In California, lab-grown meat startup Mission Barns is focusing on fat but hopes in the longer term to be the first to claim production of kosher bacon.
“I grew up in Israel and a lot of my family won’t eat pork products, so it’s an area of particular interest for me,” Eitan Fischer, company CEO Mission Barns, tells Fortune. “Making the world’s first kosher pork ever, that would be exciting.”
For now, however, Mission Barn’s business plan is to grow fat from duck, pig, chicken, and cow stem cells and license the process to makers of meat alternatives, which often struggle to achieve the juicy, meaty flavor associated with conventional meat.
“We believe the way to do it is to partner with those with the infrastructure and scale who are already producing a lot of plant-based protein at low cost,” Fischer says.
The company recently raised $24 million in venture capital funding, which it will use to build a facility with larger cultivators and boost its headcount beyond the current 18.