MeaTech shares bounce after creating "world's biggest" lab-grown steak

Shares in MeaTech were up 24 per cent to $8.62, up 5.9 per cent to $8.50 at Oatly, and up 4.4 per cent to $164.95 at Balchem, the US ingredients company.

Creating what is believed to be the "world’s biggest" cultivated steak helped shares in MeaTech climb 24 per cent this week to $8.62, according to the FutureFoodFinance Foodtech Index

The steak was made of muscle and fat cells, using state-of-the-art 3D bioprining technology.

It weighed nearly 4oz (110 grams), and its details have been revealed as the race hot’s up to bring cultivated meats to market across the world.

Sharon Fima, CEO at MeaTech, said: “The breakthrough is the culmination of over one year’s efforts in our cellular biology and high-throughput tissue-engineering processes, as well as our precision bioprinting technology.

“We believe we have placed ourselves at the forefront of the race to develop high-end, cell-based meat products.” Cell lines for pork and chicken are also being developed."

Here is MeaTech's explanation of the process used to make the steak.

MeaTech said: “The cells used in making the steak were produced using an advanced and proprietary process that starts by isolating bovine stem cells from tissue samples and multiplying them.

“Upon reaching sufficient cellular mass, stem cells were formulated into bio-inks compatible with MeaTech’s proprietary 3D bio-printer.

“The bio-inks were printed from a digital design file of a steak structure. The printed product was placed in an incubator to mature, where the printed stem cells were differentiated into fat and muscle cells that develop into fat and muscle tissue, respectively, to form the MeaTech steak.”

MeaTech, the first cultivated meat firm to be listed, revealed its plans to develop cultivated pork in June this year.

In September, it announced that its subsidiary, Peace of Meat, had made over half a kilogram of cultured chicken fat biomass.

According to the Guardian, MeaTech’s first move into the market will be to sell the cultured fat as an ingredient for other products.

MeaTech shares have been on an upward trajectory since August this year when they hit a year-low of $5.

Elsewhere, shares in Oatly were up 5.9 per cent to $8.50, according to the tracker.

However, its shares are still considerably down from the June year-high of $27.820.

According to the Motley Fool, a bounce of 12 per cent on one day last week was in line with a recovery across certain stocks.

It said: “Shares of Oatly Group (soared as much as 12% on Tuesday. There was no news from the company, so it looks like the stock is just bouncing along with the broad market recovery in small-cap growth stocks.

Finally, shares in Balchem, the US ingredients company, were up 4.4 per cent $164.95.