TEL AVIV, ISRAEL — Cultivated meat manufacturer SuperMeat announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Migros, Switzerland’s largest retail supermarket chain and leading meat manufacturer. The partnership is intended to expedite the commercialization of cultivated meat.

“We are thrilled to be working with a prominent foodservice partner like Migros as we move toward our joint vision of producing cultivated meat on a mass scale,” said Ido Savir, chief executive officer of SuperMeat. “Their expertise and reach in food production and grocery paired with SuperMeat’s advancements in the industry will set the stage to bring cultivated meat to European consumers in the near future.”

SuperMeat is taking additional steps to further the introduction of cultivated meat at a commercial level by developing the first open-source system that can identify cost-effective cell feed. Also, the company signed another MOU last year with European poultry producer PHW Group.

With its own plans to expedite the production and distribution of cultivated meat, Migros recently partnered with two Swiss companies, Givaudan and Bühler, to establish The Cultured Food Innovation Hub, which is dedicated to building a pilot plant to further research and grow cultivated meat.

“As consumers demand more sustainable, healthier and alternative protein products, Migros wants to ensure it is prepared to meet the needs of this growing customer base when the time comes,” said Matthew Robin, CEO of ELSA-Mifroma, a Migros Group company. “Having the opportunity to taste SuperMeat’s cultivated chicken personally at their restaurant in Israel, I was very impressed with how similar this was to traditional chicken, confirming my conviction of the potential for this technology to change the meat industry.”