In Beijing’s Fengtai District, the New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base is aiming to fill the gap in China’s cultivated meat and microbial protein ecosystem.
China has just opened its first alternative protein centre for cultivated meat and fermentation-derived products, with support from both the public and private sectors.
Located in the China Meat Food Comprehensive Research Center in Beijing, the first-of-a-kind hub has been set up with an ¥80M ($10.9M) investment, in a joint effort by the local Fengtai District government and meat processor Shounong Food Group.
The two entities have worked together on a blueprint to integrate their resources, promote the development of academia, research and industry, and create a future food cluster.
“The New Protein Food Science and Technology Innovation Base will help complete the transformation of laboratory results into engineering and industrialisation, and lay a good development prospect for the commercialisation of cell-cultured meat,” Cui Xulong, Fengati District’s deputy mayor, said at the opening ceremony.
New hub extends Fengtai District’s biotech leadership
The alternative protein centre has built an innovative R&D platform and lab for novel foods like cultivated meat. It currently has a 200-litre cell line for cultivated meat, and a 2,000-litre production line for microbial protein, but plans to develop two 2,000-litre cell culture lines, and three microbial protein pilot lines of 2,000 and 5,000 litres.
As the first national-level tech innovation platform for cultivated meat in China, it will bring “unlimited possibilities” to the industry’s development, and will mainly focus on the fields of cell engineering and synthetic biology through breakthrough tech research, engineering application, and an industrial innovation ecosystem.
At the opening ceremony, attendees were shown a glimpse of the kind of products that can be born out of the research centre – think microbial protein bars, microbe-fermented tofu meat, and a cultivated marbled steak.
Fengtai District has emerged as a biomanufacturing leader in the future food industry. In May, it issued a policy measure to integrate resources, increase productivity, and speed up the development of the food industry. This resulted in the establishment of the district’s first future food industrial park, which attracted scientific research institutions, upstream and downstream enterprises, and industry associations.
The newly established Shounong Development and Innovation Science and Technology Industrial Park is now aiming to cultivate a new productivity force in Beijing’s agrifood industry, and become a “model zone” for the future food industry.
The district also intends to use artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies to establish a platform for real-time monitoring and traceability of the entire chain of future food production, processing, circulation, and sales, and enhance food safety.
China’s biotech dominance takes effect
Xulong noted that the new centre supports the development of the national bioeconomy and biomanufacturing industries, and can help boost national food security.
While China is the world’s largest meat consumer – making up 28% of the global consumption growth in the decade to 2023, with intakes set to increase further until 2030 – but experts suggest that half of all protein consumption in the country must come from alternative sources by 2060, if it is to decarbonise.
This can already be seen in current eating patterns – China is already consuming more protein per capita than the US, and more than 60% of this comes from vegetables, fruits, beans, nuts and seeds. Its share of global meat consumption is also set to fall to 11% in the next decade.
A 2024 survey suggests that when Chinese consumers are informed of the benefits of a vegan diet, 98% say they’ll eat more of these foods. This is driven by the country’s large flexitarian population, making up a third of the total.
The government’s current five-year agriculture plan encourages research in cultivated meat and recombinant proteins, while the five-year plan for bioeconomy development highlights an advancement of man-made protein and novel foods. President Xi Jinping, meanwhile, has called for a Grand Food Vision that includes plant-based and microbial protein sources.
“Beijing is actively advancing the development and innovation of the biomanufacturing industry, accelerating the coordination of municipal innovation resources, and increasing support in areas such as the industrial demonstration of cultured meat and the manufacturing of core ingredients for functional foods, fostering the growth of strategic emerging industries,” said Chen Lianwu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Companies like CellX, Joes Future Food and Jimi Biotech are already leading the cultivated meat charge in China, something that political leaders in America have also noticed. A group of Congress members have called on the US to step up its alternative protein game in the face of East Asian rival’s biotech dominance.
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