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Meet the founder trying to make meat fat sexy again | Behind the Business
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Oct 7, 2024
In this episode of Behind the Business, City A.M. SME and entrepreneurship journalist Jenny Sieg sits down with the co-founder of Hoxton Farms Max Jamilly and talks about the secret behind the business of creating a deliciously fatty future and making fat sexy again. Get more of City A.M. š š http://www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/cityam #entrepreneur #interview #business #businessowner #businesstips #meat #food Produced by: Emmanuel Nwosu, Joseph Curay Teneda, Jennifer Sieg
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0:00
So we're all about making fat sexy again, reminding people that fat is what makes their food taste so delicious
0:06
Walk me through how hawks and farms works then. How do you grow the cells? And what's that, you know, experience like
0:12
So what we make is real animal fat. We just do it in a different way. So is not vegan? Is that considered vegan then
0:19
That's a great question. I think the term vegan is no longer fit for purpose. What we make comes from animals. So it's probably not vegan
0:30
So Max, would you want to start off by telling me a little bit about yourself
0:48
Hi Jenny, yeah, sure. I'm the co-founder here at Hotson Farms. I'm a biologist by background
0:53
So I spent the last 15 years of my career growing cells, but now I grow them and eat them as well
0:59
because here at Hawks and Farms, we're creating a deliciously fatty future
1:03
by growing real animal fat just without the animals. And so kind of walk me through how Hawkson Farms works then
1:10
How do you grow the cells? And what's that, you know, experience like? So what we make is real animal fat
1:16
We just do it in a different way. We take a handful of cells from an animal like a cow or a pig
1:22
and we bring those cells into what we call a cultivator. It looks a lot like the fermenter that you'd use to brew bitter
1:28
and we convince those cells that they're still inside an animal. We give them the food and the nutrients that they need to grow
1:37
just like an animal would eat. And over the course of a few weeks, the cells divide and grow
1:44
and then we switch them to a high fat diet These cells are cells which would have turned into fat if we left them inside the animal So all we doing is recreating the natural process of growing into fat And over another two
1:57
weeks or so inside our cultivators, the cells mature into juicy, delicious fat cells. So what
2:03
we harvest at the end of the process is real fat tissue, a lot like you would get in your steak or
2:09
your pork belly from the butcher. So is that vegan? Is that considered vegan then? That's a great question
2:16
I think the term vegan is no longer fit for purpose. What we make comes from animals, so it's probably not vegan
2:24
It's likely to be vegetarian because it's cruelty-free. In fact, a lot more cruelty-free than, say, eggs or dairy, which are vegetarian too
2:33
But the point is this is something different entirely. It's not just for vegans and vegetarians
2:40
It's for everyone. It's for the flexitarians who make up something like 60% of the population
2:46
in the UK. They love eating meat, but they want to eat less meat because they know that it's not
2:51
great for their health. It's not great for the planet, and it's certainly not good for animals
2:55
And they don't care too much about labels like vegan or vegetarian. They just want something
3:00
delicious. But I think for the average person, thinking about fat as it's just something that we
3:05
don't tend to think about, especially not in a positive light. So we're all about making fat sexy
3:09
again, reminding people that fat is what makes their food taste so delicious. Like all other ingredients
3:16
be eaten in moderation. Indeed, the fact that we make, we can make much healthier than traditional
3:21
fat too, but you still need some fat no matter what you're eating and it'll make it taste much better
3:26
And what was feedback like at the beginning? Were people quite, you know, on board with the
3:30
whole cell-grown fat thing with meat or were they kind of skeptical about it, kind of jumping into it
3:35
in 2020 It definitely takes a bit of understanding right And we know that consumer acceptance is going to be a journey for us Just as I said before food is this incredibly close connection that we have with our bodies and therefore we all pretty cautious about what we eat
3:50
In some cases, perhaps not cautious enough, but it's normal for there to be some neophobia when it comes to new foods
3:57
In fact, given how futuristic what we make really is, it's remarkable how willing people are to accept it
4:04
We started in 2020. Since then we've raised about $25 million. We've moved to this incredible
4:13
pilot facility which we opened last September. It's London's first and only pilot facility
4:19
for growing cultivated meat. It's a 14,000 square foot facility. We have about 1,000 litres of
4:25
culture capacity and at full whack we'll be making over a ton of fat hair every single month
4:32
At this facility will prove that cultivated fat is commercially viable as an ingredient
4:37
that we can make it an incredible scale and incredibly cost-effectively to a cost that competes with plant-based oils like coconut oil
4:46
and even competes with traditional fat, and then we'll grow from here
4:51
And yeah, I would love to know kind of who the product is for and what that general consumer audience is
4:56
So we know that demand for meat alternatives is soaring. The problem is a lot of consumers are disappointed
5:05
People know that eating meat is bad for them, bad for the planet, bad for animals
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but they don't want to compromise on taste, on the cultural experience of eating meat
5:17
the fun that they have when they go out with their friends and eat it. And if we want people to eat meat alternatives more than once a month or even once a week
5:26
then it needs to taste great as well. The reason today meat alternatives are so disappointing comes down to one missing ingredient that fat Fat is what makes meat smell and sizzle and brown and taste incredible on the barbecue
5:41
And today's plant oils, like coconut oils, just aren't up to the job
5:47
It's why plant-based burgers and plant-based meatballs aren't as good as the real thing
5:52
And that's where we come in. We grow real animal fat without the animals, and we sell our cultivated fat as an incredible
5:58
to meat alternatives companies. They combine our fat with their protein to make finished products like pork belly or bacon or meatballs which finally look and cook and taste just as good as the real thing
6:12
so that flexitarians can reduce their traditional meat consumption and eat meat alternatives instead without having to give up on that taste and that pleasure of the real thing
6:28
every day thinking about the difference that we might make years from now. I wake up every day
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thinking about the awesome problems that we're solving day to day, incredible people I have the privilege
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of working with and all the fun stuff that we get to do like solving cool scientific problems
6:46
tasting delicious food, speaking to incredible food companies who are doing their own thing to change
6:51
the world. I think that's what drives all of us every day and just creating all of that as a team
6:58
That is the kind of fuel that you need to do something very difficult and we'll see what comes next
7:04
It's really inspiring. I mean there's a lot of challenges that have been facing a lot of startups in the past two years
7:09
And so to be able to see that resilience, I think it's going to be a key driver in the new year
7:13
that's for sure. I hope so. Cool. Well thank you so much Max
7:17
And there you have it, everybody. That's Max Jamley, co-founder of Hoxton Farms
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