Neil Perry serves up cell-based meat

Vow, an Australian-based innovative food company developing meat products directly from animal cells, has held a culinary demonstration of its multi-species meat platform, prepared by renowned Australian chefs Neil Perry and Corey Costelloe.

Perry, Australia’s most famous chef and founder of the Rockpool restaurant empire, is an advocate of Vow and helped design the dishes for the product demonstration.

“The work Vow is doing is awesome,” he says. “Blending deep technology with the culinary world opens a new creative era in food, and does so in a way that’s sustainable for future generations. I think that’s an incredibly exciting thing to be a part of.”

Six different animal species were selected from Vow’s diverse cell library and cultivated for this product demonstration and included kangaroo, pig, lamb, alpaca, rabbit and goat.

“Until now, the cultured meat industry has focused on better ways of making the meat we most commonly eat today,” says George Peppou, co-founder and CEO of Vow. “This milestone demonstrates that we can grow the cells of any animal, not just those we can farm, marking a turning point for the cultured meat industry and our food system.

“To make food without compromise we must stop looking backward to how our ancestors produced and ate food and instead choose how we will eat in the future.”

Vow has only been in operation for 16 months, but has already built an impressive team of scientists, engineers and designers: “Our rapid progress has taken us out of the lab and into one of Australia’s best kitchens,” says Tim Noakesmith, co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Vow. “Now we’re turning our focus to building a meat prototype that outperforms the sensory experience of any conventional meat we know.”

Vow now aims to build a world-class food-science and culinary team to develop new products aimed at markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

“We’re now hiring a world-class team of chefs, food scientists and sensory experts from around the world, to turn biology breakthroughs into wildly decadent food experiences.” Noakesmith says. “We want to hear from the best in food who want to use their skills to reinvent our food systems for a better future.” 

With global demand for meat products growing every year, Vow is rebuilding food from the ground up. Vow’s approach will reduce the pressures on traditional animal agriculture to meet this global demand, while also benefiting human health, reducing animal suffering, lowering the meat industry’s carbon footprint and promoting food security.