Sallea

Sallea is a Swiss deep tech startup founded in 2023 that develops edible scaffolds for the cellular agriculture industry. The company's proprietary technology enables the creation of precisely structured, porous 3D grids that serve as the foundation for cultivating textured whole cuts of meat and fish. These scaffolds are added to bioreactors containing cells, which then attach to the scaffolds and grow in three dimensions, improving the nutritional profile and texture of the end product.

Sallea's proprietary scaffolding technology allows the creation of precisely structured, porous 3D grids designed to cultivate cells in three dimensions and aims to address the limitations of current cultivated meat production, which has been mostly restricted to unstructured products like sausages and minced meat. Sallea’s technology, based on research from ETH Zurich, uses a unique 3D printing method with salt to create molds. These molds are infiltrated with specific material formulations and later dissolve with water, leaving behind a scaffold with controlled pore size, shape, and overall porosity.

Sallea's scaffolds are versatile and can be tailored in size, shape, and nutritional profile to meet specific customer needs. They can be made from various proteins and combinations, including cellulose and alginate-based materials. This flexibility allows the scaffolds to constitute up to 90% of the end product, making them suitable for a range of applications while maintaining a clean label free of animal-derived ingredients.