Believer Meats, a Chicago-based company commercializing cultivated meat made from animal cells, has completed construction of Phase 1 of its 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Wilson, N.C., and aims to be operational by the end of the year.
The new facility, which the company says is the world’s largest for cultivated meat production, will allow Believer Meats to operate as a fully commercial entity. The site employs about 50 people and is expected to grow to around 125.
“Believer Meats’ collaboration with local and state economic development leaders, along with North Carolina’s thriving bio-manufacturing and agriculture community, has made it possible to establish this facility, the first of its kind,” Gustavo Burger, chief executive officer (CEO) of the company.
“We are proud to be commercializing in this state, creating high-quality manufacturing jobs and enabling us to realize our vision to lead food innovations that care for the planet.”
In its first phase, the company will produce 21 million pounds of chicken annually, priced on par with organic at $8.50–$10.00 per pound. Free from antibiotics, hormones, GMOs and artificial additives, Believer Meats says its chicken delivers a premium value proposition, with capacity designed to double to 42 million pounds in the future.
“Being able to produce cultivated meat at this scale means that hundreds of thousands of people could potentially try it,” said Heather Hudson, chief product and growth officer at Believer Meats. “Scaling production also brings the price down, making it more accessible not just for a certain demographic, but for most people.”
Cultivated chicken is regulated by both the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), with the FDA regulating initial stages of production, and the USDA assuming responsibility once the product becomes meat. The Believer Meats facility will operate as a USDA-registered site, meaning a USDA inspector will always be present, just as in conventional meat production.
Believer Meats recently completed the first part of its regulatory requirements, receiving a No Questions Letter from the FDA confirming that its cultivation process, ingredients, and final product raise no safety concerns.
“This letter is a major milestone, especially since there’s no formal guidance for cultivated meat companies,” said Hudson. “We are now working to commission each system in the facility to ensure it functions as designed. Once that is complete, the USDA can conduct its inspection.”
Hudson explains that Believer Meats has developed chicken cells that grow efficiently in optimized, lower-cost media and by creating processes to remove waste products that slow cell growth. These advances reduced the need for massive bioreactors and kept capital costs lower while the food science team worked to ensure the final product met expectations for taste, texture and performance in food service.
“It’s really the marriage of biology and engineering that sets Believer apart,” she said. “Keeping our eye on the finished price point clarified what the biologists and engineers needed to achieve — and it meant we could build a factory at a fraction of the capital other companies would require.”
The Believer Meats team visited more than 100 locations across the U.S. before selecting N.C. The state’s coastal access made exporting easier, and its existing biotechnology infrastructure, including clean rooms, cell repositories and academic institutions, provided a strong foundation that the company could build on.
“Wilson, in particular, stood out for its focus on biotech and an exceptional partnership with the local economic development team,” said Hudson. “Several cultivated meat companies are already in the area, and as more of us build out infrastructure tailored not just for pharma and biotech but for cultivated meat, it will attract additional companies and processors and strengthen the regional ecosystem.”
The Wilson facility was made possible through significant funding milestones, including a Series B. The round had participation from ADM, S2G, Tyson Foods and others.
The North Carolina Biotechnology Center provided a $100,000 Partnership Development Grant to support the community's work with the company, and the One North Carolina Fund provided a $500,000 performance-based grant to secure the company's choice of N.C. for its facility.
The NCBiotech grant has helped support Believer Meats’ collaboration with North Carolina State University, including the university’s Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein. The company plans to build an R&D center on the NC State Centennial Campus to access student talent and academic programs that can help accelerate product development and time to market.