Together, they are setting up the Future of Food Innovation Centre at The Arts House, which will include a team of novel proteins biotechnologists and food application scientists based in Singapore, said Ms Caroline Wilschut, Meatable’s Director of Commerce and Strategy.

“We’re not facing talent gaps in these areas at the moment and hope we can find similar talent in Singapore when we open up the innovation centre later this year,” she added.

Cultivated fish start-up Fisheroo’s Co-Founder Aaron Chua said that working with fish cells is a whole different ball game compared to working with mammalian cells like chicken or pork.

He is looking to soon hire research scientists from abroad who have experience working with fish cells and can transfer their skills set to local scientists.

The company is trialling various food fish cell types, and is still working out a process for cultivating fish.

Umami Meats also hired scientists from abroad who had experience in fish-cell culture to help it scale the “steep learning curve”, said Mr Pershad.
 

Scaling up production

Eventually, cultivated meat companies will need contract manufacturers to produce small batches of their lab-grown meats that they can to continue to do research on.

This would allow them to avoid the costs of purchasing their own bioreactors, which are extremely costly investments.

Singapore currently has one such facility, owned by Esco Aster, which helps to produce cultivated meat cells for companies like Eat Just, and Dutch foodtech companies Mosa Meat and Meatable, which create pork and beef sausages and patties.

Esco Aster is looking to open another 7,430 sq m plant in Changi by 2025, which will be able to produce at least 400 to 500 tonnes of cultivated meat a year.

Its existing plant occupies 480 sq m in Ayer Rajah Crescent, though the company declined to reveal its current output.
 

Ms Wilschut said that Meatable’s partnership with Esco Aster will allow the company to develop cultivated pork on a small scale by 2024 to serve at restaurants.

“We are planning to build our own factory in Singapore in the future as well,” she added.

However, having only one option currently available here will inevitably end in a bottleneck, said Meatiply’s Dr Tan, who hopes for more options to be available soon as the sector continues to grow.

He added that some manufacturing is needed not only for further experimentation, but also tasting events for marketing purposes, as well as safety testing and regulatory approval.

To address this, TP’s Dr Rufaihah said that it has noted the talent gap and will be expanding its curriculum to encompass skills such as bioreactor processing to support start-ups in this space.

Asked whether the Economic Development Board will bring in more contract manufacturing facilities from overseas, the agency said that it will be monitoring the evolving needs of cultivated meat companies and assisting them with relevant initiatives, which may include such facilities.

Esco Aster’s Founder and Chief Executive Lin Xiangliang said that it does not face any shortage of bioprocessing engineers, but will be looking to hire more of these engineers and biotechnicians when the company opens up its new facility by 2025.

Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction.