Perfecting the World's First Cultured Gourmet Pork - Novel Farms, Inc. CEO and Co-Founder Nieves Martínez Marshall

This episode features exciting developments in the world of cultured pork loin. Nieves Martínez Marshall, Ph.D., co-founded Novel Farms in 2020 along with Michelle Lu. As the company's CEO, Nieves leads the early-stage food tech company dedicated to producing whole cuts of gourmet cell-based meat products using scalable and tunable scaffolds. They are the world's first company to recreate pork loin in the lab, and their flagship product is Iberian pork created by using a 'novel' (pun intended) tastebud-led process. Iberian, or 'Iberico,' pork is often described as the "Wagyu" of pork and comes from an extraordinary Black Iberian pig species native to Spain and Portugal. The resulting meat is oleic acid-rich and exceptionally marbled.

Episode highlights include: 

• The company came out of stealth mode in late 2022 to announce that it had developed the world's first cultivated marbled pork loin
• Why the company aims to bring culinary delicacies into the future of food by crafting cultivated meats that will be hard to resist, such as Iberian pork, which is one of the most sought-after and exquisite meats in the world
• How the company has cracked the code to achieve similar marbling and texture as a cut of animal meat with its pork loin

Also discussed in this episode - FDA's approval of Upside Foods' proposal to make human food from cultured animal cells: https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-completes-first-pre-market-consultation-human-food-made-using-animal-cell-culture-technology 

Novel Farms' website: https://novelfarms.co/