DUBLIN, Ohio — A central Ohio company is working to give alternatives to animal meat proteins in an industry that is projected to boom in coming years.

“I took a long look at it and said, this is what it must have been like to be in the room with Henry Ford when he told his fellow engineers that they were going to displace the horse and buggy with this product called the combustion engine,” said Eric Jenkusky, CEO and cofounder of Matrix F.T.

A relationship between the Eco startup Nursery and Nanofiber Solutions founded the company in 2019.

Matrix F.T. creates electro-spun technology that enables the growth of cultivated protein or meat. 

“In every living organism, there is what’s known as the extracellular matrix,” said Jenkusky. “And our process, we manufacture a plant-based replica of the extracellular matrix. And that’s what cells grow along to form muscle and all the various components of a living organism.”

Jenkusky said one goal of the company is to positively affect climate change and animal rights by manufacturing the technology to grow cultivated meats as an alternative. 

Research shows cultivated meat has less than 100 startups, but expects to be a $25 billion global industry by 2030, according to consulting firm McKinsey. 

Jenkusky says the resources required for cultivated meat are dramatically less in terms of land and water use.  

“This technology can also help de-centralize some of the food distribution issues that we saw during the Covid pandemic that were highlighted by the pandemic,” says Jenkusky. 

As for the future, Matrix F.T. is hoping for an important designation, one that would make them stand out across the globe.

“We think it’s incredibly important to be the first company to be a registered cultivated meat ingredient company,” said Jenkusky. “And that is why we’re currently actively working with the FDA and USDA, as well as the Ohio Department of Agriculture, to obtain those registrations.”