BSF Enterprise PLC shares shot up 17.24% to 21.69p after the investment company revealed that its wholly-owned subsidiary, 3D Bio-Tissues (3DBT), has successfully produced the UK's first steak fillet of structured cultivated meat.
The fillet of pork, produced in 3DBT’s Newcastle-based laboratory, was cooked and eaten by the subsidiary’s management team, BSF said in a statement.
The news comes after the company’s November announcement that 3DBT had produced three prototypes of lab-grown meat.
The fillet was produced using 3DBT's patented, serum-free and animal-free cell booster, City-mix, which eliminated the requirement of conventional plant-based scaffolds, blends or fillers, as have been universally adopted by the industry to date to ensure structural integrity of cultivated meat products.
3DBT's fillet is therefore 100% meat, and BSF said it believes this is “the world's first 100% cultivated pork steak to be produced”.
READ: Is the world ready for lab meat? BSF Enterprise hopes so
In a statement, Dr Che Connon, chief executive of 3DBT, said: "This is a significant scientific breakthrough which has very positive implications not just for BSF and 3DBT but also for the UK and the cultivated meat industry as a whole.
“We are absolutely delighted with the look, taste and texture of our cultivated pork, which is the first time we have fully sampled our product. Our cruelty-free fillet has exceeded our expectations in all respects, and we are extremely excited about the technological progress we are making and the impact this could have upon our industry."
"City-mix, our serum-free media in which we cultivated the fillet, is helping to greatly reduce the cost of cultivated meat such that it may become economically viable in the near future. At the same time our 'structure without scaffold' technology is helping to make cultivated meat that more closely resembles traditional meat in every respect, without the need for plant-based additives. We look forward to taking the findings through to the next stage of development, focused on producing a chef-ready product for public consumption," Dr Connon added.