Disney+, the world’s third-largest streaming service, will next month release a new Korean thriller series based on cultivated meat, with a new poster confirming the novel protein’s central role in the story.
The Disney+ Original K-drama will feature Ju Ji-hoon (Lucifer, Kingdom) and Han Hyo-joo (Dong Yi, Moving) in the lead roles, with the storyline blending mystery, technology and ethical dilemmas. The teaser poster of the series showcases a piece of cultivated steak branded with the letters ‘BF’ (for Blood Free) under a 3D printer, with tubes attached to both sides of it.
On the Korean poster, the tagline reads: “Will you join us in this age of artificially cultured meat?” It’s accompanied with a caption stating: “Conspiracies, conflict and cultured meat. One brilliant woman and her protector face the dangers of a #BloodFree future.”
Cultivated meat forms the backdrop of K-drama Blood Free
Courtesy: Disney+
The 10-episode series, previously called Dominant Species, is a suspense thriller set in 2025. It revolves around Yoon Ja-yu (played by Han), who is the CEO of BF Group, a biotech company that has pioneered cultivated meat development. While the firm dominates the market share, Yoon is facing doubts and scrutiny both publicly and internally.
Ju, meanwhile, plays Woo Chae-woon, a former Naval Academy graduate and soldier and current bodyguard who is haunted by past failures. He is chasing the mastermind behind a terrorist attack, and after following several different leads, he approaches Yoon – also a survivor of the attack – to offer protection.
The cast includes Lee Hee-jun, who portrays prime minister Seon Woo-jae, who wants to take control of BF Group. Lee Moo-saeng plays the role of Onsan, Yoon’s friend of 20 years and a physiologist who developed the cell culture tech as a co-founder of BF Group. He developed the technology alongside bioengineer Kim Shin-gu (played by Kim Sang-ho).
They are joined by Park Ji-yeon, who portrays the role of a lawyer and head of planning at BF Group, and Jeon Seok-ho, who plays an IT expert at the firm. The series is written by Lee Soo-yeon, who was behind the acclaimed 2017 series Stranger (an adaptation of Forest of Secrets), and directed by Park Cheol-hwan, who worked alongside Lee on the 2022 series Grid.
Cultivated meat in pop culture, and the importance of accurate representation
It’s not the first time these proteins have been on screen – it was the subject of the 2020 documentary Meat the Future, a Jane Goodall-narrated film that chronicled the story of Californian cultivated chicken producer Upside Foods (which is one of only two companies currently allowed to all cultivated meat in the US).
Cultivated meat has been represented in onscreen fiction too. In 2009, the satirical workplace comedy Better Off Ted attempted to create “beef without cows” in a lab in the episode titled Heroes. However, it also highlighted the risks of misrepresenting cultivated meat to a wider public – the show’s food taster said the meat tasted like “despair”.
It perpetuated two common perceptions of cultivated meat that remain to this day, and to the industry’s detriment. First, the idea that cultivated meat tastes bad or – in Better Off Ted’s case – just plain sad could be off-putting to people who are already unsure about these novel foods. And second, it associated cultivated meat with the ‘lab-grown’ moniker, despite the sector’s attempts to move away from it.
This is because, at scale, cultivated meat is – like most foods – grown in bioreactors in a production facility, not labs. These cultivators are similar to the setup of a brewery. This makes ‘lab-grown’ a misleading term, and it’s one that carries the most uninviting tone to consumers. Research has constantly shown that consumers find ‘lab-grown’ to be the least favourable term (more so than even ‘artificial meat’), with 75% of Americans finding it unappealing.
Blood Free has similar connotations, with the English poster reading: “Out lab-grown future has arrived.” While the representation of cultivated meat in popular media is a significant way to increase awareness of the term, it’s important that the circumstances around it – the terrorist attacks and the doubts faced by the CEO of a cultivated meat company – don’t turn consumers away from these foods, which are vital for a climate-friendly future.
South Korea’s attitudes and support for cultivated meat
Courtesy: TissenBioFarm
The news of the release comes shortly after South Korea established a framework for the regulatory approval of cultivated meat, with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety now accepting applications from cultivated meat producers. Several local startups are expected to file dossiers in the coming weeks, ushering in a new era for meat in the country.
The process takes up to 270 days and costs ₩45M ($34,000), with startups needing to file a comprehensive application to be considered safe for human consumption and allowed to sell their products.
Consumer surveys have displayed a willingness to give these products a shot. A 1,100-person poll by the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture in October found that 90% of South Koreans are open to trying cultivated meat at least once (though only 5% indicated they’d eat it regularly). Moreover, 39% were supportive of cultivated meat being sold at supermarkets and restaurants (with 14- to 29-year-olds leading the way), and just 10% were opposed to its commercialisation.
In fact, 19% of Koreans said they would prefer cultivated meat over plant proteins. But price remains a significant barrier, with 65% citing it as the most important factor for eating these products, followed by taste and texture (62%). This is reflected in the fact that despite two-thirds of Korean households spending up to ₩50,000 ($23-38) each week on meat products, only 12% would be willing to pay ₩1,000-3,000 (75 cents to $2) more per 100g of cultivated meat.
Calisa Lim, project manager at APAC-SCA, told Green Queen at the time: “We need combined synergies and efforts through investors, contract manufacturers, established stakeholders, startups, and government bodies to facilitate a thriving ecosystem for cultivated meat and seafood in South Korea.”
Can Blood Free make Koreans – and the 150 million people who subscribe to Disney+ globally – hungry for cultivated meat?
Californian cultivated meat producer Eat Just has paused its Singapore operations, three months after Huber’s Bistro stopped selling its Good Meat chicken. The production facility set to open in Q3 last year has also been shut, as the company says it’s reevaluating its strategy in Asia.
2024 will mark the four-year anniversary of Eat Just’s historic regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat in Singapore. Since then, the Californian startup received clearance in the US too, and restaurants began selling its Good Meat chicken in both countries.
However, you can’t find Eat Just’s chicken – or any cultivated meat, for that matter – in restaurants anymore. In Singapore, its product is no longer available at Huber’s Bistro, which was the only restaurant offering the chicken last year.
And now, it has emerged that Eat Just has pressed pause on its operations in the island nation, with the company telling the Straits Times it’s reassessing its Asia strategy. “We’re evaluating various processing conditions, the unit economics, and a larger strategic approach to producing in Asia,” a spokesperson said.
The Singapore newspaper has revealed that Eat Just is no longer producing in Singapore, with the $61M Good Meat manufacturing plant in Bedok – which was slated for a Q3 2023 launch – seemingly not in operation anymore, while the $120M factory for Just Egg in the city’s Pioneer area also cancelled.
Manufacturing facilities shuttered, but products to return ‘very soon’
Courtesy: Eat Just
The Strait Times visited Bedok Food City, the site of Good Meat’s 30,000 sq ft facility – last week, but employees from other companies in the building said Eat Just’s two units on the ground floor were closed. They added that these had rarely opened for about six months. One of the closed units had boxes full of air-purifying equipment sitting outside, and the other had benches piled up.
The newspaper said a separate commercial plant that previously manufactured Good Meat’s chicken is not producing for the company anymore either. Eat Just said there was “no firm timeline” on when the Bedok facility would be operational, noting that the startup had “produced and paused and produced and paused” since it began selling the chicken.
However, they added: “We’re planning to produce at least twice as much in Singapore this year than any year before.”
Eat Just had announced that it had broken ground on a plant protein facility for its vegan Just Egg product in March 2022, stating that it would take about two years to complete. But when asked about progress on this, the spokesperson said: “We are not building a facility in Pioneer.”
Meanwhile, the company indicated that Good Meat will soon be back at Huber’s Bistro, which offered the chicken as part of skewers and salads. The spokesperson said the products will return to the eatery “very soon”, once the supply is ready.
The foodservice pause isn’t just in Singapore – Good Meat used to be available at the José Andrés-owned Washington, DC restaurant China Chilcano, but the eatery passed reservations for its tasting menu featuring the cultivated chicken back in September. “The most important activities for GOOD Meat are related to process development and lowering costs long-term. We are focusing our efforts and resources on those tasks at this time,” Eat Just’s global communications director, Carrie Kabat, told Green Queen last month.
Eat Just looks to overcome challenges for a profitable 2024
Courtesy: Eat Just
This is the latest in a growing list of challenges faced by Eat Just over the last year. As the company – which has raised over $850M to date – aims for profitability in 2024, it is in the middle of multiple legal battles with suppliers and manufacturers over non-payment.
Eat Just has been involved in at least seven lawsuits since 2019 – and while it has settled some of them, its case with bioreactor manufacturer ABEC is still ongoing. The latter sued the alternative protein startup for $100M, which included payments for changes to the scope of the work, alongside unpaid invoices. But last month, Eat Just filed a counterclaim alleging that it was ABEC that breached contractual terms.
The Californian startup also shut down production on the facility that was going to house the ABEC bioreactors, which was announced in May 2022. Speaking to Green Queen in September, Eat Just CEO Josh Tetrick said: “In the past few years we have invested a lot of capital in the design and engineering for a large-scale cultivated meat facility, knowing we would have to raise additional capital to complete the rest of the facility.”
He added: “Because of market conditions, we found ourselves in a position where it became very challenging to raise that additional capital. At this point, we’re re-assessing how we think about a large-scale facility in a more realistic way – which will still be very challenging.”
But conversely, the company has made several strides to ensure it can break even this year. The news about its Singapore operations comes a week after Eat Just announced it had sold the equivalent of 500 million eggs since Just Egg’s launch in 2019. And in January, it relaunched its cult-favourite Just Mayo and Ranch lines.
“Challenges, doubts, and unforeseen hurdles have not stopped Eat Just from continuing to drive innovation in plant-based foods to give consumers better choices and more ways to change the food system for the better every time they sit down to a meal,” the brand told Green Queen during the launch.
Cultivated meat is still progressing in Singapore and elsewhere
Courtesy: Eat Just
It shows how it’s not all doom and gloom for cultivated meat. Kabat confirmed that Good Meat planned to resume tastings in the US this year, as did Upside Foods, the only other company to have the regulatory greenlight for cultivated meat in the US.
And as for Singapore, the country still remains a hotbed for alternative protein in Asia – it was the world’s first to approve these novel proteins for sale, and it’s now expected to grant the next clearance in the sector, with Dutch company Meatable anticipating the go-ahead by Q2. This would make it the first European startup – and first cultivated pork producer – to be allowed to sell cultivated meat anywhere in the world. France’s Vital Meat and Israel’s Aleph Farms (which is already approved in its home country) have also filed dossiers in Singapore for their products.
Additionally, last month, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore ruled that cultivated meat can be halal under specific circumstances. It was followed by South Korea inviting applications for safety assessments of cultivated meat for regulatory approval. Meanwhile, Australia’s Vow Food has advanced into a public consultation process for its cultivated quail in Australia and New Zealand, before it will enter a 60-day review period for ministers.
“Transforming the global food system is a relay race, not a sprint,” said Mirte Gosker, managing director of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute APAC. “With more than 150 companies operating in the cultivated meat sector worldwide, progress is bound to come in fits and starts, as has been the case in clean energy, electric vehicles, and other emerging technologies.
“What matters most is that cultivated meat as a category succeeds, because there is no path to limiting global warming to 1.5°C without reimagining the way meat gets to our plates.”
In what would be a major step towards the regulatory approval and commercialisation of cultivated meat, the UK is aiming to begin safety testing by this autumn, with the Food Standards Agency hoping to win government funding for the lab facilities.
It was in August that Israeli cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms announced the submission of its dossier for regulatory approval from the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA). Five months later, the company became just the third in the world to receive the all-clear to sell cultivated meat – but this was in its home country of Israel, not the UK.
However, Aleph Farms may be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel soon, with the FSA reportedly planning to start conducting safety tests for cultivated meat this autumn, according to the Grocer. The FSA is in talks with food companies and has issued a call for scientists to work alongside to pilot a ‘sandbox’ testing project, which will enable them to assess the novel proteins for human consumption.
The FSA is seeking government funding for the labs that would be used to conduct the tests, with a bid to win financing through a £5M scheme announced by UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt last autumn.
“Following the chancellor’s announcement late last year that new regulatory sandboxes would be created to help support transformative innovations in emerging sectors, the Food Standards Agency has signalled its interest in creating a sandbox environment for cultivated meat,” Linus Pardoe, UK policy manager at alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe – which has previously called on the chancellor to provide the FSA with a £30M injection – told Green Queen.
Slow post-Brexit regulation drives UK producers elsewhere
Courtesy: Hoxton Farms
The FSA still follows pre-Brexit rules set out by the European Food Safety Agency, which classes cultivated meat as a novel food that requires premarket authorisation. These are said to be the strictest regulations around food safety in the world, and so far, no alternative protein company has received the go-ahead to sell cultivated meat.
Publicly, Aleph Farms is the only one to have applied in Europe – though both filings were in countries outside the EU (Switzerland and the UK). Dutch company Meatable has announced it will soon apply in the Netherlands, after it cleared the route for public tastings of cell-cultured meat.
In the UK, there was talk of fast-tracking the approval of these foods through a bilateral deal with Israel, with government and FSA officials visiting the country to taste cultivated meat and see how it’s regulated in the Middle Eastern nation. But this was just before its conflict with Hamas began, which has likely derailed any such deals for the time being.
But now, even as many EU countries ban or attempt to restrict these proteins, cultivated meat regulation could be preparing for a shakeup in its former member nation. The FSA will next month present plans for an overhaul of novel foods (among other products) in its board meeting next month, in the face of criticism that it has been too slow to capitalise on post-Brexit freedom in this area.
Speaking to Green Queen in August, Pardoe warned that the UK could risk losing momentum in the regulation race if it didn’t ramp up investment in the sector – countries like the US and Singapore had already approved cultivated meat for sale by then, and the Netherlands and Israel were making good progress. The prophecy has come true, with British cultured pork fat company Hoxton Farms considering a move to the US in order to speed up the regulatory green light.
“We’re very confident we will get approval from the US FDA [Food and Drug Administration], so we’re considering building our first manufacturing facility outside the UK,” CEO Ed Steele told the Financial Times this week. “That’s not what we want to do, but we need to do what’s best for the company.”
The Grocer has previously reported that an FSA-commissioned report by Deloitte in 2023 found that speeding up of novel foods regulation could help the UK meet its carbon reduction plans (the country has earmarked 2050 as its net-zero target). A GFI report from last year found that cultivated meat can reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of meat production by 92%.
“We are actively engaging with CCP [cell-cultured product] companies to understand their novel technologies and understand how we can support innovation,” FSA deputy director of food policy Natasha Smith told the Grocer. “Engagement is ongoing, and we are continually speaking to industry about how to best manage applications and to set expectations about the approval process.”
Increased funding supports cultivated meat progress in the UK
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
“Should it receive funding, the FSA will be able to use the sandbox to further develop its understanding of the key food safety considerations and nutritional value of cultivated meat, helping it implement the UK’s robust regulatory framework and build consumer confidence in this food,” said Pardoe.
Regulatory sandboxes involve companies to test new concepts – in this case, cultivated meat – with real customers under the supervision of a regulator, as designed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority.
“If funding is granted, we can create a team in the FSA that works with the cell-cultivated product industry to agree on what should be included within their applications, address complex regulatory questions, and provide pre-application support to CCP companies,” said the FSA’s Smith.
In August, GFI Europe urged the UK government to invest £390M in alternative proteins between 2025 and 2030, while a report by the Green Alliance suggested that, with the right combination of targeted investments and regulation, this industry could be worth £6.8B annually and create 25,000 British jobs by 2035.
In that vein, earlier this month, government body UK Research and Innovation made an investment through its Technical Missions fund for University of Oxford cultivated meat researcher Hua Ye. And fellow state agency Innovate UK awarded close to a £500,000 grant to turn the northeast into a cultivated meat production hub, with the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), MarraBio Ltd and Aelius Biotech working together to create cost-effective and low-emission cultured meat products.
“Ensuring the safety of any new and innovative food product, including cell-cultivated products, is paramount, and we must continue to balance fast-paced technological advances and industry demands with protecting public health,” said Smith.
One source told the Grocer that both the FSA and cultivated meat producers hoping to commercialise their products agree that proving the safety of these foods is crucial. “The sandbox is really zeroing in on cultivated meats specifically,” they said.
As mentioned above, there has been a lot of backlash from EU countries like Italy, France and Romania, who have either outlawed the production and sale of cultivated meat, or are hoping to do so. Among the main reasons cited are to protect culinary heritage, livestock farmers, and human health.
But the source argued that cultivated meat would be safer than conventional meat from a hygiene perspective. “You are talking about food being grown in what is essentially a sterile laboratory, in contrast to your average abattoir,” he noted. “It’s going to be a laboratory with scientists from the FSA looking all over it, I doubt it’s going to get any cleaner than that.”
South Korea has opened up the regulatory approval process for cultivated meat, after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety established the framework for these applications.
During the launch of the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum in October, Mirte Gosker, director of founding organisation the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, predicted that South Korea would be among the APAC countries next in line to develop regulatory frameworks for cultivated meat, with both countries “proactively seeking input from industry groups to craft clear and efficient safety review processes”.
Four months on, that prophecy has come true, with South Korea now accepting applications for the regulatory approval of cultivated meat. Today, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) officially published the Standards for Recognition of Temporary Standards and Specifications for Food, etc. to “revitalise the food industry”.
It has revised the framework and clarified the procedure for recognising food ingredients made from “cell and microbial culture” technology. This means that cultivated meat startups, which could previously only use these ingredients for R&D purposes, can now file dossiers to be allowed to sell these products in the country. So far, only Singapore, the US and Israel have approved the sale of cultivated meat.
The latter came just last month, when Israeli’s health ministry granted clearance to local startup Aleph Farms, whose regulatory affairs chef Yifat Gavriel said: “2024 stands to be a landmark year for the advancement of regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultivated meat.” It certainly is proving to be the case, if South Korea’s announcement is anything to go by.
“Today’s announcement of a tangible path to market for cultivated meat companies is a welcome recognition of the important role that future foods will play as South Korea seeks to build a more secure and sustainable protein supply,” Sam Lawrence, vice president of policy for Asia at GFI, told Green Queen. “So far, the government has released an interim framework, which we expect to continue to develop and evolve over time.
What companies need to do and pay for regulatory approval in South Korea
Courtesy: Space F
While no producer has applied for approval, the expectation is that several local startups are likely to do so within the next few weeks. The entire process is set to take up to 270 working days, meaning even if companies apply soon, it’s unlikely that any clearance will be given this year.
Dossiers submitted to the MFDS must include safety verification data, including the name of the raw material, the origin of the cell, the manufacturing process, and international recognition and usage history. If the cells are derived from livestock, the application needs to provide information about the donor, such as country of origin, gender, age, and slaughter inspection certificate. For marine sources, data confirming the source of the donor must be submitted.
Moreover, the filing requires companies to divulge information about the human safety impact of the raw material, which entails digestibility, any negative health reactions, allergy and toxin data, and a confirmation of the genetic stability between the raw material and final ingredient.
The approval process will cost companies a cool ₩45M ($34,000). That is a hefty markup, especially given that not all countries charge a fee for the assessment of such novel food applications. Singapore and Israel, for example, have no fees attached to the process, for example.
Australia and New Zealand’s joint regulator also doesn’t charge a fee by default, unless companies want the procedure to be fast-tracked or prioritised. Currently, Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) is considering an application from Vow Foods for its cultured quail. The startup filed its application in February 2023, and is now awaiting a second round of public consultation, which will be followed by a 60-day period for ministers to comment on the regulatory body’s decisions
“Considering that the only risk assessment to be completed by FSANZ was done via fee and still took quite a while – who is going to go the free route?” one policy expert familiar with the application process in several countries told Green Queen, with the fees amounting to around AU$195,000 ($128,000). “In my mind, it is a de facto fee structure.”
As for the US, UK and EU, neither country charges a direct fee for the application. However, there are other expenses involved. “There are peripheral costs,” explained the source. “We have to use third-party accredited labs for the analytics on the five non-consecutive batches required for the UK and EU. Those lab fees can add up to be several hundred thousand euros.”
Lawrence added: “Regulatory agencies often operate on a cost-recovery basis and fee reductions are a point of discussion in many jurisdictions. It’s a known cost of doing business for companies operating in the future-foods space, but when GFI is asked for input by regulators, we consistently urge them to make their costs as low as possible, as higher costs can act as a barrier to innovation, particularly for startups.”
Consumer survey shows importance of price parity for cultivated meat
Courtesy: CellMEAT
The development will be welcome news for South Korea’s cultivated meat companies, including TissenBioFarm, Simple Planet, Space F, SeaWith, CellMEAT, and Cellqua, among others. It will also interest Korean noodle giant Nongshim, which has invested $7.4M in food tech VC funding with a focus on cultivated meat, and CJ CheilJedang, which has teamed up with KCell Biosciences to build a cell culture facility in Busan. And last week, scientists at the Yonsei University showcased a hybrid rice variety with cultivated beef and cow fat cells as a proof of concept for more affordable beef with a smaller carbon footprint.
It concludes a process that began in 2022, when the MFDS included official guidance for alternative protein in the country’s National Plan, covering the safety, manufacturing processes and regulatory approval of cultivated meat. A year ago, 28 industry stakeholders signed an MoU to advance the country’s cultivated meat industry, while a month later, the North Gyeongsang province opened a 2,309 sq m Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center.
The APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture, which co-founded the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum with GFI APAC, conducted a 1,110-person survey in October, revealing that 90% of respondents were willing to try cultivated meat at least once (though only 5% indicated they’d eat it regularly). Moreover, 39% were supportive of cultivated meat being sold at supermarkets and restaurants (with 14- to 29-year-olds leading the way), and just 10% were opposed to its commercialisation.
In fact, 19% of Koreans said they would prefer cultivated meat over plant proteins. But price remains a key purchase driver, important for 65% of citizens, followed by taste and texture (62%). While two-thirds of respondents spend up to ₩50,000 ($23-38) per week on meat products for the whole household, only 12% would part with ₩1,000-3,000 (75 cents to $2) more per 100g of cultivated meat. And just 6% would be willing to pay even more.
Despite that, 57% and 25% said they’d eat cultivated pork and beef, respectively, if they’re cheaper than their conventional counterparts. This indicates that scaling up production to reach price parity with farmed meat is among the biggest hurdles for South Korea’s cultivated meat sector.
“Hybrid products and scaling up production are key factors to achieve price parity – and it is at the forefront on many of the companies’ agenda either today or in the near future,” Calisa Lim, project manager at APAC-SCA, told Green Queen at the time. “We need combined synergies and efforts through investors, contract manufacturers, established stakeholders, startups, and government bodies to facilitate a thriving ecosystem for cultivated meat and seafood in South Korea.”
“GFI’s scientists and policy experts have offered our input to regulators during the consultation processes, and will continue to provide feedback to ensure the framework is effective and incorporates global best practices,” added Lawrence. “The agency is inviting companies to submit applications during this interim period, which we take as a positive sign that regulators are keen to get the local sector moving.”
Israeli cultivated meat leader Aleph Farms is advancing its Southeast Asia strategy with an “asset-light” approach through a deal that will involve the first production facility dedicated to cultured meat in Thailand.
Aleph Farms has partnered with biomanufacturer BBGI and synbio research and manufacturing company Fermbox Bio to increase its production capabilities in Southeast Asia. The collaboration will initiate Thailand’s first plant for cultivated meat production.
The deal complements Aleph Farms’ growth strategy in the region, with the company implementing a capital-efficient approach for manufacturing to drive down costs and accelerate scalability. The Israeli startup explains that the production of cultured meat is “conducive to value chains that are decentralised, compact, predictable, and conveniently located near end consumers”. This helps mitigate supply chain vulnerabilities, bolster food security and fuel economic prosperity for local communities.
“A prudent, capital-efficient scale-up lets us navigate infrastructure investments thoughtfully, enabling sustainable penetration into key regions,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.
Cost and scale-up the cornerstones of Aleph Farms’ deal
Aleph Farms opened a 65,000 square ft facility at the Stratasys building in Rehovot, Israel in 2022 | Courtesy: Amit Goren
With a total of $118M in funding, Aleph Farms is one of the most well-financed cultivated meat companies. But it has chosen an asset-light approach towards manufacturing, which is centered around a hub-and-spoke model based in key markets. It acquired a production facility in Modi’in, Israel last year and penned a deal with ESCO Aster in Singapore (the world’s only approved industrial manufacturer for cultured meat) based on this approach, and has now added Thailand to its list of hubs.
“This strategy aligns with our commitment to scaling up responsibly, avoiding abrupt, extensive CAPEX investments in the process,” explained Toubia. “Ultimately, this progression aligns with our overarching goal: ensuring food security through an equitable and inclusive transition to sustainable, resilient food systems.”
Explaining this strategy, he told AFN last year: “We believe that in the next five to 10 years, companies will focus either on operations and production or on product development and branding. It will be difficult for companies to do both efficiently – especially in the current funding environment – so at Aleph Farms, we decided to focus on product development and branding and rely on external partners for production.”
This is why it decided to team up with BBGI, which focuses on cooking-oil-based biofuels and high-value bio-based products, and Fermbox Bio, which leverages microbial fermentation and synthetic biology to help businesses mitigate supply chain risks. Aleph Farms stated that collaboration with value chain partners is a pivotal element of its asset-light strategy, and the partnership will focus specifically on production enhancement, including cost optimisation and operational scale-up.
Figuring out ways to bring down prices is a key next step for cultivated meat, which needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be cost-competitive with conventional meat. While companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for these proteins to reach parity.
“Of common animal proteins, beef delivers the highest value in global markets, so by focusing on cultivated beef, we are able to shorten the timeline to price parity,” Yoav Reisler, senior marketing and communications manager at Aleph Farms, told Green Queen last month.
“This agreement aims to support the sustainable development of Thailand and the region in every aspect, focusing on the new S-Curve, with expected governmental support,” noted BBGI CEO Kittiphong Limsuwannarot, referring to the 10 industries (including food processing) that form a pillar of Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor. “Drawing upon our extensive experience in designing and operating large-scale biomanufacturing facilities, we are well-positioned to operationalise the shared objectives of this collaboration,” added Fermbox Bio founder Subramani Ramachandrappa.
A milestone for Thailand’s alternative protein industry
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
“I think that four or five companies in this space, including Aleph Farms, have already developed scalable processes, have done a lot of work on cost reduction, and have already built facilities where they can make cultivated meet at the commercial level and comply with all the regulatory requirements,” Toubia told Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in September.
Aleph Farms made history last month after becoming the first company in the world to receive regulatory approval for cultivated beef, and only the third in the cultured meat sector (after California’s UPSIDE Foods and Eat JUST). It means that the startup can sell its Black Angus Petit Steak to consumers in Israel, whose production will be supported by the 65,000 sq ft plant it moved to in Rehovot, Israel, which can produce between 10 to 20 tonnes of product annually.
While research on cultivated pork is ongoing at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University and Mahidol University, there are no companies or manufacturers working with cultivated meat within Thailand, meaning Aleph Farms’ partnership marks a milestone for the country’s alternative protein sector. But it’s not the first time there has been a link between Thai businesses and overseas cultivated meat startups – Bangkok’s Charoen Pokphand Foods is developing hybrid proteins with Israel’s Future Meat, while seafood giant Thai Union is an investor in Aleph Farms.
A 2021 survey conducted by the latter two companies revealed that 97% of Thai consumers are willing to try cultivated meat. Meanwhile, in December last year, a 1,500-person survey revealed that only 24% of the population was aware of cultured meat. However, while 76% of them eat meat, 67% want to reduce their intake within the next two years, primarily for health reasons.
“Thailand has food technology, and we are a top player in the world, especially when compared to our population and country size,” said Jacques-Chai Chomthongdi, Southeast Asia director at Madre Brava. “Therefore, if you want to develop further in any area, the existing potential should be considered, along with changes and needs at the international level as well.”
Alabama has become the latest US state to take legislative action against cultivated meat, with the Senate passing a bill to ban these proteins. The bill will now move to the House of Representatives, where it could become law.
It’s election year in the US, and the political charades are full at play. Some Republican lawmakers are using their power to block a climate solution that could potentially help safeguard the future of food. And now, senators in Alabama – a majority red state with over three times as many Republicans as Democrats – have passed a bill to ban cultivated meat from being sold.
Sponsored by senator Jack Williams, SB23 makes it a Class C felony to manufacture, sell or distribute cultivated meat in the southern state. If you’re the owner of a restaurant hoping to offer cultivated meat to patrons, you could be convicted and your establishment could have its food safety permit suspended or even revoked.
The bill was voted for by 32 of the state’s 35 senators, while nobody opposed it. This means it now goes to the Alabama House of Representatives. “If you were on Mars, you have to grow what you have to grow to eat,” Williams told Alabama Daily News. “The problem with this is we have plenty of food in the state. We have plenty of cattle and chicken. There’s no reason for us to bring this product in here.”
The senator, who is a cattle farmer, raised concerns about the safety of cultivated meat, seemingly ignoring the USDA and FDA‘s assessments deeming cultured chicken from two companies as safe for consumption, or the fact that Alabama is home to a chicken farm where nearly 48,000 birds were killed due to a pathogenic avian flu less than four months ago.
“Anything that is artificial and not to do with our animals comes up on my radar,” he added. “I don’t want Alabamians eating that.” But cultivated meat does have something to do with animals: it’s meat made from animal cells, just without any of the killing or much of the environmental footprint.
Alabama’s bill to ban cultivated meat ignores some home truths
Courtesy: Alabama Senate Republican Caucus
Speaking to 1819 News, Williams said people want to know what they’re eating. “That’s why people are going to the farms so much to get their food now. This is all made from nothing, cells. You don’t know what you’re getting. You don’t know what it’s going to do to you later, I think. It’s a pretty simple bill, but I had big, big support on it. It just keeps it out of the stores in Alabama and keeps them from manufacturing it here.”
He continued: “We don’t know what’s in this. We don’t know what it’s going to do to your body yet. There hasn’t been enough research done. They’re doing chickens in California, I know, and shipping them overseas, not here, but we just don’t want it in Alabama.”
The “they” he referred to here are Californian cultivated meat companies UPSIDE Foods and Eat JUST, the two companies that are allowed to sell cultured chicken in the US. But they’re not shipping these products overseas – that’s not how it works. As a novel food, every country you want to sell your cultivated meat in must approve it through their food regulatory bodies. These two startups have had their chickens in restaurants before, and will soon make them available again.
“UPSIDE Foods strongly opposes the proposed bill aiming to criminalise cultivated meat in Alabama, as it threatens the free market, stifles innovation, and limits consumer choice,” the company told ABC 33/40. “This legislation not only jeopardises the United States’ leadership in biotechnology and Alabama’s supply chain, it also hinders our ability to address the projected doubling of global meat demand by 2050.”
Williams told the same publication that he watches “all the chemicals that are put in meats today, and everything else”. We have more and more people going straight to the farm and buying stuff, from their meats to their vegetables… it’s not altered in any way,” he claimed.
Except that, quite often, it is. Sales of antibiotics for livestock use increased by 12% from 2017-22, according to the FDA. In 2020, the meat industry bought 69% of the US’s medically important antibiotic supply. This has had implications for human health, with 35,000 Americans dying as a result of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in 2019 alone.
Cultivated meat has been identified as a pillar of the future food system. If it can overcome its challenges of scaling up and driving down costs – which are no doubt stifled by legislative bills like Alabama’s – it could present remarkable benefits to the climate, human health (it has already been certified as safe to eat by three countries) and food security.
“If that’s what we have to survive, I would re-entertain looking at something,” said Williams. “But I think there needs to be a lot of test work done on it. The people I represent, we don’t want this meat coming to Alabama and being in our stores.” (Although he was arrested on bribery charges for a corruption scheme affecting those very people in 2018).
Cultivating the culture(d meat) wars ahead of 2024 elections
Courtesy: Upside Foods
Alabama is far from the only state hoping to inhibit the cultivated meat sector. Florida has introduced two bills hoping to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cultured meat within the state. One of them suggests imposing criminal penalties – including facing misdemeanours of the second degree, fines of $500 to $1,000, and license suspensions or stop-sale orders – on anyone violating these rules.
In Texas, governor Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, while Nebraska’s Real MEAT Act would mandate the word “imitation” on alternative protein if passed. Policymakers in Tennessee are making their case for a $1M fine as part of its proposal to outlaw cultured meat.
Arizona House representative Quang Nguyen drafted HB 2244, a bill that would make it illegal to “intentionally misbrand or misrepresent” an alternative meat product as meat, while fellow Republican David Marshall went a step further with HB 2121, attempting to ban the sale or production of cultured meat. On similar grounds, Wisconsin State Assembly representative Peter Schmidt – a Republican dairy farmer – proposed two bills against alternative protein, one of which put restrictions on the labelling of cultivated meat.
Just last month, senators Mike Rounds (Republican) and Jon Tester (Democrat) proposed a federal bill to ban these proteins in school meals. The reality is that cultivated meat has become a political hotrod in the election year, with lawmakers turning their tirade away from plant-based meat for a second to attack the newest alternative protein they view as a threat to the meat industry. It mirrors similar moves in Europe, with Italy already having banned cultivated meat.
The hope in the US is to mobilise support from voters in heavy farming states, and protect a livestock sector deeply entrenched in America’s political fabric. The meat industry has deep ties with state players – it spends 190 times more money on lobbying and receives 800 times more public funding than alternative protein companies.
It’s a reason why, despite nearly all of the chicken and pork Americans eat coming from confined factory farms, Republicans (and some Democrats too) will have you believe that all meat is grown in a ‘humane’ manner with animals who have tons of free space and good living conditions, all facts be damned. “We want to be supportive of our cattlemen and that’s a huge industry in Alabama and income for our small farmers,” said Rick Pate, Alabama’s agricultural commissioner.
Really, though, the real threat farmers face is the changing climate and all its implications – droughts and floods, irregular harvests and crop failures, extreme heat and extreme cold. But can you blame these politicians, who belong to a country where 74% of people don’t think eating meat affects the climate? For a country that – even for a while – considered a vehement climate change denier as a presidential candidate, the answer is yes. Yes, you can.
South Korean cultivated meat startup Simple Planet has raised ₩8B ($6M) in a pre-Series A funding round to optimise its technology for its powdered ingredient, secure regulatory approval, and expand internationally.
Simple Planet’s ₩8M ($6M) pre-Series A funding round saw participation from POSCO Technology Investment, DCP Private Equity, Hyundai Technology Investment, Prologue Ventures, Pathfinder H, and Samho Green Investment, among others.
The latest capital injection brought the South Korean startup’s total financing to ₩10B ($7.5M), after a previous ₩2B ($1.5M) round led by tofu giant Pulmuone. It will help accelerate its R&D efforts to produce ingredients like powders and fats for cultivated meat, facilitating the optimisation of its manufacturing processes, its path to regulatory approvals, and overseas expansion.
“Despite the challenging investment climate, our pre-Series funding round was overbooked,” said Simple Planet co-founder and CEO Il Doo Jeong. “We are in the process of establishing a GMP [good manufacturing practices] facility for the mass production of cell-cultured food ingredients.”
Serum-free medium drives down costs for Simple Planet’s ingredients
Courtesy: Simple Planet
Founded in 2021, Simple Planet takes the approach of making cultivated meat ingredients like proteins and unsaturated fats in powdered or paste forms, instead of creating finished products. These ingredients are said to be highly versatile, helping absorb and improve the flavour and nutritional structure of conventional proteins. They can also be used as part of functional ingredients for seniors and infants.
The company has established 13 different floating cell lines so far – including cows, chickens, pigs, ducks and fish – and developed a probiotics-based serum-free edible culture medium. Apart from being controversial for its sourcing, fetal bovine serum (FBS) makes up over 80% of costs in cultivated food manufacturing, according to Simple Planet. Its technology has lowered the price of its serum-free culture by 1/60th, which – alongside controlling nutrient release and density – enables it to bring down the costs of its commercial ingredients too.
In October, the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA) released a 1,110-person survey of South Koreans, finding that 84% of consumers preferred a plant-based growth culture for cultivated meat, although 35% wouldn’t mind seeing FBS being used, and 21% called the latter their most preferred option. “However, we see that FBS ranks lower in the preferred cultivation medium overall, suggesting that negative perception of FBS still remains among the surveyed South Korean population,” says Calisa Lim, project manager at APAC-SCA.
“We expect to accelerate the development of serum-free edible culture media, which we are also researching,” said Simple Planet’s Jeong. “Moreover, we have been collaborating with global food companies since last year to utilise cultured meat prototypes. We aim to create significant outcomes through new business planning and international expansion by building cooperative relationships with global companies.”
The startup aims to launch its high-protein cultivated meat powder both domestically and internationally, and has previously stated plans to set up branches in the US and Canada to enable faster entry. Last September, it unveiled B2C convenience food brand Balboa Kitchen, with the aim of directly incorporating its cultivated food ingredients into consumer products. Now, it is looking to aggressively expand its distribution network.
In January, it entered strategic partnerships with accelerator and investment firm Plug and Play and South Korea’s S&S Lab, which operates private-led shared laboratory IRIS lab. And last year, it linked up with Pulmuone to co-produce hybrid meat products, with a targeted 2025 launch.
Simple Planet has won plenty of recognition for its tech, including being named in the UK’s Forward Fooding FoodTech 500 list (described as “the Fortune 500 of agrifood tech”), being selected in the Sustainable Food Challenge 2023 by MassChallenge in Switzerland, and winning first place in the food tech category of US startup pitch competition WKBC and sustainability category at Singapore’s X-Pitch.
Cultivated meat on the rise in South Korea
Courtesy: Cellmeat
Simple Planet is among a host of startups elevating South Korea’s burgeoning cultivated meat space. In February 2023, industry stakeholders signed an MoU to advance the country’s cultivated meat sector, and a month later, the North Gyeongsang province opened the North Gyeongsang Cellular Agriculture Industry Support Center. The 2,309 sq m facility was built over six years with a total investment of ₩9B ($7M) to develop biomaterials and support cultivated meat companies.
These developments came after the nation’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety included official guidance for alt-protein in its National Plan 2022, covering the safety, manufacturing processes and regulatory approval of cultivated meat.
In October, South Korea’s Society for Food Sustainatech signed on to the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum, which aims to facilitate cross-border dialogue between stakeholders for cultivated foods. On the regulatory front, the South Korean government is expected to be the next (alongside Japan) to develop a framework for companies. “Both nations are proactively seeking input from industry groups to craft clear and efficient safety review processes,” said Mirte Gosker, managing director of the Good Food Institute APAC, which co-established APAC-SCA.
The APAC-SCA poll also that 90% of respondents were willing to try cultivated meat at least once (though only 5% said they’d definitely eat it regularly). Plus, 39% were supportive of cell-based meat being sold at supermarkets and restaurants (with 14- to 29-year-olds leading the way), and just 10% were opposed to its commercialisation.
In terms of purchase drivers, price tops the list – cited by 65% of Koreans – followed by taste and texture (62%) and health/nutrition (48%). This ties into Simple Planet’s focus on cost reductions as well as flavour and nutrition (0.3g of its cultivated meat powder contains the same essential amino acids as 1kg of beef).
Apart from Simple Planet, at least eight more startups are working with cultivated meat in the country, including CellMEAT – which has created prototypes of cultured Dokdo shrimp and caviar – TissenBioFarm, CellQua, Space F, and SeaWith. Meanwhile, Korean noodle giant Nongshim invested $7.4M in food tech VC funding with a focus on cultivated meat, and CJ CheilJedang has teamed up with KCell Biosciences to build a cell culture facility in Busan.
Over four in 10 Japanese consumers are willing to give cultivated meat and seafood a taste as long as it’s safe, but 58% have never heard of it, highlighting the challenge for the country’s alternative protein sector.
In April, the regulatory framework for cultivated meat in Japan will become more complicated. While continuing to oversee food safety, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will transfer its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency. This means companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but makes prime minister Fumio Kishida the ultimate authority on these matters.
But if a new survey by the APAC Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC-SCA) is anything to go by, stronger regulations to determine the safety of these foods are a must for Japan’s population. The 1,000-person poll revealed that as long as they’re safe, 42% of consumers are willing to try cultivated meat and seafood products.
However, 64% of respondents don’t know if cultivated proteins are safer than their conventional counterparts (though 19% found no difference in safety). For 44%, the presence of Japanese government regulations is the most important element in determining the safety of cultivated meat and seafood, with women in their 20s, 40s and 60s chiming most with this sentiment.
Courtesy: APAC-SCA
If international organisations or academia can assure safety, that would satisfy 38% and 24% of consumers, respectively. However, safety assurances from the industry and the sale of these products in other countries would have little effect in swaying these consumers, with only 19% being satisfied with these options. Conversely, 34% would not find these foods safe, whatever the case.
Health and price important, and youth attitudes encouraging
APAC-SCA’s survey highlights that 91% of Japan’s consumers eat meat, mirroring the figure from a Food Frontier report from December. Interestingly, there are more vegans (1%) than flexitarians (0.4%) or pescetarians (0.3%). But there is a gap in consumer awareness about cultivated meat, with 58% of people in Japan having never heard of it. And while 39% are familiar with it, only a further 3% understand the concept in detail.
Apart from the food safety aspect, health and price are key for these consumers when it comes to trying cultivated meat, cited by 25% and 23%, respectively. But an even greater number (30%) say they will not try these products. Safety (44%) and health (33%) are similarly the top concerns for respondents, followed by taste (27%).
Taste represents the leading expectation from these foods too, followed by a diversification of food options, and appearance – although 37% chose the ‘none applies’ option, further highlighting their unfamiliarity with the concept. of cultivated proteins and lack of experience in consuming such products.
Courtesy: APAC-SCA
A fifth (21%) of consumers are willing to buy cultivated meat products if they’re priced the same as their conventional versions, but only 6% would be willing to pay for them if they cost double or more. Understandably, 40% would purchase them if they’re cheaper, though 33% wouldn’t buy them at all. Research by McKinsey has shown that it will take until 2030 for cultivated meat to reach price parity, outlining the importance of scaling up production and increased funding for the sector.
There was a notable shift in acceptance with age, as younger Japanese consumers exhibited a more welcoming attitude towards cultivated meat and seafood. In terms of concerns about these foods, 35% did not select any options from the list – higher than the overall average. Men in their 20s also expressed the greatest interest in buying these products, with 18% willing to do so even if they cost double.
Courtesy: APAC-SCA
“This survey reveals interesting characteristics about the next generation of Japanese consumers. More than half of men in their 20s have heard of ‘cell-based foods’, nearly 30% are interested in trying them, and a whopping 62% answered that they would eat these products if they were cooked,” said Akira Igata, director of APAC-SCA partner the Japan Association for Cellular Agriculture and the survey’s analyst. “Understanding the proclivities of the next generation of Japanese consumers would be critical for companies interested in breaking into the Japanese market.”
What about feeding cultivated meat to children? Half of the respondents are unsure if they’ll do so, while 33% definitely wouldn’t. “For the industry, this signifies the importance of capturing the interest of consumers who are neutral but not opposed to the concept of cultivated meat and seafood,” the report stated.
Collaboration and direct communication key to establishing food safety
Prime minister Kishida already endorsed cellular agriculture last year, with plans to boost the sector to reduce the country’s climate footprint. And between 2020 and 2023, private investment in Japan’s alternative protein sector was dominated by cultivated meat, which made up 76% ($54M) of the total, according to the Good Food Institute APAC. A host of food giants are getting involved in cellular agriculture, including Nipponham and Nissin.
In December, the Japanese government invested ¥1.87B ($13.1M) in local cellular agriculture company IntegriCulture, which claims to have grown cultivated chicken and duck via a tech platform that can bring down costs to under $3 per kg of meat by 2025, and under $1 soon after.
But although the price aspect is important, safety is still crucial for consumers in Japan, which is why APAC-SCA recommends establishing a direct line of communication with regulators to convey information that can exhibit the safety potential of cultivated meat and seafood, which can be in the form of pre-market consultation services or a regulatory sandbox framework.
“Communicating the safety of cultivated meat and seafood products has always been the key focus for the industry,” said APAC-SCA programme director Peter Yu. “The 2023 report released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation concluded that many of the hazards identified in cultivated foods already exist in conventionally produced foods and livestock agriculture. Cultivated meat and seafood are safe for consumption if produced and handled well.”
Courtesy: Wildtype
The report also suggests regulators and industry players can find common consensus on topics to support consistent approaches to safety assessments by participating in activities like the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum. Likewise, regional collaboration between government agencies, academia and companies can help accelerate R&D efforts via resource and knowledge sharing.
Developing “message maps” for awareness of the benefits of cultivated meat and seafood can help raise consumer confidence and trust too, and socialising international reports can increase public awareness and assure the safety of these products.
“There is a great opportunity and incentive for close collaboration between the government and industry to engage consumers in the food safety dialogue for cultivated meat and seafood,” added Yu. “This will increase consumer confidence and drive widespread acceptance in the long run. Ensuring that cultivated meat and seafood is available as a complementary food option in Japan is vitally important for food security without environmental and ethical concerns associated with conventional meat production.”
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Dr. Praeger’s new veggie-forward offerings, Applewood Vegan’s reformulated cheese, and a landmark legal ruling for veganism in Denmark.
New products and launches
In Canada, Danone has launched a Silk Greek yoghurt made from locally sourced pea protein in vanilla and key lime flavours. The new products contain 12g of protein per 175g pack.
Courtesy: Danone
Championing the same ingredient, fellow Canadian manufacturer Louis Dreyfus has announced the construction of a pea protein isolate production plant for its Plant Proteins business at the site of its existing industrial complex in Yorkton, Saskatchewan
Protein Industries Canada, meanwhile, has partnered with Konscious Foods, Avena Foods and Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds to improve the nutritional credentials of existing vegan seafood products and develop new offerings.
In the US, Plant-based meat giant Impossible Foods will soon begin serving its new beef hot dogs to the Blue Devils basketball team and dining halls on Duke University’s campuses.
Next Level Burger and its now subsidiaryVeggie Grill have launched a new limited-edition Classic Steak sandwich with Meati’s mycelium meat.
Mycelium bacon producer MyForest Foods has expanded its flagship MyBacon into 57 Whole Foods stores in the northeast, which comes on the heels of a listing at MOM’s Organic Market. It means the product is available in over 350 locations across eight states.
Courtesy: Dr. Praeger’s
Dr. Praeger’s is celebrating its 30th anniversary with two new ranges spotlighting vegetables: Crunchy Burgers and Veggie Fries. The former is available in Southwestern Sweet Potato and Cauliflower variants, made with six vegetables in a gluten-free rice coating, while the latter is offered in California and Cauliflower Broccoli options.
In Israel, bioprinting startup Steakholder Foods has partnered with tofu producer Wyler Farms to use industrial-scale 3D printing tech to make plant-based steaks, with the former’s printer set to be installed at the latter’s facility between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025.
There could be an all-veggie KFC in India’s religious city of Ayodhya, where tourism is exploding after the unveiling of the Ram Mandir last month, with a local government official indicating the city would allow KFC to set up a fully vegetarian location, as it has done with Pizza Hut and Domino’s.
German brand ChoViva‘s cocoa-free chocolate is part of private-label products by retail giant Rewe and its subsidiary Penny, with the innovations now available in select stores.
Barcelona-based plant-based butchery chain El Vegans has opened a new branch in Málaga, a first-of-its-kind butcher in the southern Spanish cities.
In the UK, Applewood Vegan has reformulated its plant-based smoked cheese ahead of its fifth anniversary, with the new recipe rendering a “creamier” product that better replicates conventional cheese.
Courtesy: Swiss International Air Lines
And if you’re flying business on Swiss International Air Lines, you can now get a vegan pumpkin and chestnut goulash with spaetzli (egg noodles) dish, made in collaboration with local plant-based egg producer EggField and Zürich vegetarian eatery Hiltl.
Funding and finance news
The US Department of Defense has announced a new funding opportunity for food tech companies to apply for biomanufacturing grants worth up to $2M under the new Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing Investment Program.
Netherlands’ Future Food Fund II has closed with a total of €40M, with the European Investment Fund investing €20M in the final close. It has already invested in precision fermentation and cultivated meat businesses like EV Biotech and Extracellular, respectively.
Austrian 3D-printed seafood producer Revo Foods is crowdfunding, offering a discounted valuation until Sunday, February 18. The startup has already raised €850,000 of its €1.5M goal.
Courtesy: Revo Foods
Ontario-based vegan ramen company Borealis Foods – which counts Gordon Ramsay as brand ambassador and shareholder – has commenced trading on the US NASDAQ exchange under the ticker ‘BRLS’.
US vegan shrimp producer New Wave Foods has ceased operations, with its assets now set to be liquidated and distributed after the company was unable to pay its debts in full.
In similarly sad news, fellow US plant-based seafood company Ordinary Seafood has wound down its operations and let go of its staff, with founder and CEO Anton Pluschke blaming the bleak funding landscape for food tech.
Meanwhile, after closing half of its UK stores last year, Lewis Hamilton-backed vegan fast-food chain Neat Burger has rebranded to Neat, dropping the latter word as it diversifies its offerings and prioritises health-focused options.
Courtesy: Neat
In New Zealand, Bruce Craig, owner of the county’s rights to Aussie vegan fast-food chain Lord of the Fries, has put the company up for sale for $1.2M after experiencing sales drops post-pandemic.
Research and manufacturing developments
Chicago-based Believer Meats has expanded its leadership team, appointing Heather Hudson as chief product and growth officer, Frida Grynspan as chief science officer, and Marc Shelley as chief legal officer. The company expects its commercial-scale facility in Wilson, North Carolina to be operational later this year.
Danone has completed the conversion of its dairy-based yoghurt plant in Villecomtal-sur-Arros, France to oat milk production for Alpro, in a €43M move that will see workers retain their jobs. It will be capable of producing 100,000 litres of oat milk daily, eventually rising to 300,000 litres.
Israeli startup ProFuse Technology has launched non-GM bovine cell lines optimised for muscle growth, demonstrating high efficiency in proliferation and differentiation and targeting cultivated meat manufacturers.
Fellow Israeli company Redefine Meat has revealed the technology and science behind its 3D-printed plant-based meat products in a new paper published in the Frontiers journal, focused on its tissue engineering approach.
Courtesy: Redefine Meat
A report by the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change has advised that funding should be redirected from animal agriculture towards “lower-emitting products and activities”. Currently, farmers in the EU receive 50% of their income directly through government subsidies.
A new interdisciplinary study will assess the societal impact of cultivated meat, including production costs, commercialisation, safety and regulation. Funded by the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society with support from the Leverhulme Trust, the research has been selected for an APEX award.
In New York, UPSIDE Foodshosted an exclusive tasting for its cultivated chicken, which received a rousing endorsement from TED head Chris Anderson, who also took a shot at a New York Times piece targeting the industry.
Policy progress and awards
With Plant Based Universities launching in the Netherlands, over 200 Dutch academics have backed calls from students at several universities to transition towards fully plant-based catering. Total signatories – including academics, healthcare professionals, politicians and other public figures – number 1,200.
In Denmark, a lower court in the city of Hjorring has recognised veganism as a protected belief under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, in a case that sparked from a school denying a kindergarten child the right to plant-based meals and refusing to allow her to bring a packed lunch too.
Courtesy: Hungry Planet
Plant-based meat brand Hungry Planet has been nominated for Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, which added vegan experts to judge its 2024 awards, to be announced in November.
French whole-cut plant-based meat maker Umiami has achieved B Corp certification, ahead of inaugurating its factory in Alsace, eastern France later this year.
Finally, McDonald’s says it has reached its 2025 goal of 100% cage-free eggs ahead of time, with all locations in the US now featuring these eggs.
US startup California Cultured will see its cell-based cocoa incorporated in products by Japanese chocolate giant Meiji, with a 10-year commercial partnership for the former’s Flavanol Cocoa Powder.
West Sacramento-based food tech company California Cultured has linked up with Meiji, Japan’s largest chocolate company, which will see the startup’s cell-cultured cocoa products appear in packaged goods by the latter.
The partnership is headlined by a 10-year-long deal for the supply of California Cultured’s Flavanol Cocoa Powder to Meiji as part of a co-branded collaboration. “There is a progressively growing supply gap in the cocoa industry. This is the beginning of the future of chocolate,” said California Cultured founder and CEO Alan Perlstein. “It marks the first time cell-cultured chocolate will enter any market worldwide.”
Why California Cultured is making cell-based chocolate
Chocolates made with the company’s cocoa powder; courtesy: California Cultured
Founded in 2020, California Cultured is one of the only producers (alongside Israel’s Celleste Bio and Finnish giant Fazer) working on cell-based chocolate. The company collects samples from a cocoa plant with ideal organoleptic properties and harvests its cells, which undergo growth in fermentation tanks that mimic the conditions of rainforests where cocoa thrives. Within three to four days, the cells are ready to be harvested, fermented and roasted.
“With our scalable technology, we’re positioned to excel and dominate in the field of plant-based cellular agriculture, where we pioneer the creation and cultivation of cells to redefine how we grow and produce innovative, sustainable products,” explained Perlstein. “Plant cell culture has a far smaller GHG footprint than other types of cell technologies.”
Speaking of footprints, that is a key reason why innovations like cell-cultured cocoa are key: dark chocolate is second only to beef when it comes to the top GHG-emitting foods. Meanwhile, cocoa beans have one of the highest carbon opportunity costs (the amount of carbon lost from native vegetation and soils to produce food).
And partly due to the widespread use of palm oil, the chocolate industry is also associated with mass deforestation – so much so that the EU banned imported cocoa and chocolate linked to deforestation in June last year. Additionally, scientists have warned that cocoa trees are threatened – and a third of them could die out by 2050 – which could lead to a global chocolate shortage.
The industry has been a blight on human rights too, with Indigenous communities losing their lands and workers exploited with poor conditions and pay. There are implications of child slavery as well, with the US government sued in August to block imports of cocoa harvested by children in West Africa, which has been used by the likes of Hershey’s, Mars and Nestlé.
California Cultured claims its process of developing sustainable cocoa in fermentation tanks is a climate-resilient approach to chocolate-making that addresses deforestation and labour exploitation in the industry. This is what sparked its collaboration with Meiji.
“Meiji came to us because unpredictable weather patterns – including heavy rainfall – have disrupted cacao cultivation, leading to a consecutive year of supply shortages,” California Cultured’s head of strategy Steve Stearns told Green Queen. “This scarcity has driven futures prices to unprecedented levels, reflecting the strain on supply and demand dynamics within the chocolate industry.”
Perlstein added: “We need to build a resilient, superior future for chocolate. This partnership is the first step in achieving this.”
Seeking regulatory approval for a targeted late 2024 launch
The company’s Flavanol Cocoa Powder; courtesy: California Cultured
California Cultured, which raised $4M in a funding round in 2021, is targeting products in the nutraceutical, chocolate, and better-for-you snacks markets with the Meiji deal. “Meiji’s collaboration with California Cultured involves the seamless integration of the startup’s cocoa powder, cultivated from cells rather than traditional cocoa beans, into an array of confectionery and wellness products tailored for both the US and Japanese markets,” explained Stearns.
“This comprehensive product line encompasses chocolates, truffles, and wellness-enhancing chocolate products designed for consumer use,” he added. The company is building its manufacturing both internally and externally based on proprietary tech developed in-house.
In terms of price, Stearn revealed that the first products with Meiji will be “very competitive with high-value nutritional products on the market” in the aforementioned categories. “Gaining traction with customers like Meiji will help us bring down our operating costs rapidly,” he added. The company later plans to release chocolate callets as part of the Meiji collaboration too.
Cellular agriculture versus fermented plants
As a cellular agriculture company, it will also need approval from food safety regulators in the countries it plans to sell in. California Cultured has already begun the process to earn a GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) certification from the US FDA, and Stearn confirmed that the producers expect to release the Flavanol Cocoa Powder – a food that has been found to reduce the risk of major cardiovascular disease by 16% and cardiovascular deaths by 27% – in the country in late 2024.
There has been a deluge of activity in the sustainable chocolate space recently, with many companies focusing on alternatives to cocoa and chocolate – much like plant-based analogues to meat or dairy. These include Planet A Foods (ChoViva), Voyage Foods, Foreverland and WNWN Food Labs. “Alternative chocolate companies are using alternatives like shea butter and carob, which gives a waxy undesirable texture,” said Stearn. “During chocolate’s history, consumers have rejected carob chocolate on several occasions.”
He added: “California Cultured is producing real chocolate and cocoa, which gives us a distinct advantage in taste and texture. From a marketing perspective, these products can not be labelled chocolate, which can harm customer acceptance.”
It will be interesting to see how consumers perceive cell-based products like California Cultured’s cocoa flavanol.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Fortnum and Mason’s cultivated scotch egg tasting, a Dragons’ Den deal for carbon-negative ice cream, and a host of executive moves.
New products and launches
South Korean company Armored Fresh has launched its oat milk Cheddar cheese at US fast-food chain Bareburger, with two new menu items using the brand’s Armored Fresh Melt and Impossible Standard cheeses.
Courtesy: Armored Fresh/Bareburger
Israeli precision fermentation startup Phytolon is planning to launch a line of natural colours using genetically engineered baker’s yeast in the US this year (pending regulatory approval), following a breakthrough with partner Gingko Bioworks.
Speaking of breakthroughs, Californian startup Checkerspot has developed a fat analogue from microalgae fermentation, which it claims can mimic the human milk fat called OPO (Oleic-Palmitic-Oleic or sn-2 palmitate). It could help provide essential lipids to offer long-term nutrition benefits for infants.
Barcelona-based UOBO has introduced liquid vegan whole eggs for foodservice in a one-litre format nationwide, which can be used for applications like omelettes, scrambled eggs, pastries, custard and mayo.
Indian plant-based meat brand Shaka Harry is eyeing the foodservice segment with a range called Chefsclusive, which features starters, snacks, meals, and accompaniments.
Also in India, restaurant chains Social and Boss Burger have teamed up with Nestlé‘s across 82 outlets in six cities, using the FMCG giant’s frozen plant-based Maggi line for The New Irresistible Menu and The ImBOSSible Cheeseburger, respectively.
Courtesy: Magnum
In the UK, Unilever-owned Magnum has launched a new Chill Blueberry Cookie SKU, which is a vanilla-biscuit-flavoured ice cream with cookie pieces, alongside a core made from blueberry sorbet.
In another UK launch, plant protein bar maker Trek has linked up with Biscoff for a co-branded SKU with soy protein isolate, vegan chocolate and Biscoff spread, retailing in Sainsbury’s from Valentine’s Day, before a wider rollout in March.
If you’re looking to take vegan Valentine’s Day up a notch, meal kit startup Grubby has partnered with Redefine Meat to introduce the latter’s whole-cut beef flank for home cooks until March 22. Following this, a second Chimichurri steak dish will be introduced.
Also for Valentine’s, US chains Next Level Burger and its now-subsidiary Veggie Grill have partnered with Colorado-based mycelium meat producer Meati to offer a Sliced Steak Sandwich at all locations from February 9. Additionally, there are two new vegan sweet treats: a strawberry whoopie pie and a strawberry cookies and cream shake.
And San Francisco’s vegan fat tech startup Lypid has launched its plant-based meatballs for foodservice, which can be used in various cuisines, including American, Italian, and Asian fusion.
Courtesy: Lypid
Finance and corporate moves
UK plant-based meat company THIS is seeing a change in leadership, with co-founders Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman stepping back from their roles as co-CEOs and being replaced by former Ella’s Kitchen boss Mark Cuddigan. Shovel and Sharman will remain involved in the day-to-day business and at board level.
UK cultivated fat company Hoxton Farms has appointed former Impossible Foods chief strategy officer Nick Halla to its board, following other strategic hires in recent weeks to prepare for commercialisation and expand its team of 40 to 100.
North Carolina-based food tech company Tiamat Sciences, which is making animal-free recombinant proteins at a fraction of the cost, has an all-female executive team – a rarity in the biotech world.
Meati has appointed former Patagonia and Wild Idea executive Phil Graves as its new chief financial officer, who will oversee the capital expenditures needed for the company’s omnichannel expansion, and help deliver positive environmental and social impact alongside profit.
In Spain, food companies Familia Martínez, Capsa Vida and Helados Estiu, alongside startups Väcka, Wevo, Grin Grin Foods, Gimme Sabor, and Quevana, have formedThe Flexitarian Project to increase the availability of plant-based products to the market.
Greek company Plan(e)t Foods, which claims to be the world’s first carbon-negative vegan ice cream company, grabbed a deal on Dragons’ Den Greece for €42,000 for a 1% equity, which would rise to 3% if it goes to the NYSE.
German alternative oil startup Colipi has raised €1.8M in seed funding to accelerate the development of its precision-fermented, carbon-captured Climate Oil using organic sidestreams as feed.
NFL quarterbacks Justin Fields (Chicago Bears) and Daniel Jones (New York Giants) have invested in Chipotle founder Steve Ells’ new robot-powered vegetarian restaurantKernel, which will open its first location in the Flatiron District of New York City on February 12.
Cultivated meat developments
In London, Fortnum and Masonhosted a scotch egg tasting for journalists in collaboration with cultivated meat company Ivy Farms, which contained the latter’s beef made from cultured Angus cow cells.
Innovate UK and the Biological Sciences Research Council, meanwhile, have invested £15.6M to support a cultivated meat project by Campden BRI and cellular agriculture specialist Cellular Agriculture. It will be used to develop a hollow-fibre bioreactor system prototype and test production samples.
The EU Commission has closed the TRIS notification process about Italy’s cultivated meat and plant-based labelling bans because the laws did not comply with the procedure’s rules, rendering them unenforceable.
Courtesy: Finless Foods
Finally, Californian cultivated seafood company Finless Foods, has reduced its headcount in reportedly a fresh round of layoffs. It has also terminated its lobby farm in Washington, DC.
Policy, research and manufacturing news
In a major regulatory breakthrough, Israeli startup Remilk has become the first precision fermentation company to receive a Letter of No Objection from Health Canada, allowing it to sell its dairy proteins in the country.
Danish bioproduction leader 21st.BIO is granting access to its precision fermentation technology platform to ingredient manufacturers, helping them enable the production of sustainable dairy proteins at competitive costs.
Belgian precision fermentation startup Paleo has opened a new R&D facility in Leuven, expanding its lab facility to 500 sq m.
Courtesy: Paleo
In the US, fermentation startup Superbrewed Food has secured a patent for its proprietary Postbiotic Protein ingredient, which – alongside a self-affirmed GRAS status – will enable the company to accelerate its use in CPG applications.
Also in the US, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has endorsed the FAIR Labels Act (led by US Senator Roger Marshall), which aims to eradicate “deceptive labelling practices” on plant-based meat products.
Meanwhile, the City of Amsterdam has become the first capital city in the EU to endorse a Plant Based Treaty, targeting a 40-60% plant protein ratio in the city’s diet by 2030.
Finally, research funded by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and the European Cooperation in Science and Technology has found that consumers associate fungi-based foods with sustainability and wellbeing.
Sparked by the infant formula crisis, the FDA is about to undergo a major overhaul that will transform its human foods programme and regulatory affairs teams – what does this mean for alternative proteins?
In February 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled infant formula products made in an Abbott Nutrition facility in Michigan, after finding they may have been contaminated with Cronobacter sakazakii, which led to four infants being hospitalised, and two dying.
The FDA was roundly criticised for its oversight, not least because it first found out about the issue five months prior to the recall when a baby was hospitalised in September. In fact, in October, a former employee at the Abbott Nutrition facility had flagged concerns about food safety violations with senior FDA officials.
But it took a while for the government agency to take action. When it first heard about the infant being hospitalised in September, its officials were at the plant for an inspection, but didn’t find any serious problems or evidence of the bacterial contamination. In January, however, they returned to find at least five different strains of Cronobacter sakazakii in the facility.
It led to a long review process that will lead to the largest reorganisation of the FDA in history. This will mean an overhaul of the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), which will be renamed and – alongside the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Office of Food Policy and Response – will be bridged under a newly created Human Foods Program.
It is the CFSAN’s Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS) that is responsible for dealing with regulatory approval of alternative protein products – including cultivated meat and precision-fermented proteins – as well as handing out Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) notifications. So how does the reorganisation of the FDA affect alt-protein, if at all?
FDA hopes to ramp up pace and implement changes soon
Courtesy: Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images
The slowness and dysfunction of the FDA’s food functions is of little surprise to experts. An investigation by Politico revealed that food regulation is no longer a high priority for the agency, with drugs and medical products dominating both the budget and bandwidth. This has only been exacerbated since the pandemic.
“The food programme is on the back burner. To me, that’s problem no. 1,” Stephen Ostroff, a former FDA senior official who twice served as acting commissioner, told the publication. “There are a lot of things that languish. There’s nobody really pushing very hard to get them done in the same way that you’re pushing very hard to get the Covid vaccines out there and authorised. We don’t have that imperative and that pressure to actually make things happen on the food side of the Food and Drug Administration.”
This slow pace can also be seen in the FDA’s reorganisation itself, which was announced last January, and will still take quite a bit of time. “As a federal agency, the FDA must adhere to the required processes and notifications for reorganisations. Although the proposal has been finalised by the FDA, there are several critical steps remaining before implementation of the new structure can commence,” an FDA spokesperson told Green Queen.
“These include review by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget, providing the House and Senate Appropriations Committees with a 30-day notification period, issuing a Federal Register Notice and engaging in all necessary negotiations with Unions representing impacted staff.”
They added that the agency hopes it can begin implementing the proposed changes now, once it completes all the necessary review and approval steps. “The FDA remains committed to keeping the public up to date as the proposal continues to be developed,” said the spokesperson. (They did not respond to specific questions about the OFAS or the regulation and importance of alt-proteins.)
A focus on field-based operations
Courtesy: FDA
The reorganisation will see the ORA renamed as the Office of Inspections and Investigations (OII), with an emphasis on lab testing, field-based inspections, investigations, and import operations. It means about 1,500 ORA staff will be reassigned to product centres to work directly on inspections and investigations, with the goal of preventing the duplication of functions at the ORA.
At a recent webinar, outgoing FDA principal deputy commissioner Janet Woodcock said: “We’re really trying to transform different aspects of the FDA to make them more efficient, more effective, and so forth… Our mission seems to continually be broadening and we really do need to be able to meet our mission as much as our resources allow.”
This could potentially mean more frequent and more efficient inspections, which would lead to quicker resolutions and increased vigilance from companies too. In fact, businesses will need to adapt to the structure, as the FDA will likely be better equipped with investigators who are more specialised in specific product areas. In-house regulatory affairs and quality assurance staff should be well-versed with the new setup, while companies need to be aware of any updated compliance expectations and identify any new points of contact.
As for the CFSAN, its cosmetics regulation and colour certification functions will be transferred to the Office of the Chief Scientist, a move that is said to recognise the evolution and innovation in this product space, and better align the agency’s cosmetics subject matter experts with the Chief Scientist, who is “focused on research, science, and innovation that underpins the agency’s regulatory mission”.
What this means for alt-protein
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods
The implications for alt-protein are less clear. The FDA has previously issued GRAS notifications for UPSIDE Foods and Eat JUST’s respective cultivated chicken products, as well as ‘no questions’ letters to precision fermentation companies Perfect Day, The EVERY Co, Remilk and Imagindairy.
Shannon Cosentino-Roush, president of the Association of Meat, Poultry and Seafood (AMPS) Innovation – a US alliance dedicated to cellular agriculture – expressed hope that the reorganisation won’t lead to “delays or a departure from FDA’s leadership” in advancing novel food technologies. “The industry remains committed to supporting the agency and this transition by advocating for [the] FDA to receive the resources it needs not only to achieve its mandate, but to ensure the US stays at the forefront of innovative advancements that are critical for American competitiveness, food security, and sustainability priorities,” she told Green Queen.
“Key among this is ensuring that the cell-cultured consultative process is robustly staffed to reduce delays in the review process that could impede progress, especially when the industry is rapidly advancing from R&D to commercialisation and is fuelled by start-up companies aiming to demonstrate commercial viability for this technology. We applaud [the] FDA for making efforts to strengthen its food program, and we share the agency’s goal of providing safe products to consumers,” Cosentino-Roush added.
A spokesperson for the Precision Fermentation Alliance (PFA), the US-based industry association, said that while it’s too early to comment, they expect the agency to continue to be a global regulatory leader for novel foods.
It’s a common sentiment that the FDA is stretched for resources, given its wide remit. “We are very strong supporters of further funding the FDA,” said the PFA representative. “We would hope a significant portion of these funds would be directed to the Office of Food Additive Safety, which handles GRAS reviews for the agency so that it can continue to build its scientific teams and carry on the high-quality reviews and timelines that have made the FDA the gold standard.”
Along similar lines, Laura Braden, associate director of regulatory affairs at alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI), added: “GFI appreciates the cooperative approach FDA has taken in working with companies in the alternative protein industry to bring their products to market safely. As the agency reorganises its food regulation structure, adequate funding for FDA that allows it to stay at the forefront of scientific research and regulatory approaches is crucial for fostering an environment where safe innovation in the food sector can thrive.”
Cosentino-Roush acknowledged that the FDA’s approval of UPSIDE Foods and Eat JUST’s cultivated meat products “sent reverberations globally”, signalling that cultured proteins moved “beyond theory and into reality”. “As [the] FDA embarks on its reorganisation and shift in leadership, AMPS Innovation underscores the importance of maintaining the momentum and prioritisation of the cell-cultured consultative process, which serves as the backbone of the regulatory pathway to market for this key, innovative, and advancing industry,” she said.
“In 2024, we hope to see additional ‘no questions’ letters issued for other cell-cultured meat and fish products, bringing a range of new choices to market.”
The restaurants serving cultivated meat in Singapore and the US have stopped doing so – as the industry enters a crucial year for regulation and commercialisation, what’s next for consumers hoping to taste cultured meat?
July 2023 was a landmark moment for cultivated meat. It was the month after Californian startups Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods received USDA approval to sell their cultured chicken nationwide, and became the month that saw the debut of these products in restaurants.
UPSIDE Foods’ chicken made its way onto the menu of Dominique Crenn’s Michelin-starred eatery Bar Crenn in San Francisco, while José Andrés’ Washington, DC restaurant China Chilcano debuted GOOD Meat’s product, which rolled out for public tasting weeks later.
“It represents a giant leap towards a world where people no longer have to choose between the foods they love and a thriving planet,” UPSIDE Foods CEO Uma Valeti said at the time, summing up the weight of the occasion. “I can’t wait for more people to get their first bite – it’s a magical moment that inspires an exciting world of new possibilities.”
Now, however, people can’t get those bites anymore, not in the same capacity anyway. UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat have hit pause on their restaurant collaborations for now. And that’s not just in the US – GOOD Meat’s products are no longer available in Singapore either, which was the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat anywhere in the world.
In a year earmarked as a milestone for regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultured meat – with Israel’s Aleph Farms becoming just the third company to earn clearance last month – where does that leave the industry?
Cultivated meat no longer on sale – but not for long
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods
Last week, UPSIDE Foods announced that it had “wrapped up” its dinner series at Bar Crenn, and was taking its chicken “on the road”. “This was the close of the first chapter of our journey… A chapter filled with hope, predictions, aspirations [and] incessant scepticism,” Valeti wrote in a LinkedIn post. “All of these milestones were deemed as impossible and unachievable just a few years ago.”
This came after China Chilcano paused reservations for its tasting menu featuring GOOD Meat’s chicken in September. “Please check back soon for information on the next availability,” its website reads. Sales of GOOD Meat’s cultivated chicken in Singapore have also paused for the time being.
“The most important activities for GOOD Meat are related to process development and lowering costs long-term. We are focusing our efforts and resources on those tasks at this time,” Eat Just’s global communications director, Carrie Kabat, told Green Queen.
While the company couldn’t share figures like the number of dishes or diners served, Kabat said the dinners held at China Chilcano “went extremely well”. “Reviews from diners were overwhelmingly positive,” she said. These included snippets from the likes of Food Fix’s Helena Bottemiller Evich – “Tastes like chicken? It really does” – and the Good Food Institute (GFI) founder Bruce Friedrich – “The highlight of my year (no second place)”.
“Based on the feedback from diners, we learned that people really like eating cultivated chicken instead of slaughtered chicken,” added Kabat.
Courtesy: Eat JUST
UPSIDE Foods received similar feedback at Bar Crenn, where it completed seven services in total. Critics were impressed by the product, with the Washington Post describing it as “the kind of chicken that once was common in America, before the poultry industry sacrificed flavour for rapid growth” and Eater noting that “the meat itself was less sickly white than supermarket birds, and the taste evoked the kind of nostalgic, delicate meatiness proper chicken should provide”.
The company has hit back at the Bloomberg story, calling its claims “inaccurate and misleading”. “This occurred despite our team’s extensive efforts to educate Bloomberg’s reporters over many months and despite outreach to their editors, general counsel, and standards editor to express our concerns regarding the investigative and reporting process,” the company said. “They have refused to fairly reflect UPSIDE’s progress in the story, and the article reads more like an opinion p
Eat JUST, meanwhile, has been embroiled in legal battles with suppliers and experiencing financial troubles, while UPSIDE Foods has been subject to negative press from Wired and Bloomberg over its progress.
Eat JUST co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick disputed allegations of financial stress, telling Green Queen in November that the business experienced huge EBITDA and gross margin growth last year. “we are focused on the daily execution of our zero-burn plan (i.e., cover operating costs through margin dollars) and serving our customers,” he said. “If we execute, the company and its missions win. It’ll be challenging and hard – and it’s up to us to get it done.”
Where you can try cultured meat next
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
These developments don’t really spell doom for public tastings of cultivated meat – quite the opposite, in fact. With a considerable amount of buzz generated, the focus for these companies is now on cost-cutting, “process development” (as Kabat touched upon), and creating “next-gen, larger-scale products” (which is what UPSIDE Foods is working on).
“We plan to resume tastings for the public this year,” said Kabat. UPSIDE Foods similarly aims to relaunch sales soon – it’s working with Crenn and other chefs to serve its cultivated chicken at events starting next month. “We are proud to have partnered with Chef Dominique Crenn to make history, from the first-ever US sale of cultivated meat to a series of UPSIDE dinners at Bar Crenn that delighted consumers with a delicious taste of the future,” a brand spokesperson told Green Queen.
In his LinkedIn post, Valeti said: “We look ahead to the next chapter of our journey as we go from first sale to significant scale. We are again ready to take on first-of-their-kind challenges [and] sceptics, including renewed attempts to ‘ban’ our progress.”
“We are still at the very early stages of cultivated meat’s entrance into the marketplace,” GFI’s senior VP of communication, Sheila Voss, told Wired. “As we saw in Singapore, the first country in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat, the rollout to consumers migrated across fine dining restaurants, home delivery, and hawker stalls, highlighting the versatility of this product, and we expect similar introductory rollouts in the US.”
But it’s not just Americans who can look forward to trying cultivated meat products soon. After gaining regulatory approval in its home country, Aleph Farms is now undergoing final labelling and mark-of-facility inspections. Once passed, it will introduce its Black Angus Petit Steak under the Aleph Cuts banner to diners, offering exclusive tasting experiences curated in collaboration with select partners.
“At first, the product will be available in select restaurants,” Yoav Reisler, senior marketing and communications manager at Aleph Farms, told Green Queen last month. “Afterwards, it will become available at foodservice and retail locations.”
Courtesy: Fork & Good
Aleph Farms will hope to do the same in the other countries it has filed for approval in: Singapore, the US, the UK and Switzerland. The latter actually was host to its first cultivated meat tasting last month, when US food tech startup Fork & Good welcomed 40 diners at a pub in Davos to sample and tell the difference between conventional pork and its hybrid pork (a blend of 70% plant protein and 30% cultivated pork).
According to an informal poll, more than half of the tasters preferred the hybrid meat, while the group was split when asked to guess which dish contained cultivated meat.
Another hybrid pork company hoping to host public tastings for diners is the Netherlands’ Meatable. After holding two tasting events in Singapore in 2023 – where it plans to roll its product out later this year – the company has filed a dossier to the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation’s newly created independent expert committee. The panel is the final hurdle for companies hoping to give people a taste of their product, and would make the Netherlands the first EU country to make pre-regulatory-approval tastings possible.
With more regulatory approvals expected this year, it’s safe to assume that you’ll be able to try cultivated meat in a restaurant again soon – and it won’t just be from two producers.
The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore has issued a fatwa declaring that cultivated meat is generally halal, and Muslims can eat these products as long as they adhere to halal standards.
The Fatwa Committee of the Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS) has announced that cultivated meat can be considered halal, and the country’s Muslims are allowed to consume it if certain conditions are met.
The sole entity with the legal power to issue halal certificates in Singapore, Muis’s fatwa ruled that cultured meat can be halal if the cells are sourced from animals Muslims are allowed to consume (for example, chicken but not pork), and there’s no mixing of non-halal components in the manufacturing process.
The ruling was issued at Muis’s Fatwa Conference on February 3, and marks an important next step for cultivated meat’s progress in a country that first approved its sale in 2020, and 15.6% of whose citizens are Muslim. Halal diets refer to food consumption in accordance with Islamic law – when it comes to meat, it means animals must be slaughtered in a prescribed way, and certain types of meat and byproducts – including pork and blood products – are prohibited.
The halal conditions cultivated meat must follow
Courtesy: GFI APAC
The fatwa comes after over a year of deliberation by the Islamic council, which – supported by the Office of the Mufti – consulted stakeholders like the Singapore Food Agency, industry bodies like the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, and scientists and other experts. Plus, Muis visited a local cultivated meat production facility, with scholars perusing the matter from all angles of the Islamic perspective, and taking into account Singapore’s “socio-religious realities”.
While presenting the results of the study on Saturday, the Fatwa Committee outlined the environmental and food security benefits of cultivated meat, finding that its pros outweigh any perceived cons. Muis said its fatwa was underpinned by the Islamic principles that it serves to preserve human life and protect the environment. “The fatwa also considers the Islamic legal principle that unless proven otherwise, whatever is beneficial is permissible,” it added.
The religious guidance on cultivated meat consumption was developed due to questions of permissibility for Muslims after the SFA approved the sale of GOOD Meat’s cultured chicken in 2020. Considering the global impetus to find alternative, sustainable food solutions and the emergence of novel food, it is necessary to establish a clear religious position from the outset in order to facilitate any future plans for the halal certification of cultivated meat,” said Muis.
The Fatwa Committee studied three inter-related aspects – the source of the meat, the production process, and the ingredients used – and outlined requirements stipulating that the cell lines should be from a species permissible to eat for Muslims, every ingredient making up the texture and composition of the cultivated meat should be halal, and the product must be clean and non-toxic. These guidelines largely align with those released by Shariah scholars in Saudi Arabia in September.
“Building a truly inclusive, efficient and secure protein production system requires making high-quality, nutrient-rich, and culturally relevant foods available to every facet of society,” said Mirte Gosker, managing director of GFI APAC. “With Muis’s precedent-setting announcement, Singapore is bringing that bold vision one step closer to reality.”
Halal consumers represent 25% of the world’s population, and the halal meat market is estimated to grow by 7% annually to reach $375B in 2031. Research has found that the most important consideration for Singaporeans around cultivated meat is that it must be halal before it is consumed, with some raising concerns about whether its production can be halal, especially if they’re located close to facilities making cultured pork or other prohibited meats.
The study further suggested that participants unanimously expressed trust in Muis to determine the halal status of cultivated meat, believing its opinion to be comprehensive. “They are doing the right thing as a Muslim authority and speaking on behalf of all Muslims in Singapore,” one respondent said.
Singapore to create halal certification for cultivated meat
Courtesy: GOOD Meat
Now, Muis plans to work with government bodies like the SFA and industry stakeholders to develop guidelines for halal certification of cultivated meat – a move that would be welcomed by the sector. A 44-company survey by GFI APAC last year revealed that complying with halal requirements was a priority for 87% of the businesses. But a lack of resources outlining how products can adhere to such religious certifications would prove to be a significant entry barrier, the study added.
Currently, no cultivated meat approved for sale on the market satisfies the council’s halal guidance yet, according to GFI APAC. While the timeline for the halal certification depends on the complexity of certifying the products, Muis explained that any locally produced halal-certified cultured meat would be available only for local sale and consumption – exports are only possible if other countries have approved the sale of these products (the US and Israel are the only others to have done so).
“Companies applying for Muis Halal Certification must have a facility producing cultivated meat products in Singapore,” the council added. “This is the same principle applied to conventional meat-producing facilities. The halal status of imported raw materials and processing aids from overseas which are used locally must be substantiated with the appropriate halal supporting documentation, depending on the risk category, and not the country of origin.”
The fatwa mentioned that the guidelines are intended to ensure that halal dietary rules are followed and maintained. But it added: “In all cases, Muslim consumers make their own informed choice whether to patronise any halal-certified eating establishment or consume any halal-certified food product.
“Similarly for cultivated meat, if it is halal-certified, Singapore Muslims can choose whether to consume or otherwise. Actual Muslim consumer acceptance of cultivated meat will also depend on other considerations like personal dietary preferences, taste, and cost.”
Gosker said: “More than a billion people around the world adhere to halal food standards, so for cultivated meat to make the leap from novelty to the norm, it is crucial that there are viable pathways to achieve this certification.”
Muis’ fatwa follows the aforementioned advice from three leading Shariah scholars in Saudi Arabia, which told GOOD Meat that cultured meat can be considered halal if it meets certain criteria. And in 2022, the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America adjudged cultivated meat as provisionally permissible by default, provided Halal criteria are followed.
In terms of other religious guidance, Israel’s chief rabbi David Lau declared last January that local producer Aleph Farms’ non-FBS steak could be considered kosher and akin to eating a vegetable (parve). This wasn’t a kosher certification, however, and the company is now pursuing one for its facility from local rabbinate authorities.
In the 1980s, Willem van Eelen began working on the technology that produces what we know today as cultivated meat – now, his daughter, via RESPECTfarms, is extending his vision to help farmers take the plunge, beginning with the world’s first cultured meat farm.
If the whole world transitioned to alternative proteins like cultivated meat, what would happen to all the farmers? This is one of the most pressing questions surrounding the industry.
It’s an important one, too – how do you diversify the world’s protein intake without wiping out the livelihoods of a quarter of the global population, which forms the backbone of our food system? To answer it, Ira van Eelen, Ruud Zanders, Florentine Zieglowski and Ralf Becks came up with RESPECTfarms, presenting a way one could grow cultivated meat on conventional farms.
Van Eelen is the daughter of Willem van Eelen. Known as the grandfather of cultivated meat, he began working on the tech in the 1980s and led the first-ever public research project on these proteins in the early 2000s, funded by the Dutch government.
Founders: Ralf Becks, Ruud Zanders, Ira van Eelen and Florentine Zieglowski – courtesy: RESPECTfarms
The outcome of this research focused on how cultivated meat could be an additional business model for farmers. It’s the seed that sparked the idea to launch RESPECTfarms, which is hoping to decentralise cultivated meat production on traditional farms. Ira van Eelen calls this “the bare necessity”, viewing cultured meat as a solution to climate protection and food security.
“Not all farmers should make cultivated meat tomorrow,” she tells me. “But we need to diversify the current protein production for a more resilient agricultural system.”
Why not grow ingredients for plant-based proteins, then, like some transition projects are doing? “Not all plants are useful for cultivated meat production either (but rather for plant-based meats),” van Eelen responds. “Some others (including sidestreams) make sense in terms of processing costs or composition for cell culture media.”
Why RESPECTfarms advocates growing cultivated meat on farms
Do livestock farmers really want to make the switch from something they’ve known all their lives? “It depends on why meat has been their entire livelihood,” she suggests. “Is this because they love to work with animals? Because they see it as a viable business? Is it because they are proud to contribute to food security and feed the world? Cultivated meat does not mean you need to give up on your motivation on why you are a farmer. They can still produce meat, just in a different way (and with some key additional benefits).”
And what might those benefits be? As RESPECTfarms explains in a hypothetical video, farmers would be able to produce more meat with fewer cows – and they don’t need to be slaughtered. It safeguards them against any disease risk to the livestock (and that transferring into the meat produced), because you’re essentially taking them out of the equation. Plus, there are the environmental benefits too – cultivated meat can mean 92% fewer emissions, 94% less air pollution, and 90% less land use than conventional beef, if produced via renewable energy.
The next question that springs to mind is why grow cultivated meat on a farm instead of at a manufacturing facility? As van Eelen explains in the video, the farm is a smart location for this, because everything you need is already there. You’ve got the animals and their cells, a place to generate energy, as well as the people who are adept at handling them, are familiar with following processes and know how to deal with hygiene. Farmers can play a role in feeding the cells, and process residual flows via recycling and waste management. “So why wouldn’t we do it in a place like that?” asks van Eelen.
“It will secure [farmers’] place in rural areas and secure food production,” she tells me, before adding: “But yes, for those farmers that aim to stay in the way they have always been practising agriculture, they might want to transition towards another form of agriculture.”
Addressing design challenges for existing farms
RESPECTfarms’ demonstrative video explains how farmers can work with experts (like architects) who can retrofit their stable with new designs that are fit for cultivated meat production and a farm of the future. It combines sustainable production with local agriculture to make a circular chain – hitting a key consumer concern.
There are other potential pain points too. What do farms do with existing animals, if not slaughter them the way they were raised to do? “Our proposition is that they can produce the same amount of meat that they used to produce, only with fewer animals needed. This opens up the opportunity to hold the few animals in an animal-friendly way,” says van Eelen. “What farmers do with their animals at a certain point is up to them to decide.”
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
And in terms of redesigning stables, how do smallholder farms with limited space and facilities fit in here? Van Eelen explains they could still technically produce cultivated meat, with external inputs on the cell culture media. “Current agriculture already shows different strategy practices – from differentiating the farm practices (like income on feed, milk, and meat) to focusing on one practice only (such as specifically breeding sows). We expect this to happen also for cellular agriculture farms in the future,” she notes.
“Further, It is all about how we can design the process most cost-effective for farmers: What is the investment needed by the farmer? What is the input and output? What are the price points? This is still part of the research and will develop over time. Farmers are traditionally used to work in collaboration, so we expect [to work with] regional cooperatives.”
RESPECTfarms is working with 60 farmers in the EU
Van Eelen and her co-founders are working with farmers on different levels. This includes partnerships with the German Agricultural Society (DLG) and Swiss farmers’ union Fenaco, both of which are leading organisations in their respective countries with thousands of members, and have expressed support for RESPECTfarms’ concept. “We intend to expand on these engagements and conversations intensively in the next months,” van Eelen reveals.
Have farmers been receptive to the idea? “We have not experienced extraordinary negativity around cultivated meat by farmers. We have validation that there is a group of farmers that wants to produce cultivated meat,” she outlines. “There is also a group that does not want to tap into this field, but it is an assumption that farmers would not want this. And we focus on the ones that aim at transitioning with us.”
RESPECTfarms is part of the Horizon Europe programme, which helps fund the feasibility of farm-scale cultivated meat production. “We will research opportunities and key blocking issues [in] Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Norway,” she adds.
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
Currently, van Eelen and her colleagues are having one-on-one talks with about 10 farmers in Switzerland and Germany, and 50 in the Netherlands. And it’s the latter where it is looking into the possibility of its first farm (planned for 2025), with Germany being an alternative. “The construction of a pilot farm represents a risk to investors and other private funders. Therefore, we see an urgent need for the public sector to support a first farm – both to de-risk and increase the value over time.”
RESPECTfarms began running an 18-month feasibility project in January 2023, armed with €900,000 in funding from European governments, NGOs, and industry partners like Rügenwalder Mühle, Fenaco, Rabobank, and the Belgian animal rights group GAIA. “Current agriculture is heavily subsidised,” notes van Eelen. “There are also subsidies to transition towards more sustainable practices. Farmers should be subsidised to transition towards this model in the future, too.”
Another aspect to consider is the expensive machinery and equipment required for cultivated meat production. “At the moment, bioreactors are still expensive. That is partly due to the design of these bioreactors that are not suitable for food production. We aim at developing a design that is feasible, viable, and desirable for farmers to invest in,” van Eeelen explains.
The need for regulatory support
Courtesy: RESPECTfarms
She calls on the public sector to “pave the way” in terms of regulatory frameworks to open up the possibility for cultivated meat farms. Currently, no country in the EU has received applications for approval, with the bloc’s novel foods regulation being the most stringent in the world. Within Europe, though, Switzerland and the UK are currently evaluating filings from Israeli cultivated beef producer Aleph Farms (which last month received clearance in its home country).
So how do farmers make money in the meantime? “Unfortunately, with their current agricultural practices – or [if] they have already transitioned towards plant-based alternatives,” notes van Eelen. ‘If we don’t work on this now, we will be too late for the farmers in need of another alternative, futureproof business model.”
Speaking of the future, RESPECTfarms is working towards fully optimising its first farm by 2029, in the hope to start a movement that can help scale out its process from 2030 onwards. “Our first long-term vision is the transformation of 1,000 farms in 2038, with a growing network to expand and sustain,” says van Eelen.
Buy-in from governments, farmers and consumers is crucial – can RESPECTfarms get the ball rolling with the world’s first cultivated meat farm?
In an exclusive interview with Green Queen, Wild Earth co-founder and alt-protein investor Ryan Bethencourt talks the death threats he’s received, his experience with Shark Tank and Mark Cuban, his investment criteria, learning from Tesla, media bias, and his company’s upcoming cat food and Basics lines.
“It was honestly pretty brutal,” says Ryan Bethencourt, recalling a trip he took with his father when he was 10. “I loved animals, cared for lots of our dogs and cats, and I then went to see a pig slaughtered in front of me.”
He recalls seeing the fear in the creature’s eyes – as if the life had been drained out of them. “They were sliced up in front of me,” he describes, noting the day he quit pork.
That was over 30 years ago now, a period since which Bethencourt has emerged as a leading scientist, entrepreneur and investor in the alternative protein industry. His trip to the farm provides a snapshot of a man who deeply cares about animals – he grew up with a bunch of dogs, cats and other “exotic pets” – and his company Wild Earth, which makes food for our furry friends, extends that image.
It took him until his late teenage years to go fully vegetarian, but it was really in his late 20s that he gave up animal foods altogether, after watching the 2005 documentary Earthlings. “I went vegan the next day,” the now-44-year-old tells me. “As Ursula Le Guin wrote in one of my favourite short stories, once I had seen the wrongness of our society, I chose to walk away from Omelas and go vegan.”
What Ryan Bethencourt the investor looks for in startups
A few years after taking the plant-based plunge, Bethencourt and a few friends co-founded Indie.Bio in 2014, a biotech accelerator based in San Francisco, which has funded dozens of leaders in the alternative protein industry. It marked the beginning of his journey as an investor.
Bethencourt calls his journey of becoming an angel investor accidental. “I wanted to keep supporting ‘future of food’ companies post IndieBio, and I started to invest tiny angel cheques to help founders just get off the ground (most were their first cheques),” he says, naming companies like cultivated meat leaders Shiok Meats (Singapore) and Newform Foods (South Africa). “Over time, I realised I needed more capital to support so many founders that were approaching me.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
This is when he launched Sustainable Food Ventures with food and flavour scientist Mariliis Holm. It’s a rolling fund that backs 60 companies over three years (50% of which are first cheques). Over the last decade, Bethencourt has been involved in the angel or VC funding of more than 180 companies. Some of his favourites? Upside Foods, Mycoworks, NotCo, Geltor, Jellatech, Galy, Hoxton Farms and Farmless, among many others.
What does a serial investor like him look for in a company? The North Carolina resident has three simple criteria. He calls the first “missionary over mercenary”, indicating support only for people who deeply care about a sector. “They’ll keep going no matter what, and you need that when building a business. No company or industry stays hot forever, and when it gets brutally hard, that’s when missionaries shine,” he explains.
The next is a focus on new and interesting insights or technology, “ideally with a deep understanding of why others that have tried failed and why this time it’s different”. Finally, he asks the question: “Do I want to work with this person/team for the next few decades?” He believes this is his most unusual insight, as he views backing a founded as a lifelong commitment – it’s not just their first startup, but those that follow too. For example, he invested in Alan Perlstein’s Miraculex (now Oobli) years ago, and has since funded Perlstein’s latest startup, California Cultured.
“I still get founders of large commercial companies who call me and ask for my perspective on their companies or their next startup, and I love the fact they feel comfortable reaching out to me as the years roll on,” says Bethencourt.
Creating Wild Earth and securing a Shark Tank deal with Mark Cuban
It was at Indie.Bio when Bethencourt first became “obsessed about pet food”. There were a few reasons for this. The investor had learnt that 30% of the meat consumed in the US goes to feeding pets (which, to him, meant that 25-30% of factory-farmed animals could be replaced). He also realised that dogs, as omnivores, could “survive and thrive” on a plant-based diet. And he was even more shocked to find out that cats (traditionally seen as obligate carnivores) could similarly prosper on a nutritionally complete vegan diet.
Courtesy: Wild Earth
It sparked an idea that propelled Bethencourt to mainstream popularity. “I really believe in the saying: ‘Let food be thy medicine.” And most pet food is honestly horrible,” he says, invoking the dreaded 4Ds – dead, diseased, dying or downed animals – and referring to the contamination with euthanasia drugs and melted plastic.
“All of these contaminants have been found by the FDA in pet food, and that’s before you actually understand what our pets are being fed: ground-up chicken feathers, beaks and other horrible things,” he notes. “The great irony of this all is we can replace the entire rotten pet food industry with nutritionally compete plant-based and yeast-based proteins, clean and not gross.”
He took it upon himself to transform the pet food industry for all the animals, and started Wild Earth with his co-founders in 2017. Two years later, he appeared on national television with the aim of generating interest and investment in his company. Suffice it to say, he was successful in reaching his goal, and then some.
On Shark Tank, Bethencourt landed a deal with Mark Cuban, securing $550,000 for 10% of the company. (Since then, Wild Earth has closed Series A and A+ rounds to bring total funding to nearly $50M). “Shark Tank was a surreal experience,” he reveals. “A lot of people don’t know this, but there aren’t any redos on the show. When the doors open, you get one shot and that’s it, and the pressure is intense as they make sure you never meet the Sharks prior to the pitch.”
The Sharks went hard on Bethencourt after he revealed that Wild Earth had no commercial sales yet (with plans to launch its first product soon), despite essentially valuing the business at $11M. He expected that response. “We were trying our best to make sure we made the best dog food possible and it was taking a lot longer than I originally hoped,” he tells me.
“I hoped one of them would see the vision behind Wild Earth and why we had to bring change to the pet food industry, and luckily, right at the end when all the Sharks had declined, Mark looked at me and made me an offer. I honestly thought he was going to pass too, but he really understood where the future was going and was willing to take a chance.”
Bethencourt says Cuban and his team have provided “incredible support” over the years, adding that he speaks to Cuban every few weeks. “I think Mark also deeply understood the opportunity in the plant-based/vegan space,” he suggests. “After he backed us, I kept sending him studies on plant-based diets’ health benefits and strength/exercise benefits too. A few years back, Mark went mostly vegetarian, and I think it’s helped keep him in great shape on top of his commitment to lots of exercise.”
Exploring cultivated meat and health benefits of vegan pet food
Wild Earth didn’t stop at vegan pet food, though. In 2022, the company announced its foray into cultivated meat with a cultured chicken broth topper for dogs. A year and a bit later, it remains one of only a handful of producers working on cell-based pet food.
“I’ve spent a lot of time talking to everyone, including the biggest critics of the plant-based industry, cattle ranchers, self-proclaimed carnivores, and some of the biggest meat producers on the planet. I’m convinced that while many of us (at least 50% of us) are happy with plant-based and fermented protein options, there’s still a large group of consumers who want ‘real’ meat, and I think we can make those products for them too, [which] are slaughter-free, but real meat,” Bethencourt explains.
Did the company receive any concerns from its vegan consumer base? “Yes we did,” he confirms. “We had lots of conversations and as we’ve seen, this topic is controversial. It’s likely that we’ll launch a separate line of cultivated pet foods under a different brand to ensure that there’s no confusion.”
While all of Wild Earth’s consumer products will be vegan, this possible future line of cultivated products will cater to people who still want “real” meat for their pets, but want to skip the low quality and cruel use of animals in factory farming. “Our mission at Wild Earth is to make killer food without the killing,” states Bethencourt.
Courtesy: Wild Earth
Consumer apprehension over the health aspects of alternative proteins is a key challenge for the industry in 2024. The Wild Earth CEO says he’s seen a “dramatic change” in perception about the health credentials of dog food in the last seven years. This shift has occurred both in consumers who’ve noticed benefits for their pets when eating vegan, and veterinarians who are recommending plant-based diets for dogs to tackle food allergies, weight control, diabetes and other clinical applications, according to Bethencourt.
“We’ve also seen a dramatic shift in who the average Wild Earth consumer is: when we started, the majority of our customers were vegan/vegetarians, but today, the majority of our customers aren’t (over 70%). We’re seeing widespread adoption from consumers just looking for cleaner and healthier food, and they’re now comfortable with plant-based pet foods.”
That has given rise to an increasing number of vegan pet food brands and products. One estimate put this market at $26B in 2022, predicting it to double to $57B by 2032. Companies like The Pack, Omni, Hownd (all UK), Noochies (Canada), Paleo (Belgium) are all innovating in this space, and that’s without looking at the larger players launching dedicated plant-based lines.
“The vast majority of both vegans and vegetarians still feed their pets meat-based pet food,” asserts Bethencourt. “I know because I get lectured almost daily (particularly) by vegans who tell me that dogs can’t be vegan (after we’ve fed tens of thousands of dogs plant-based diets for many, many years and they’ve thrived).
“I’m thankful I no longer get the death threats though,” he adds, recalling people’s uproar over feeding dogs vegan food. “Those were weird.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
He calls recent research about the benefits of plant-based diets for pets his “favourite new development” in the space, particularly the studies by University of Winchester professor Andrew Knight. In 2022, he published a paper revealing that dogs fed vegan diets were healthier and required fewer veterinary interventions. He followed it up with similar research for cats, showing that felines on a plant-based diet could be healthier than those fed meat.
Bethencourt believes the increase in such studies has led to vets getting more receptive of vegan pet food, and industry giants like Mars, Nestlé and General Mills experimenting with plant-based launches. “We’re still early, [but] I’m confident we’re starting to reach a tipping point in the US, Europe and the UK, and hopefully soon globally,” he says.
‘Plant-based industry can learn a lot from Tesla’
While Wild Earth did develop its lines of cultured chicken (and beef), it has been forced to pause their development due to the challenging financial environment globally, doubling down on its commercial plant-based products instead. “We’re now in conversations with other companies who have developed cell-based lines about partnering to produce future slaughter-free meat lines,” reveals Bethencourt.
It’s reflective of the wider challenges for alternative meat across the world, a slump he calls “brutal, but… inevitable”. “All industries move in boom and bust cycles. In the plant-based space, most funding has frozen, but – and here’s the important part – the customers are still out there, and across Europe, the US and Asia more customers are becoming open to plant-based products,” he explains.
“I think one of the biggest challenges for all of us is competing with some of the planet’s largest companies in the food category. Most plant-based food companies are tiny in comparison to today’s food giants, but if we focus on making incredible products, with great customer benefits and very competitive prices, we can win.”
Courtesy: Wild Earth
The narrative around plant-based hasn’t been helped by the attacks from some mainstream media outlets, which Bethencourt agrees are biased, given most of their advertisers still sell animal-based products, meaning they can’t be too critical. “In an era of AI and information warfare from both nation states through to large incumbents, we all have to think more independently and question everything,” he implores.
The Wild Earth CEO says the plant-based industry can learn a lot from the likes of Tesla, which launched with a premium line and has since aggressively increased product benefits and lowered prices. “People will want to buy tasty, healthier and cost-competitive products – we just have to push our industry harder to deliver on these, and that’s a hard challenge for us all,” he notes.
Going back to the media aspect, Tesla – a company that’s “probably the most hated by mainstream media” – is doing “an incredible amount of good”, despite governments and petrochemical giants being against it, according to Bethencourt: “They continue to win market share by focusing on innovation, their customers, and making better and increasingly more cost-competitive products.”
One company that’s doing it right in his eyes is Chile’s AI-led vegan startup NotCo. “From day one, Matias [Muchnik], their founder and CEO, has always said tastier products, healthier products and better-priced products will win, and they have all across Latin America.” (Most recently, the company’s collaboration with The Kraft Company bore fruit to a vegan version of the latter’s iconic boxed mac and cheese).
Wild Earth will launch cat food and a Basics line for dogs
Courtesy: Wild Earth
Since raising the half a million from Cuban on Shark Tank, Wild Earth has managed to release 14 products, feed tens of thousands of dogs, launch online and in retail nationwide, and sell over $42M worth of vegan dog food, treats and supplements. In the company’s early days, it was able to grow revenue by 25-50%, and last year, that figure crossed $10M. This year, the target is $15M, though the focus is on cost-efficient growth, keeping in mind the precarious economic landscape.
Its D2C business remains its most successful sales channel. “One of the hardest things for us was transforming from an R&D organization to a commercial organisation,” says Bethencourt. “It’s hard for any company but particularly for a mission-based company we’ve had to learn a lot of lessons, staying true to our mission means being effective and scaling sales.”
Now, Wild Earth is looking to expand into retail and diversify its product portfolio by launching a new cat food SKU, as well as an essential Basics line. The latter – set to launch later this year – will provide a lower-cost entry point for vegan pet food to cater to a wider audience. The company also hopes to return to India and Asia (where it was selling pre-pandemic), and enter Europe and Canada – international expansion is on the cards for 2025.
People aren't ready for us to turn carnivore cats vegan but I'm going to do it, it's e/acc after all
“We’re very optimistic about the future for plant-based pet food and think the first plant-based food boom and bust (for us and our pets) was just the end of the beginning of market adoption,” predicts Bethencourt, who foresees continued growth in the sector over the next decade.
“One of our guiding principles at Wild Earth is to be bold and push the pet industry to change,” he says. “We did this when we launched our plant-based dog food, treats and supplements, we’re doing that again with our vegan cat products and we’ll challenge ourselves again in the future to grow the space for cell-based meat to end the use of factory-farmed animals in pet food.
“It’s hard, but it’s something we believe is important to do for the world we want to see in the future.”
Amid a flurry of proposed bans on cultivated meat in the US and around the world, two senators have now introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of cultured meat in school meals.
Just as American schoolchildren are having to fight for even soy milk under the First Amendment, two US lawmakers are hoping to introduce a wider crackdown on alternative proteins in the education sector.
Senators Mike Rounds (Republican) and Jon Tester (Democrat) have proposed a bill to amend the Richard B Russell National School Lunch Act and the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and ban the use of cultivated meat in US school meals.
Titled the School Lunch Integrity Act of 2024, the senators seek to prohibit cell-cultured meat from being served in schools under the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (SBP).
“This common-sense bill will make sure our schools can serve real meat from our ranchers, not a fake substitute that’s grown in a lab,” said Tester, a third-generation farmer from Montana. “Montana ranchers grow the best meat in the world, that’s a fact – and our students ought to be getting the best in their school breakfasts and lunches every day.”
US senator promotes local beef over cultivated meat
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC, Jon Tester
Cultivated meat has already been approved for sale in the country, with the USDA granting clearance to Californian producers UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat last year. It made the US only the second nation to allow the consumption of these proteins – but Rounds’ office claimed that these actions “undermine the important work of American livestock producers”.
The USDA hasn’t yet issued any guidance over cultivated protein in the NSLP or SBP, but despite its approval of cell-based chicken from the aforementioned companies – which have also received a Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) certification from the FDA – Rounds questioned the safety of these products, citing a lack of research.
“It starts out with a piece of meat, a cell from an actual chicken and then it is developed artificially within the laboratory. We just want to make sure that’s not the stuff they are selling in our schools,” Rounds told local outlet Keloland.
In a statement, he said: “Our students should not be test subjects for cell-cultivated ‘meat’ experiments. South Dakota farmers and ranchers work hard to produce high-quality beef products. These products are often sold to South Dakota schools, where they provide necessary nutrition to our students.
“With high-quality, local beef readily available for our students, there’s no reason to be serving fake, lab-grown meat products in the cafeteria. I’m pleased to introduce this bipartisan legislation that benefits South Dakota producers and protects students from the unknown effects of cell-cultivated ‘meat’ products.”
Reflecting a wider disconnect between meat and climate change
Courtesy: Our World in Data
It’s a rhetoric commonly used by sceptics of cultivated meat, which – as mentioned above – has been cleared as safe for human consumption by the US government. Promoting beef serves the interests of the country’s livestock industry – which receives 800 times more public funding than alternative protein companies – and encourages the consumption of a product that is proven to be the worst-emitting food.
Rounds will argue that he’s supporting local farmers and beef, which will have a lower carbon footprint than meat produced elsewhere. This is a commonly held misconception, because transport accounts for less than 1% of beef’s GHG emissions. “Eating local beef or lamb has many times the carbon footprint of most other foods. Whether they are grown locally or shipped from the other side of the world matters very little for total emissions,” explains Our World in Data’s Hannah Ritchie.
But perhaps Rounds can be forgiven for the confusion – he is, after all, a lawmaker in a country that fails to connect meat consumption with the climate crisis. One study found that 74% of Americans don’t think eating meat is bad for the environment, while another put that number at 41% for red meat. But peer-reviewed research has revealed that, when produced using renewable energy, cultivated meat can account for 92% fewer emissions, 94% less air pollution, and 90% less land use than conventional beef.
Even studies that critics routinely cite – such as a 2019 University of Oxford paper – are misinterpreted. While that research was undertaken when cultivated meat was much less developed and heavily reliant on fossil fuel power, it still found that the worst-case scenario for cultivated meat’s GHG emissions is better than the “best” conventional meat production systems for at least the next 100 years.
Livestock industry questions the safety of cultivated meat
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Nevertheless, the bill was welcomed by animal agriculture groups like the US Cattlemen’s Association, R-CALF USA, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and South Dakota Pork Producers, who seemingly ignored the implications of the safety rulings for cultivated chicken – a marker that other foods produced this way can also be regulated the same way in the future – by the USDA and FDA. In January, Israel became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated beef, after the Israeli Ministry of Health (IMOH) issued a ‘no questions’ letter for Aleph Farms.
“Science experiments belong in the classroom, not the cafeteria,” said Justin Tupper, president of the US Cattlemen’s Association. “The long-term health effects of consuming foods produced using cell-cultured technology [have] not been established. These products are too new and untested to be considered safe for our nation’s children.”
Bill Bullard, CEO of R-CALF USA, added: “The claim that cell-cultivated meat grown in a laboratory is as safe and healthful as real, natural meat has not yet been definitively determined. So, subjecting children to this nascent, scientific experiment is bad public policy. We applaud Senator Rounds’ bill that will ensure our children and grandchildren will not be encouraged to consume this controversial and unnatural product while at school.”
“We just want to make sure that our livestock producers in the upper midwest aren’t ham-stringed by schools suggesting that because of liberals in the area or individuals that don’t like ag that they are suddenly then being challenged to compete with cultured meat, which we think has a long way to go and hasn’t been properly tested at this stage of the game,” added Rounds.
Joining a global trend of cultivated meat bans
Courtesy: UPSIDE Foods
The legislation is reminiscent of the amendment of France’s climate law in 2021, which banned cultivated meat in canteens, similarly calling into question the safety of the products and the threat to livestock farmers.
That wasn’t the end of France’s anti-cultivated-meat push, which last year introduced a bill to prohibit the production and sale of these novel proteins throughout the country – not just in the education sector.
It’s part of a wider trend that’s developing around the world. A month before France’s proposal, Italy became the world’s first country to officially ban cultivated meat. And one of the farming groups that lobbied prominently for the law is now in talks with Hungary to push forward similar legislation in the country.
Austria has also voiced its opinion against cultivated meat, presenting a note to the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council last week alongside Italy and France. It garnered support from the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Meanwhile, senators in the US have been jumping on this bandwagon as well. Before Rounds and Tester introduced their legislation to the Senate, Republican lawmakers in several states had already floated the idea of prohibiting the general production and sale of cultivated meat within state borders.
It began with Florida, where House representative Tyler Sirois proposed HB 435, which seeks to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cultured meat within the state, imposing criminal penalties – including facing misdemeanours of the second degree, fines of $500 to $1,000, and license suspensions or stop-sale orders – on anyone violating these rules.
Shortly after, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, while Nebraska’s Real MEAT Act would mandate the word “imitation” on alt-protein if passed.
Then, in Arizona, House representative Quang Nguyen drafted HB 2244, a bill that would make it illegal to “intentionally misbrand or misrepresent” an alternative meat product as meat, while fellow Republican David Marshall went a step further with HB 2121, attempting to ban the sale or production of cultured meat.
And just this week, Wisconsin State Assembly representative Peter Schmidt – a Republican dairy farmer – proposed two bills against alternative protein, one of which put restrictions on the labelling of cultivated meat.
Rounds said it’s too early to tell how the bill will play out in the Senate. But really, the focus should be on finding ways to safeguard the environment, not promote food production methods that destroy it. Climate activists will hope these bills stop making the rounds.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers a ton of alt-dairy developments, more discussions around banning cultivated meat, and vegan culinary tourism in Sri Lanka.
New products and launches
Canadian vegan cheesemaker Daiya has partnered with The Bear actor Lionel Boyce for Fromage Forgery, a campaign paying tribute to dupe culture. Boyce acted as salesman for the brand’s takeover of Downtown New York City, where over 350 customers tried its new oat-cream-based ‘dupe’ cheese.
Courtesy: Actual Veggies
Speaking of New York, Actual Veggies, which makes whole-food plant-based burgers, is launching a range of Super Fries in Classic Russet Potato, Sweet Potato and Purple Sweet Potato varieties, which will also contain ingredients like chickpeas and cauliflower. The Classic is available on Hungryroot now.
Fellow New York brand HIPPEAS has launched a new line of chickpea puffs called Flavor Blast!, available in Vegan White Cheddar Explosion and Blazin’ Hot flavours at Sprouts, Amazon and its e-commerce store.
Alt-meat leader Tofurky will soon launch a Plant-Based Pepp’roni in a 4oz pack at Tops Markets in the northeast and Hy-Vee in the midwest, starting this February.
Mycelium meat producer Prime Roots has collaborated with charcuterie and pâté maker Three Little Pigs to bring its Black Truffle Koji-Pâté, Harvest Apple Koji-Pâté and Koji-Foie Gras to customers in New York, Bay Area, and Portland delis.
Meanwhile, following its November announcement, plant-based children’s nutrition brand Kate Farms‘ Pediatric Blended Meals are now available. Eligible for insurance coverage, the vegan whole-food meals come in three flavours, are designed for kids aged one to 13, and can be used for both tube and oral feeding.
Courtesy: Kate Farms
In Florida, the Manatee County School District has rolled outImpossible Foods’ burgers and nuggets in student cafeterias at two high schools and three middle schools.
Illinois-based macadamia milk maker Milkadamia has released a new Organic Artisan line of refrigerated SKUs, in original and unsweetened varieties, as well as blends of macadamia with oat, almond or coconut milks. They were showcased at the Winter Fancy Food Show in Las Vegas this month.
Another alt-dairy innovation comes courtesy of Elmhurst, which has launched an oat-milk-based sour cream in a squeezable pouch format. You can find it on its online store and at Publix, with more to follow.
Chilean food tech company NotCo is expanding distribution for its Unsweetened Vanilla and Barista milks, with the former available at Whole Foods nationwide from February. The Barista edition is at grocers like Sprouts Farmers Market, New Seasons, Raley’s Supermarket, Hannaford, Haagen and Met Foodmarkets, and coffee shops like Joe Coffee and Daily Provisions.
If you’re flying to or from the UK, by the way, British Airways is now offering Glebe Farm’s oat milk aboard all its long-haul flights.
Three months after announcing price parity for its vegan own-label Vemondo in Germany, Lidl has expanded those efforts to Austria (as well as Denmark and Hungary), cutting prices by 52% on over 30 meat and dairy analogues.
Courtesy: Yumgo
Elsewhere, French brand YUMGO‘s egg alternatives – which come in powdered and liquid forms for whole eggs, whites and yolks – are now available in Japan, following a partnership with leading deli distributor Nichifutsu Boeki KK.
Indonesian plant-based meat leader Green Rebel has introduced its steak, Balinese skewers and Padang-style rendang SKUs to the frozen section of RedMart stores in Singapore.
And in Israel, Beyond Meat has launched chicken cutlets, nuggets and tenders, with help from distributor Diplomat Plant Based. The brand dominates the country’s alt-meat market share, accounting for 25% just four years after entry.
Financing and collaborations
London-based dairy alternatives company The Coconut Collab has closed a £1.5M Series B funding round from existing investors, which will help it scale production, launch new SKUs and expand internationally.
Courtesy: The Coconut Collab
Indian clean-label vegan nutrition startup Earthful, meanwhile, has raised $400,000, after witnessing a 5x growth over the last year.
Australian bio-based vegan leather company ALT.Leather has secured $100M in a seed funding round to produce the country’s first plant-based alternative to the material.
Belgian precision fermentation startupPaleo has opened a new R&D centre in Leuven to scale up production and accelerate its commercialisation plans, ahead of a fundraise later this year.
German catering service company Dussmann is doubling down on its Veganuary initiatives with a Vielfalt Statt Verzicht (Diversity Instead of Sacrifice) campaign in partnership with vegan startups Planted, BettaF!sh, BOONIAN, and Brew Bites, whose dishes are available at 60 Dussmann sites nationwide.
In more collaboration news, Canada’s Modern Plant-Based Foods has “received interest from a diversified multinational entertainment and media conglomerate”, which will see its Vegan Kaviar appear at select dining outlets across the latter’s properties. (While the tone of the release is coy, this is certainly the Walt Disney Company.)
Courtesy: Modern Plant-Based Foods
In Sri Lanka, sustainability non-profit SLYCAN Trust has partnered with Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts to launch Plant-Based Gastronomy: Tales of Sri Lanka’s Cultural Heritage. The initiative aims to showcase the country’s plant-based heritage and promote sustainable culinary tourism, with a dedicated vegan food corner at Cinnamon Grand Colombo’s restaurant and the introduction of a vegan chef.
Over in the US, after closing eight stores last year, vegan fast-casual chain Native Foods has converted its three remaining locations in Chicago, Palm Springs and Glendale into an employee ownership model.
Meanwhile, vegan seafood producer New Wave Foods has ceased operations after being unable to pay its debts in full to various creditors, and has entered into a general assignment agreement.
Cultivated meat developments
Researchers at Tufts University have developed bovine muscle cells that produce their own growth factors, which can significantly cut production costs for cultivated beef.
Following discussions about cultivated meat at the EU’s Agrifish Council last week, Hungary may be joining the bandwagon of countries hoping to ban cultured meat, with its agriculture minister meeting the head of Italian farmers’ union Coldiretti (which played a key role in finalising Italy’s ban).
In more alt-protein ban developments, Wisconsin State Assembly representative Peter Schmidt – who is also a Republican dairy farmer – has proposed two bills restricting the labelling of cultivated meat and plant-based milk, following in the footsteps of Arizona.
In the UK, cultivated fat producer Hoxton Farms has expanded its leadership by adding former Impossible Foods senior VP Nick Halla to its board.
If you followed the viral TikTok homemade butter trend of 2022, and were sad you couldn’t do it with vegan cream, fret not! Californian startup Savor – which makes animal-free fats from a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen – has released a video showcasing how to make butter from scratch using its fat.
Israel’s Redefine Meat has now made it to the Premier League, with Crystal Palace footballers Chris Richards and James Tomkins taste-testing the 3D-printed plant-based meat in a new video.
After announcing its anti-Veganuary ad campaign Let’s Eat Balanced, UK livestock association the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board is facing pushback from campaigners who have submitted complaints against the ad to the country’s Advertising Standards Authority.
Finally, a new report by ProVeg South Africa has revealed that vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians make up 10-12% of the country’s population and have driven the 33.1% rise in fast-food consumption since 2019. The researchers explore vegan options at QSRs and make recommendations to help the foodservice industry.
In a first-of-its-kind partnership, the Indian government is embarking on a project to create cell-cultured seafood with cultivated meat startup Neat Meatt Biotech.
The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has signed an MoU with New Delhi-based biotech company Neat Meatt to develop cultivated fish, in what is a landmark project for the world’s third-largest seafood consumer. The initiative aims to ensure India keeps up with international progress and tackle climate and food security issues.
The project aims to tackle India’s growing demand for seafood – fish consumption has swelled by 88% in just over a decade – reduce pressure on wild resources, keep up with global progress on alternative proteins, and provide solutions to climate change and food insecurity.
Proof of concept could be shown within two months
The partnership will initially focus on developing cell-cultured varieties of high-value fish species – like kingfish, pomfret and seer fish – which are extremely popular in India, especially among the coastal belts. Based in Kochi, CMFRI has entered into a collaborative research agreement with Neat Meatt, a cultivated meat manufacturer and solutions provider, to help develop these seafood products.
An MoU signed by the two parties reveals that CMFRI will conduct research into early cell line development of high-value marine fish species. This involves isolating and cultivating fish cells for further R&D. Additionally, the marine research organisation will handle genetic, biochemical and analytical work, equipped with a cell culture laboratory with basic facilities, providing a solid foundation for research in cellular biology.
Meanwhile, the project will leverage Neat Meatt’s expertise in cell culture tech, with the firm leading the optimisation of cell growth media, development of scaffolds or micro-carriers for cell attachment, and scaling up production through bioreactors. The company will be responsible for providing the necessary consumables, manpower and additional equipment required as well.
Courtesy: CMFRI
Neat Meatt co-founder and CEO Sandeep Sharma is confident that the partnership’s proof of concept could be established within a couple of months. But Kajal Chakraborty, principal scientist at CMFRI, told the Hindustan Times that the product may take a decade to reach the market. “Just like other meat, we will use cell line cultures to produce fish meat. It’s even more difficult to grow meat of higher vertebrates in laboratory settings,” she explained.
CMFRI director A Gopalakrishnan added: “This project aims to accelerate development in this field, ensuring India is not left behind in this emerging industry.”
Why India decided to invest in cultivated seafood
India’s seafood market is worth $57.15B, according to one estimate, and is set to expand by 7.6% annually. And last year, its seafood exports reached an all-time high, shipping out 1.7 million tonnes worth $8.09B. But with growing awareness about the seafood industry’s climate impact, there have been calls to switch to lower-carbon production methods.
While estimates suggest that carbon emissions of fish caught in India’s marine fisheries are 17.7% lower than the global average, in terms of overall climate change impact by 2050, the country remains in the medium to high category. The country has a burgeoning alt-protein sector, with 113 companies working across plant-based, cultivated and fermentation-derived meat, dairy, seafood and eggs.
But even though several alt-seafood startups exist in India (such as Seaspire, Mister Veg, VegetaGold, Veggie Champ and The Mighty Food), only two companies – Klevermeat and Myoworks – are known to be working on cultured seafood. So this collaboration between CMFRI and Neat Meatt holds promise.
“This public-private partnership [PPP] marks a crucial step in bridging the gap between India and other nations like Singapore, Israel, and the USA, who are already advancing cultured seafood research,” said Gopalakrishnan, who praised cultured fish’s “immense potential for environmental and food security”. He added: “This collaboration leverages CMFRI’s marine research expertise with Neat Meatt’s technological know-how in this field, paving the way for a sustainable and secure future for seafood production in India.”
Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons/CC
Explaining the reason behind this partnership, the Good Food Institute (GFI) India’s science and technology specialist, Chandana Tekkatte, told Green Queen: “There is a growing recognition that by enabling more large-scale international scientific and industrial collaborations (leveraging our decades-old bioeconomy expertise), India could become a production powerhouse in the emerging cultivated meat industry and pave the way for other emerging economies.
“The DBT-BIRAC is also encouraging such PPP models to help accelerate R&D breakthroughs in cultivated meat and seafood in India, similar to the momentum seen in Singapore, Israel, and the US. The Ministry of Science and Technology has also been working closely to advance research in cultivated meat and other smart protein categories within the nation’s priorities for high-performance biomanufacturing.”
In another instance of government support for cell-based meat in India, the Ministry of Science and Technology’s Science and Engineering Research Board included cultivated meat research under its Competitive Research Grant Programmes in 2021.
The rise of cultivated proteins in India
Tekkatte said India’s cultivated meat and seafood industry is still in its infancy but stands to benefit significantly from India’s thriving pharmaceutical sector, which is set to reach $150B in 2025. “This sector has a proven track record in affordable, high-quality manufacturing, and cultivated meat companies have the opportunity to tap into its vast infrastructure and resources,” she explained.
She added that key early-stage scientific advancements in cultivated meat and seafood have been led by startups in cell line development (Neat Meatt, Klevermeat, Clear Meat), media formulations (Clear Meat), and scaffolds (Myoworks) over the last five years. These have helped build the foundation of the sector and “continue to inspire future research endeavours”.
Previous GFI India research has revealed that one in four Indians would consider giving up conventional meat, seafood, dairy or eggs in the future, citing issues like hygiene, smell, ease of cooking and heaviness on the stomach, as well as animal welfare and impact on the climate. Meanwhile, a three-country study from 2019 on consumer acceptance of cultured meat revealed that 56% of Indians are “very or extremely likely” to buy cultivated meat regularly. “Consumer education and perceptions will play an important role in advertising, marketing, and sale of cultivated meat,” said Tekkatte.
This will also be influenced by prices. “The cost of cultivated meat production will come down with scale — and the scale-up principles of cultivated meat biomanufacturing are sound and have been demonstrated in biopharmaceuticals and vaccine manufacturing industries,” explained Tekkatte.
Courtesy: Myoworks
She added that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India’s regulatory framework “needs to be made more dynamic and evolve in tandem with innovations”. Cultivated meat falls under the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSAI) set out in 2017, which rules that if a product or ingredient doesn’t have a history of human consumption – or is obtained using new tech with engineering processes that significantly alter its composition – it’s classed as a non-specified or novel food product.
In 2020, the FSSAI formed the Working Group on Cultured Meat with regulatory and scientific experts to study the possible regulatory pathways for cultivated meat in India. “Early engagement with cultivated meat companies intending to apply for pre-market approvals under the Non-Specified Foods Regulations during the development process would enable the regulatory body to have oversight of the development process, leading to effective, timely guidance to the companies to ensure regulatory compliance and appropriate data submission to reduce approval timelines,” Tekkatte outlined.
“The significance of channelling resources into the cultivated meat industry is particularly relevant in India, with our unique vulnerability to climate change and public health crises. With this massive decrease in land use, additional opportunities arise for the diversification of crops towards direct food consumption,” she said. “As we funnel more investment towards R&D and infrastructure, there’s no doubt that the cultivated meat sector can grow exponentially in India and help cater to the increasing protein needs of the global population.”
Israeli cellular agriculture firm Pluri has launched a cell-based coffee business, which will be spun out into a new subsidiary focused on industrial-scale production to combat the crop’s climate challenges.
As arable land shrinks by half, six in 10 species face the threat of extinction, and yields decline while prices rise, coffee is in a climate change conundrum.
Conversely, climate change is in a coffee conundrum, given the crop is linked to widespread deforestation, massive amounts of GHG emissions, and high carbon opportunity costs.
Simply put, our morning cup is in danger of vanishing, and not because you’ve drunk it – but more so because there won’t be enough to drink in the first place. Solutions are necessary, especially since we’ll be demanding three times more coffee by mid-century.
For many startups, that means coming up with alternatives made from different ingredients, in the hope of replicating the sensory profile of coffee. Think of it the way you’d think of plant-based meats. Companies like Northern Wonder (Netherlands), Voyage Foods, Atomo and Minus (all US) are all taking this ‘beanless coffee‘ approach, innovating with ingredients like lupin beans, chickpeas, carob, grape seeds, chicory, and date seeds, to name a few.
Then there are others like French startup Amatera, which makes use of molecular biology and crop genetics technology to make perennial coffee. Finally, the third crop of players in this space are delving deep into cellular agriculture, such as Parisian firm Stem and the VTT Research Centre of Finland. This is akin to how companies are making cultivated meat to replace conventionally produced, bad-for-the-climate meat.
Courtesy: Pluri
One of those companies is Pluri, a biotech startup from Israel, which has previously established Ever After Foods, a joint venture with the country’s largest food producer, Tnuva, to produce a bioreactor platform to scale cell-cultured meat in a cost-effective manner. Now, Pluri is taking its tech and applying it to a drink that is consumed two billion times every day, all over the world.
How Pluri makes cell-based coffee
Pluri has launched its cell-based coffee business to “revolutionise” the $132B industry, with a product it says is designed to address the growing demand for high-quality coffee, produced on an industrial scale. The venture has been created under the company’s new business vertical, PluriAgtech, which uses breakthrough cell tech to create eco-friendly alternatives to carbon-intensive foods.
The biotech startup extracts cells from the coffee plant. “We need one biopsy from the plant and then we create a cell bank of coffee cells,” a Pluri spokesperson told Green Queen. This is followed by a process that expands the cells significantly through a 3D bioreactor. “Afterwards, we harvest the cells, dry them and roast them like any other coffee. The final product looks like coffee grains.”
That patented 3D cell expansion tech can expand a single cell into billions of distinct cells. “Our 3D bioreactors grow cells quickly and reliably, in a highly cost-effective process that can be applied to various types of cells,” the company explained. “By using a bioreactor, we don’t need the whole coffee plant for this process – the leaves of the plant are enough.”
The spokesperson adds: “Our proprietary system provides a 3D micro-environment for cells that can mimic various cell growth environments. Our cells expand rapidly and remain viable as we transform them into innovative products and solutions. This system generates cell products on a massive scale with batch-to-batch consistency.”
This helps accelerate the path to commercial viability. “The PluriMatrix we have can produce [an] amount of product that is equivalent to [a] dozen coffee plants,” the spokesperson revealed, confirming that no other ingredients are going into the final product, which is a cell-based version of arabica, one of the two main species of coffee consumed globally (the other being robusta), which could go extinct by 2050.
Plans for a subsidiary and regulatory approval
Pluri plans to spin out its cell-based coffee project as a subsidiary focused on a B2B model developing innovative products, technologies and IP for the industry. “We are uniquely positioned to transform the coffee industry with our sustainable cell-based coffee,” said Michal Ogolnik, who will helm the subsidiary.
“By harnessing the power of Pluri’s cutting-edge technology, we could create a brighter, more sustainable future for our planet. By bringing innovation to the forefront, we can tackle some of the coffee industry’s most pressing challenges,” she added.
Since its lab-grown coffee eschews the need for traditional fields, Pluri argues it eliminates the negative environmental impact of conventional coffee crops. Its innovation is estimated to use 98% less water and 95% less land, while also lowering the emission of hazardous greenhouse gases. And as for the cost question, the company’s spokesperson said its tech allows its products to be created in a cost-effective manner: “Our product will show cost parity and will ensure stability of coffee prices in a competitive pricing.”
Courtesy: Pluri
But before all that, Pluri needs to pass one key hurdle: regulatory approval. “We have defined the regulatory pathway towards commercialisation,” the spokesperson confirmed. “This product is targeted to be under the FDA GRAS [Generally Recognized as Safe] pathway.” So far, Upside Foods and Eat Just are the only cultivated food companies to have received a ‘no questions’ letter from the authority, gaining clearance to sell their cultured chicken products last year.
Pluri will reveal its market launch timeline later this year, but its self-funded coffee initiative is open to investment soon. But whether consumers will take to its products remains to be seen: a 2019 poll by Dalhousie University revealed that 72% of Canadians wouldn’t drink lab-grown coffee, so there’s room for growing consumer awareness and acceptance around the innovation.
“We believe deeply in the power of cell technology to make farming and food cultivation more productive and sustainable,” said Pluri CEO Yaky Yanay. “Pluri’s advanced agtech solutions potentially reduce the environmental footprint of traditional agricultural production. PluriAgtech can deliver numerous solutions ranging from products like cell-based coffee to bioactive in order to address the biggest challenges in agriculture.”
San Francisco-based SciFi Foods has announced the successful completion of its first 500-litre bioreactor run in its recently opened facility in San Leandro. The startup now aims to complete regulatory approval and enter US foodservice by early next year.
Hybrid meat might be coming to your plate sooner than you think. SciFi Foods, which makes beef from a mix of cultivated and plant proteins, has completed its first commercial-scale production of its cell-cultured beef in a 500-litre bioreactor.
The company achieved this feat in its recently opened 16,000 sq ft pilot facility in San Leandro, California. It’s the same scale that SciFi Foods will be commercialising out once it receives the regulatory green light from the FDA and USDA.
SciFi Foods can produce 50,000 hybrid beef burgers a year
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Backed by Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and other investors like Coldplay, SciFi Foods has raised over $40M in total financing. Previously called Artemys Foods, the company emerged from stealth in 2022 with a cultivated beef product slated to be used in hybrid meat formulations.
Hybrid meat is a blend of plant and cultivated proteins, and along with blended meat (animal protein mixed with plant-based ingredients), it represents a rapidly growing trend. The idea is to combine the superior taste credentials of cultured proteins with the cost-effectiveness and scalability of plant-based ingredients.
SciFi Foods uses a 90/10 blend of vegan and cell-cultured ingredients. The 90% plant-based composition is derived mainly from soy, and helps the company solve a major bottleneck of cultivated meat: scalability. Scaling up is, as the startup puts it, “a major risk factor” for commercialising these proteins. To overcome that, the company has developed beef cell lines that grow in a 100% serum-free process, using a defined media that doesn’t include any animal-derived ingredients.
Single-cell suspension lines come with a major benefit: they can be grown in any standard, stirred-tank bioreactor, without the need to try and scale up novel hardware. And that has helped SciFi Foods finish its first run on the 500-litre bioreactor. With its hybrid approach, this is enough to produce about 50,000 burgers a year at launch, reveals co-founder and CEO Joshua March. “We expect to be able to double this pretty quickly,” he tells Green Queen.
The company says it encountered no problems in expanding its cell lines from bench scale to the large bioreactor – in fact, it witnessed higher yields in the latter than the small-format bioreactors it was using previously. “We have really great cell lines that we’ve optimised for scale,” notes March. “We are confident we can increase yield significantly more over the next couple of years.”
Currently, SciFi purchases the plant-based ingredients in its hybrid beef from major supplies, based on its own unique formula. “Today, we do the blending in-house,” says March. “However, we’re in talks with various co-packers for our commercial launch.”
Plans for price parity, regulatory approval and market launch
SciFi Foods founders Joshua March and Kasia Gora | Courtesy: SciFi Foods
Speaking to Green Queen in November, March highlighted the issue with scaling up cultured meat production: “Scaling up a novel biomanufacturing process is always hard, but it’s especially hard if you are producing commodity products at competitive prices.”
This is where the single-cell suspension lines come in, given that they don’t require expensive substrates like microcarriers or scaffolding, which is crucial for cost control. In our last interview, March pointed to the industrial fermentation space for proof points that price parity for this sector is possible, but added: “There is only one reasonable blueprint for how to get there: a very simple process with minimal downstream processing and robust cell lines that grow well with low-cost inputs.
“Many of those cell lines are optimised through genetic engineering to approach the maximum theoretical performance for converting feed to product. We believe that all of the same principles apply to cultivated meat, which informs our unique strategy.”
In 2022, the company announced it had achieved price parity with conventional beef using a combination of its proprietary high-throughput cell line engineering and CRISPR technology. The latter is adapted from a genome editing system used by bacteria for immunity and has been touted as a potential embryonic treatment for several hereditary diseases (though some studies say altering the DNA of embryos or eggs and sperm could cause mutations that lead to other health threats).
At the time, March explained that the team had experimented with 10-20% cultivated proteins mixed with plant-based proteins to produce a burger that would cost under $10 to make at its facility, with scaled-up manufacturing potentially driving costs further down to $1 per burger. Now that it’s settled on the lower end of that share (at 10% of cultured beef), it will hope to be able to meet these numbers.
Doing so will be crucial, as the cost of living strains consumer wallets and shapes their attitudes around what they eat. In the US, a 1,018-person survey last year revealed that 46% of respondents are concerned about the rising costs of meat – but while 45% of them expressed interest in trying cultivated meat once it was described to them, only 4% would be willing to pay more for these novel proteins.
Proposed bans ‘profoundly un-American’
Courtesy: SciFi Foods
A larger global poll of 10,000 people last year, though, revealed that 62% of consumers are willing to eat cultured meat. However, there isn’t much research into consumer attitudes towards hybrid meats blending cultivated with plant-based proteins. A 2020 survey covering 1,000 Brits revealed that 35% would be open to trying these products – so while there is some acceptance, the room for growth is huge.
It’s also important because this will be how several cultured meat producers go to market, at least initially. It’s what Israel’s Aleph Farms – the latest company to receive regulatory approval, and the first for beef – is doing with its Black Angus Petit Steak, and Dutch startup Meatable plans to do with its cultured pork.
SciFi Foods hopes to get the go-ahead from the USDA and FDA by early next year, and is already in the consultation process with the latter. Then, it plans to launch into foodservice straight after. “We’re also exploring a number of B2B conversations,” March tells me. “We think that partnering with major food companies is a great way to scale up faster and to get into retail.”
Asked about the recent pushback against cultured meat in US states like Florida, Arizona and Texas – where Republican senators have been calling for a ban on these foods – March brushes them aside. “It’s clear that the proposed bans are for protectionist reasons, and [have] nothing to do with safety or anything else,” he notes. “This is profoundly un-American: consumers should be the ones to choose what products they want to eat, not regulators.”
Ministers from 13 nations are pushing back strongly against the EU’s cultivated meat policy and asking the bloc to rethink its novel foods regulatory process in the interest of safety.
Some countries are resisting the move, but the EU could now revisit its legislation. Here’s what happened at the meeting, and what could come next.
Over the last few months, there has been increased parliamentary activity in governments around the world, specifically focusing on banning the production and sale of cultivated meat. While there are multiple reasons cited, the most common ones found across the board pertain to the safeguarding of national culture, livestock farmers, and consumers’ health.
This week, things boiled over. A delegation led by Austria, France and Italy – the latter two of which have already proposed a ban or gone through with it – presented a note to the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries (Agrifish) Council meeting calling for a radical overhaul to cultured meat regulation in the region. This was supported by the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Spain.
Critics, however, have highlighted false claims made by the representatives of these nations, labelling the entire exercise as unnecessary. While the note only serves to set out a position and does not trigger any formal follow-up process, some believe that the EU might be considering revisiting its novel foods regulations anyway.
What did the note say, and how was it misleading?
Graphic by Green Queen
The note states that cultivated meat raises many questions, including ethical, economic, social and legal concerns, as well as sustainability, public health, and transparency. It calls for a public consultation process and a “comprehensive impact assessment” to assess the development of these foods, as well as drawing guidelines based on the regulatory framework for new pharmaceutical products (including pre-clinical and clinical studies). It also touches upon labelling, urging the EU to prohibit these products from using meat-related terms.
“A transparent, science-based and comprehensive approach is necessary to assess the development of artificial cell-based meat production, which in our view does not constitute a sustainable alternative to primary farm-based production,” the ministers write in the note. They add: “We urge the Commission and all member states to take pre-emptive action against the monopolisation of food production and towards the diversification of primary farm-based food production guaranteed by European farmers.”
Alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) Europe has pointed out that there are many misleading claims made by the lawmakers. One of them is about cultivated meat’s environmental impact, referencing a non-peer-reviewed, UC Davis study funded by the meat industry, which is “based on incorrect assumptions” and deviates significantly from existing literature. Its findings have driven a major misinformation campaign on social media. Peer-reviewed research has shown that when produced using renewable energy, cultivated meat can account for 92% fewer emissions, 94% less air pollution, and 90% less land use than conventional beef.
The note referenced a 2019 University of Oxford paper too, when research on these novel proteins was “much less developed” and based on energy sources heavily reliant on fossil fuels. This contradicts the most recent data available, which underlines that even the worst-case scenario for cultivated meat greenhouse gas emissions is better than the “best” conventional meat production systems for at least the next 100 years.
The ministers argue that cultivated meat does not have higher animal welfare standards, referring to the use of fetal bovine serum (FBS). But FBS is being phased out by companies globally, and hundreds of animal-free media already exist. Some FBS-free formulations have been approved for sale, like Eat Just in Singapore and Aleph Farms in Israel.
Additionally, there were concerns about cultivated meat “being monopolised among a few large-scale industrial producers” and how that would affect small-scale farmers, but GFI Europe argues that these foods can be made by “companies of all shapes and sizes” (over 50 of the 160+ startups in this space are European), and can work alongside existing farming methods to diversify and strengthen our food supply.
The delegates further questioned the EU’s novel foods regulatory framework, but it is known to be the most robust in the world, which is why companies have found it challenging to file for clearance in the bloc. Other European countries – namely the UK and Switzerland – are already assessing dossiers. And as for the call to regulate cultivated meat as a pharmaceutical product, GFI Europe labels it “nonsensical”, pointing out that it’s “a food that will be made in food production facilities, so it’s essential that it is regulated as food”.
What happened at the council?
Courtesy: Romania in the EU/Twitter
The note presented by Austria’s agriculture minister, Norbert Totschnig, made waves on the Agrifish Council floor. There was controversy even with the countries opposing cultivated meat, with Austria’s health ministry – which is responsible for food safety – noting that the move does not reflect the government’s position.
Other countries voiced their disagreement too. In the same week, the Netherlands took one step closer to becoming the first EU nation to allow public tasting events of cultivated meat, its representative stuck his neck out for the novel proteins in the EU Council as well. “We of course understand the concerns with regards to the public health and the future of livestock farmers, but also at the same time, we are talking about how do we secure the global food security, and the world population as we all know is growing fast, and so is the demand for animal proteins,” said Piet Adema, the Dutch food quality and agriculture minister.
“Therefore, we believe that it is important to support innovations that create production methods for animal proteins complementary to, and not as a substitute to, conventional sustainable production. So, more research is needed to ensure the safety and the lower energy use, and therefore, in the Netherlands, we invest in this research, and so I would plea to let’s also look at the opportunities of this development and not only see the threats.”
Similarly, Jacob Jensen, the agrifood minister for Denmark – a leader in protein diversification – said: “We understand the concerns that have been raised under this item, but Denmark remains very positive towards the development of new innovative biotechnological solutions that could lead to new sustainable proteins. And, like the Netherlands, we believe that we must also focus on the upside, and therefore, we look forward to the biotech initiative from the Commission that will look into the opportunities.
“We already have EU regulation on novel food in place. This sets a clear legal framework that is solidly based on science. Denmark sees no reason for hindering the development and marketing of cell-based products, as long as such products are safe and fulfil the legal requirements and as long as they are labelled in a way which is not misleading to consumers. If these requirements are met, it must then be up to consumers if they want to buy these products.”
Meanwhile, Stella Kyriakides, the EU’s health and food safety commissioner explained that the bloc’s existing regulatory framework for novel foods ensures that human health and consumer interests are well protected in a functioning internal market.
What happens next?
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
EU Commission vice-president Maroš Šefčovič had separately spoken about the need for a strategic dialogue on the future of agriculture, which was outlined by GFI Europe’s senior policy manager, Alex Holst. “As Commission vice president Šefčovič said, we need to ensure our food system is ‘fit for the future’, remains competitive and can respond to issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss and resource scarcity,” he said. “Cultivated meat can play a vital role in achieving these goals, and it’s a positive step that policymakers are becoming interested in developing a better understanding of this food.”
Holst noted how EU countries have already made strides in cellular agriculture, questioning the point of this debate altogether. “The EU’s Horizon Europe programme and countries like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands have already invested in cultivated meat R&D, recognising its potential to improve food security, reduce emissions, and satisfy [the] growing demand for meat,” he explained.
It’s curious that despite investing in cultivated meat, Spain was a part of the note’s supporters. There will be a focus on France and Romania too, as both have proposed bans on cultivated meat. But it’s unclear whether France’s bill will be debated or not, as it’s one of many such bills proposed by opposition parties. As for Romania, the proposal had been voted through by the Senate but is yet to be passed by the Chamber of Deputies.
But Romanians have mulled over the subject, with the Economic and Social Affairs Council of the Senate publishing an opinion on it. Its report on the proposed legislation stated: “The statement of reasons does not explain why synthetic meat should be banned. It is not clear why it could be dangerous to consume this product for the health of the consumers. Moreover, it is not clear why lab-grown meat is considered lower quality than ‘natural’ meat, considering the benefits of meat outlined in the statement of reasons. Therefore, the ban added through Article 5 is excessive, and it is necessary to eliminate it or provide further justifications.”
Meanwhile, Italy’s move to be the world’s first country to ban cultivated meat has been flagged as a violation of EU law, as the bloc is required to be notified to the EU Commission for comments by other member states. Plus, the country will not be able to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat produced outside Italy but within the EU, whose common single market enables the free movement of goods and services.
But changes may be afoot for Italy’s ban. “The Italian Government has committed to updating the law based on any feedback received from the European Commission, meaning there is a legal and political requirement to make changes to the cultivated meat ban if needed,” Francesca Gallelli, Italy policy consultant for GFI Europe, told Green Queen. “We also trust that Italy’s scientific community and civil society groups will play a vital role in holding the government responsible and making decisions based on evidence-based research rather than misinformation.”
Striking a similar tone, Julia Martin, cellular agriculture lead at ProVeg International, told Green Queen: “We hope it will be overturned. But we also hope that Italy will come round to seeing the huge benefits that Europe stands to gain from cultivated meat. The EU needs to support cultivated meat if it wants to bring down greenhouse gas emissions from the food system.”
Austria’s representative eventually tabled the note, which will not lead to any direct legislative changes. But ProVeg said the EU Commission “has the intention to revisit the guidance for novel food applicants”, with Martin further noting how the bloc recently funded FEASTS, the first Horizon Europe project on the impact of cultivated meat and seafood: “These actions should serve to reassure member states that these foods will be safe for consumers and will serve a significant role in addressing the environmental challenges with intensive animal agriculture.”
The Netherlands has launched an expert committee to evaluate applications for cultivated meat tastings, six months after forming an official framework for the same. Cultured pork producer Meatable has responded by submitting its dossier to the panel, and expects to host Europe’s first tasting of these novel proteins soon.
Six months after the Dutch government announced a Code of Practice for cultured meat and seafood tastings, the Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation (CANS) has launched an independent expert committee to evaluate companies’ requests to host public trials.
This will be the final hurdle for companies hoping to give people a taste of their product, and would make the Netherlands the first EU country to make pre-regulatory approval tastings possible. The news has been welcomed by local cultivated meat players like Mosa Meat, Upstream Foods, and Meatable – the latter has, in fact, now submitted a dossier for the panel to assess the safety of its cell-based pork.
“We are thrilled to see the protocol developed in consultation with the government is now being implemented,” said Maarten Bosch, CEO of Mosa Meat, the company that unveiled the world’s first cell-cultured burger in 2013. He confirmed that his company too will be applying for tastings of its cultivated beef soon. “The Netherlands continues to be a global leader in sustainable food innovation, even as others in Europe appear to be taking a step backwards at the height of our climate and biodiversity crises.”
Upstream Foods CEO Kianti Figler called it “a pivotal moment” for the country’s cultivated meat and seafood ecosystem: “We are dedicated to revolutionising seafood alternatives through fish fat cultivation, and this initiative empowers us to showcase our innovative approach.”
Ira van Eelen, board member at CANS, said: “Proud of the work we have done as Cellular Agriculture Netherlands to make it possible to taste cultivated meat not only in the Netherlands or the EU, but also in the place where it originated and all started.”
How the cultivated meat tasting committee works
Courtesy: Mosa Meat
In July, the Dutch government worked with Mosa Meat, Meatable and sector representative HollandBIO to create a Code of Practice that would make tastings possible in controlled environments – those that are suitable for food preparation and inaccessible to the general public. It was created after a 2022 House of Representatives motion sponsored by members Tjeerd de Groot (Democrats 66) and Peter Valstar (VVD) requested the government to enter consultations with these companies on this matter. The motion passed with 14 out of 17 votes in favour.
Under the Code of Practice, cultivated protein companies must include information such as the type of cells, animal origin, use of genetic modification, and description of the process (including growth factors, antibiotics, and other constituents). They also need to provide safety information too, spanning chemical and/or biological structure, limit values from regulatory bodies, an exclusion of substances with known or suspected genotoxic activity, and allergen risks.
The dossier further needs to have details about nutrition, like microbiological status, amounts to be ingested, measured content values, and total amount per person. Participation must be uncompensated and strictly voluntary, and comprise adults with no known allergies or underlying diseases (they should not be pregnant either). Companies must keep a record of where the tastings are held, with how many people, and the recipe of the way the products are cooked.
They must ensure the presence of an emergency response officer, and register any adverse events occurring up to two weeks before the tasting. All this is taken under consideration by the expert committee, which is comprised of a toxicologist, microbiologist, physician and an ethical expert. Approvals would mean a company can hold a total of 10 tastings, with no more than 30 participants each, over the maximum span of a year.
Meatable’s hybrid pork to launch in Singapore soon
Courtesy: Meatable
For cultivated meat producers, the hope is to finetune their offerings while building consumer awareness through practical education. The move puts the Netherlands on an exclusive list of countries that allow cultivated meat tastings, including Singapore, the US and Israel. Notably, these three are also the only nations that have granted regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat.
It means that people in the Netherlands will be allowed to taste these products before they’re approved for wider sale, making it the first to do so in the EU. The regulatory process falls under the EU novel foods framework, and so far, there has been no positive progress on that front. In fact, a dozen countries are opposing these foods, with Italy already having banned cultured meat locally. Meatablle plans to apply in the US next, and is already in talks with the USDA and FDA.
“The Netherlands has long been the pioneer of cultivated meat, which is further cemented by this latest development, and we thank the Dutch government, Cellular Agriculture Netherlands Foundation, and HollandBIO for their joint efforts to make this possible,” said Meatable co-founder and CEOKrijn de Nood. “We’re delighted that we have already handed in our dossier for approval and look forward to holding our first tastings in the Netherlands soon.”
Meatable has already hosted tastings in Singapore, with two events last year for retail partners, government officials, the media, and other stakeholders. It has filed for regulatory approval in the nation as well, and expects to receive clearance soon and launch products in restaurants by mid-year. Its first offering is a hybrid meat product, developed in partnership with Singapore-based Love Handle.
The company, which has raised $95M in total funding, uses a proprietary technology called Opti-ox, which allows it to eschew the controversial fetal bovine serum (Mosa Meat pioneered the non-FBS production method and published the results as open-source). Meatable uses pluripotent stem cells, which can naturally and rapidly multiply, doubling in just 24 hours. Opti-ox helps produce real muscle and fat cells that can fully differentiate in eight days – 30 times faster than it takes to rear a pig for pork on farms.
While development is ongoing, Meatable’s last tasting featured pork sausages with 33% cell-based meat, and the rest plant-based. “Each recipe is like a puzzle, where all components need to complement each other perfectly. We will keep on working on this to make sure we have the perfect recipe ready for the launch,” Meatable COO Carolien Wilschut told Green Queen in October.” It remains to be seen what the final proportion of the product will be.
Apart from facilitating tastings, CANS is spearheading various other initiatives as part of a €60M investment from the Dutch National Growth Fund (a €20B project overall), including a new education programme for students this year, and the appointment of scientists within InHolland, TU Delft, Maastricht University and Wageningen University & Research.
In our weekly column, we round up the latest news and developments in the alternative protein and sustainable food industry. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Oatly’s new partnership with Carvel, price fluctuations for meat and eggs, and rare labelling wins for plant-based companies.
New products and launches
French alt-meat maker La Vie is continuing its growth, with its new pea protein ham now available in the UK exclusively through its largest retailer, Tesco. It made the announcement with a delightful billboard.
Courtesy: La Vie
Similarly, Dunkin’ has introduced its vegan doughnuts to the UK market, with plant-based alternatives to three of its bestsellers – Original Glazed, Boston Crème and Strawberry Rainbow – available in most of its 34 locations nationwide.
Continuing in the UK, Aldi has launched its largest-ever vegan cheese range, from Cheddar alternatives and mozzarella to camembert and grated parmesan. The discount retailer has also introduced a vegan smoked salmon as part of its private-label Plant Menu range.
Another company working on vegan seafood is Japan’s Nippon Ham, which is developing a plant-based tuna sashimi for foodservice, slated for an April launch.
Speaking of which, Israeli whole-cut meat producer Redefine Meat is now available at more than 650 foodservice locations in 13 countries across Europe, including at Leonardo Hotels, All Star Lanes, and Compass Group.
Likewise, Irish fast-food chain Boojum has introduced a Carne Asada dish for Veganuary, made using British alt-meat brand [MOCK]‘s mushroom and soy protein beef, and paired with a guajillo chilli sauce.
Courtesy: Seedtrace
For Veganuary’s campaign in Germany, meanwhile, catering service company Dussmann has partnered with Swiss alt-meat maker Planted and traceability platform Seedtrace, offering supply chain transparency of Planet’s schnitzel via a QR code. It will be available in 60 Dussmann restaurants.
Also in Germany, Rügenwalder Mühle has discontinued its classic animal-derived Schinken Spicker ham as part of its commitment to increasing plant-based offerings. It says the move will free up production capacity for its meatless products.
Elsewhere, US ice cream company Salt & Straw has released a Dairy-Free Decadence range as part of its Pints of the Month series, featuring flavours like Toasted Oat Milk & Cookies, Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Bananas Foster with Candied Pecans. Made with oat and/or coconut milk, they can be bought in-store or online.
Another ice cream development: Oatly has teamed up with cult-favourite creamery Carvel, placing five flavours of its oat milk ice creams in more than 300 Carvel stores across 18 US states.
Courtesy: Harken Sweets
For more American sweet treats, look no further than Harken Sweets‘ better-for-you, plant-based takes on the Snickers and Milky Way bars. Called the Nutty One and The Gooey One, respectively, they contain 75% less sugar and less than 150g of calories, and are available at Fairway Market, Pop Up Grocer, Gourmet Garage NY, and ShopRite, and on its e-commerce site.
In California, Langer Farms has released Apple Honey – only featuring apple juice concentrate and natural flavouring – alongside an Apple Butter SKU (an elevated applesauce), which are available online via its website and Amazon.
Meanwhile, US plant-based manufacturer Franklin Farms has collaborated with Disney to feature Mickey Mouse on co-branded packaging for six of its products. They feature the Disney Check, a symbol indicating compliance with Disney’s Nutrition Guidelines.
Courtesy: Franklin Farms
And Canadian vegan frozen meal producer Plant Up has added Butter Chik’n Bites and Shawarma Bites to its appetiser range. Its products are now available at over 650 stores, including Metro, Longos, and Whole Foods.
Finance, manufacturing and corporate moves
Californian alt-meat giant Impossible Foods has hired three women in senior leadership positions, with Elaine Paik and Emma Hutchens joining the C-suite as CFO and chief people officer, respectively, and Alexis Regan taking up the role of senior VP for sales.
Dutch company Vion Food, which makes both meat and plant-based analogues, is closing a pig plant and divesting/selling off its ham brand, pig and beef slaughterhouses, and a pre-packing facility – all in Germany – as part of its sustainability strategy for 2024, following increased competition and African swine fever outbreak.
Dublin-based Sea & Believe has launched its inaugural seaweed farm in Connemara, Ireland to develop ingredients for the food and skincare industries using a red Atlantic seaweed that is richer in protein than fish.
In Austria, mycelium meat producer Revo Foods has unveiled an industrial-scale production method for 3D-printed foods, called the Food Fabricator X2. The 3D-printed whole-cut salmon maker is also crowdfunding to scale up and launch new products this autumn, and has already raised nearly €575,000.
UK biotech firm Multus has raised £7.9M in a funding round and announced what it claims is the world’s first commercial-scale, cost-effective plant for serum-free growth media to produce cultivated meat and milk.
Israeli startup Mediterranean Food Lab has nabbed $17M in a Series A round to scale up its solid-state fermentation tech, which can create flavour ingredients said to transform the sensory attributes of vegan food.
Policy developments
Marking a rare labelling win for the vegan industry, France’s Supreme Court has ruled in favour of the Nutrition & Santé Group, which was accused by the meat lobby of misleading consumers through meat-related terms on its plant-based analogues. (The French government, though, has previously proposed an unprecedented ban on these.)
Yet another labelling achievement came from Chile’s NotCo, which appealed the ban on its NotMilk trademark in its home country. The brand is officially “NotGuilty”, with the Court of Appeals of Valdivia revoking the sentence and rejecting the anti-competition lawsuit filed by dairy farmers union Aproval.
Courtesy: NotCo
In more animal industry backlash news, Bishop Burton College in east Yorkshire, UK has apologised for a Happy Veganuary post on Facebook and announcing it wouldn’t serve meat two days a week during January. Pushback from pro-livestock students and farmers has led to the idea being abandoned.
Elsewhere, two months on from cutting prices of its own-label Vegavita range across all stores in Austria, Rewe Group‘s Billa has seen sales increase by 33%. Future meat and dairy analogues will now be set at a price on par with or, if possible, lower than their conventional counterparts.
Speaking of prices, beef is expected to cost Americans more this year on the back of a large two-year decline in production. Cattle feeders face much higher prices for their cows as a result of the reduction in cattle supply due to beef herd liquidation.
Similarly, egg and ham prices have soared in the US, with hikes higher than any other food in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest Consumer Price Index report. While eggs were 23.8% lower than the ‘eggflation’ 12 months before, they were up 8.9% from November. Meanwhile, raw beefsteak prices rose by 11.9% year-on-year, the second-highest increase in that metric.
Research and accomplishments
A study commissioned by LI Food, a Lower Saxony state initiative for food, has revealed that Germans often underestimate the climate and animal welfare implications of dairy, specifically cheese. But despite some scepticism around food tech, respondents were open to trying precision-fermented cheese.
Similarly, a survey by precision fermentation cheese company New Culture revealed that four in five of respondents are willing to purchase animal-free cheese, of whom 80% were meat-eaters. Early adopters are happy to pay $4 more per pizza with the company’s cheese, but taste remains key, with 59% of respondents saying they’d avoid analogue foods if they didn’t taste as good.
Meanwhile, vegan dog food brand Hownd has been named one of the world’s most ethical businesses by The Good Shopping Guide, receiving a rating of 98 out of 100 in factors like environmental impact, animal welfare and public record.
Finally, the US Plant-Based Foods Association is overhauling its platform to prepare for a “pivotal” 2024, launching a redesigned website, a new digest and monthly newsletter, as well as a revamped members’ portal.
With 2024 tipped to be a landmark year for cultivated meat regulation, we look at how the industry is faring across the world.
While some countries are stepping up their efforts to progress these novel foods, others are pushing to ban them altogether.
After a year that broke a three-year-long regulatory deadlock for cultured meat – with the USDA approving the sale of Upside Foods and Eat Just’s cell-based chicken – we’re not even a month into the new year, and we already have a third company on the list.
Just last week, Israel’s Aleph Farms became the world’s first producer to gain clearance to sell cultivated beef, after receiving a ‘no questions’ letter from the country’s health ministry. For many, it’s a marker of things to come for the industry this year, proving that there will likely be no further deadlocks – at least from a global perspective.
Yifat Gavriel, Aleph Farms’ regulatory affairs chief, said after the approval: “2024 stands to be a landmark year for the advancement of regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultivated meat.”
So let’s look at how things currently stand. Some countries are really accelerating their efforts to advance cultivated meat regulation, while others are going completely in the opposite direction as legislators hope to ban the production and sale of these proteins. Here’s what’s happening.
Forging ahead: Israel, UK and Asia-Pacific
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Let’s start with the good. In December, Israel’s Ministry of Health issued a ‘no questions’ letter for Aleph Farms’ consumer brand Aleph Cuts, allowing it to market its cell-cultured beef steak in the country. The approval for Aleph Farms’ Black Angus Petit Steak is subject to meeting labelling and marketing requirements as well as the completion of a Good Manufacturing Practices inspection on its facility.
It made Israel the third country – after Singapore and the US – to clear the sale of cultivated meat, advancing efforts to tackle food insecurity. The country has always been supportive of alternative proteins. “Three out of the first eight cultivated meat companies worldwide are Israeli. 15% of global investments in the field are allocated to Israeli-cultivated meat companies,” explained Alla Voldman, VP of strategy and policy at GFI Israel.
“With its global leadership in cellular agriculture, Israel continues to push for greater regional integration and economic collaboration, which will be crucial for stabilising the region,” added Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.
But it isn’t just Israel that Aleph Farms applied for approval in – it has done so in Singapore, the US, Switzerland, and the UK. The latter, which is home to at least 23 cultivated meat startups, is reportedly aiming to fast-track its approval of cultured meat via a bilateral deal with Israel. While it currently retains pre-Brexit rules and follows the EU’s stringent novel foods process, the UK’s cultivated meat sector is growing fast – British startups raised £61M in funding in 2022, which is more than the rest of Europe combined (£45M).
Now, UK ministers and regulators are looking to accelerate the approval of cultivated meat to boost food security, ease the cost of living, and provide alternative, planet-friendly meat sources for a growing population. They intend to do so through a deal with Israel to boost collaboration on cultured meat, with the British stakeholders visiting Israel in 2023 to taste these novel proteins and see how the market is regulated.
In light of this, the country’s Food Standards Agency recently launched a survey asking manufacturers when they plan to applications for cultured products, and what technologies they may be using.
Meanwhile, there is positive progress in Australia and New Zealand too: the countries’ joint regulator greenlit Sydney-based Vow Food’s cultured quail as ‘safe to eat’ in December. It gave way to a six-week public consultation process, giving people an opportunity to provide feedback about the product. Following the comment stage, the regulator will continue the novel food approval process, with an aim to complete it between March and May.
“Public confidence around the introduction of novel food categories is always a vital step in gaining acceptance,” said Simon Eassom, executive director of Food Frontier. “The ultimate success of Vow’s application will pave the way for Australia and New Zealand to take a lead in this exciting new era of food production.”
Cultivating potential: Regulatory opportunities in Asia-Pacific
Courtesy: Vow Food
Another Australian producer, Magic Valley, recently revealed that it’s working closely with the Antipodean regulator on the compliance and safety of its cultivated pork, with approval anticipated this year followed by a 2025 commercial launch.
Elsewhere, France’s Vital Meat claims it’s the frontrunner to become the first European startup to be approved in Singapore, the first country to approve the commercial sale of cultured meat. It will likely face competition from Dutch cultured pork producer Meatable, which is also expecting approval this year.
Chinese and American regulators met virtually last year after Upside Foods was granted Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the FDA to discuss how the industry can move forward. A month later, the annual, China’s Central No. 1 Document mentioned a diversified food system of animals, plants and microorganisms – words similar in tone to the ones used by president Xi Jinping a year earlier, in a speech recognising the importance of alternative proteins.
Speaking to Green Queen after the launch of the APAC Regulatory Coordination Forum in October, Mirte Gosker, managing director of industry think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) APAC, said: “Japan and South Korea will likely be next in line among APAC countries to develop such frameworks, as both nations are proactively seeking input from industry groups to craft clear and efficient safety review processes. No timeline has been set for when this work will be completed.”
The regulatory framework in Japan, whose prime minister Fumio Kishida endorsed cellular agriculture last year with plans to boost the sector to reduce the country’s climate footprint, will actually soon become more complicated. In April, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (which will continue to oversee food safety) will transfer its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency in April. It means companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but does make Kishida the ultimate person responsible for these matters.
South Korea, meanwhile, prioritised the establishment of regulatory frameworks for cultivated proteins as part of the alt-protein guidance in its national plan in 2022. It has also amended the Food Sanitation Act to recognise cultivated food as an ingredient within the legal framework and in the scope of premarket authorisation.
Going backwards: Florida, Arizona and Texas push back in the US
Courtesy: Florida House of Representatives
Having approved two companies to sell cultivated meat last year, the USDA’s stance on these proteins is pretty clear. Speaking at Tufts University’s Cellular Agriculture Innovation Day on January 11, the department’s undersecretary for research, education and economics, Sarah Baig, said cellular agriculture “really fits into USDA’s vision for the future of food and our agricultural systems”.
She highlighted the USDA’s “sweeping action to tackle structural competition issues in the agricultural supply chains to create fairer, safer… ag markets”, and how” cellular agriculture R&D is really a key part of this entire work”. She added that to meet food innovation and climate goals, “we will need cellular agriculture”.
But it’s not all rosy for cultivated meat, though. Despite global efforts to get cell-based proteins on consumers’ plates, politicians in some countries are moving to take them off the table.
Look at the US, for instance, where multiple states are hoping to ban cultivated meat. In November, Republican lawmaker and Florida House representative Tyler Sirois introduced draft legislation to ban the production, sale and distribution of cell-cultured meat in the state. If signed into law, it would come into effect in July this year, with a list of penalties laid out for non-compliance.
Violators would face a misdemeanour of the second degree, alongside a fine between $500 to $1,000, while food establishments would be subject to disciplinary action. The license of any restaurant, store, or other business in violation could be suspended or issued an immediate stop-sale order. The proposal also authorises the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to adopt additional state-specific rules, which would mean anyone looking to obtain regulatory approval for cultivated meat in Florida would require authorisation from the department.
Florida’s bill came soon after Texas governor Greg Abbott signed a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, as well as Nebraska’s proposed Real MEAT act mandating the word “imitation” on alt-protein.
Earlier this month, Arizona followed Florida with two bills looking to restrict the labelling of plant- and cell-based meats and banning cultivated meat altogether. Republican David Marshall drafted HB 2121, where he called his proposal “a matter of statewide concern necessary to protect public health”.
“The production and sale of lab-grown, cell-cultured animal products threaten to harm this state’s trust land beneficiaries and the highest and best use of state trust land, which includes the lease of state lands to ranchers for livestock grazing to fund public schools and other public institutions,” reads the bill, calling the ban “necessary to protect this state’s sovereign interests, history, economy and food heritage”.
If it becomes law, anyone found violating the act would face a civil penalty of up to $25,000. But more notably, anyone whose business is “adversely affected” by the sale of cultivated meat can file a suit to stop the act and collect damages of up to $100,000 (plus legal fees).
EU: Far-right politicians in France, Italy, Romania and Austria make cultivated meat a political hot rod
Courtesy: AP
If you think that’s poor, Europe is arguably worse.
Italy, for instance, made headlines in November when it became the first country to ban cultivated meat. It followed a months-long process spearheaded by Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida and sparked by a petition by Coldiretti, one of Italy’s largest farming associations, calling for a prohibition of “synthetically produced food”.
After half a million Italians signed the petition, Italy’s senate approved a bill to put the ban into effect, with 60% of senators voting in favour. It then submitted a notification to the EU stating its plan to prohibit the production and sale of cultured meat, but upon realising it would be rejected, the nation withdrew the notice and sought to ban the novel proteins without EU approval.
It was successful in its efforts after the lower house of parliament approved the bill, which carries fines between €10,000 and €60,000 for each violation. Italy has repeatedly cited national heritage, threats to food culture, delocalisation, and human health concerns as reasons behind the move – but critics have called it unlawful.
“The EU law also provides that technical regulations like this law must be notified to the European Commission before their actual adoption, allowing other member states and stakeholders to provide comments on potential barriers to the EU internal market,” industry association Cellular Agriculture Europe said in a statement. “The Italian authorities’ withdrawal of their [TRIS notification and today’s vote blatantly contravene the EU law.”
Italy’s ban came around the same time that the senate in Romania voted to prohibit the sale of cultivated meat as well, proposing bans between €40,000 and €60,000. The bill would need approval from the Chamber of Deputies.
This was swiftly followed by France’s Les Républicains party proposing a ban on cultured meat in the country, with a bill introduced in the national assembly hoping to prohibit the production and marketing of these proteins “in the interests of human health, animal health and the environment”, invoking arguments of going against French tradition and hurting livestock farming.
“The purely utilitarian vision of food is, in fact, the opposite of French tradition, which sees food first and foremost as a cultural and social fact,” the proposal read. It added: “Replacing ‘junk food’ with another ‘junk food’ is not progress.”
Another European country turning it back on cultured meat is Austria, which – alongside Italy and France – will oppose cultivated meat production at the EU’s Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting on Tuesday. The delegations from these nations have written a letter to the EU – supported by the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Hungary, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia – describing cultured meat as “a threat to primary farm-based approaches”.
Highlighting the lack of approval for cultivated meat in the EU, the letter states that these novel proteins raise many questions, including ethical, economic, social and legal concerns. The lawmakers also highlight issues with sustainability, public health, and transparency. Notably, the text cites a widely condemned, meat-industry-funded UC Davis study highlighting the apparent environmental fallacies of cell-cultured meat, and calls for “science-based information sharing” to “counter any deceiving greenwashing campaigns”.
“A transparent, science-based and comprehensive approach is necessary to assess the development of artificial cell-based meat production, which in our view does not constitute a sustainable alternative to primary farm-based production,” the letter reads, calling for a “comprehensive impact assessment” and public consultation process on the matter.
Challenges remain for cultured meat
Courtesy: Upside Foods
While some countries are showing promise, the cultivated meat sector continues to face major hurdles. At Tufts University’s annual Cellular Agriculture Innovation Day on January 11, stakeholders highlighted infrastructure and manufacturing capacity as key challenges.
Taking the example of South Korea’s Samsung Biologics, one of the world’s largest cell culture facilities, Yossi Quint, founder and CEO of bioreactor producer Ark Biotech, said: “If Samsung Biologics were to be running every single minute of every single day for an entire year, they would produce less cultivated meat than the average Tyson facility produces in one day.”
He added that the facility’s current output would need to be increased by 10,000 times to reach equivalent production rates: “When you think about a 10,000x increase, it’s not about incremental changes. We’re talking about a revolution about reimagining what infrastructure looks like.”
Quint explained that larger bioreactors, more readily accessible cell media, optimised filtration systems and bioprocesses, as well as automated production are crucial factors to help overcome this disparity and reach price parity. However, for manufacturers producing whole-cut meats, scaling up is harder as they require edible scaffolding material for structural cell support and enhancing nutrient and oxygen supply to the tissue.
These scaffolds need to be integrated into bioreactors, which means they essentially become single-use vessels for each individual unit of whole-cut meat. “I don’t know any company that’s going out and saying: ‘We’re going to grow this whole-cut, 1,000-kilogram piece of meat,’” said Ryan Silvia, programme manager of cultured meat scaffolding R&D at MilliporeSigma. “I imagine what this all means is there’s going to be a scale-out approach, not a scale-up approach for whole-cut meat.”
Additionally, some panellists noted that shared infrastructure and pilot-scale manufacturing can help companies improve capacities and reduce the amount of capital needed. “When there’s very capital-intensive infrastructure that we are thinking about building out, can it be done in a way that is more accessible or communal?” wondered Lily Fitzgerald, senior advanced technology manager at Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
Eric Schulze, the former scientific and regulatory affairs chief at Upside Foods who started his own climate-focus brand consultancy, touched upon the importance of funding too. “The name of the game is price parity or slightly undercutting conventional products. If we get there, it’s on, and we really have a real new food space race, and that’s exciting,” he said. “But VCs don’t want to spend money on putting steel in the ground, so we need federal loan guarantees for alternative proteins. The federal government has to form the triangle of academia, private industry, and the public sector.”
Honing in on this, GFI president Bruce Friedrich said: “If the government gets the industry started then the private sector can take over, just like electric vehicles [EVs]… Elon Musk says they would have failed twice, if not for long-term low interest government loans. There is no solar industry, there is no EV industry, there is no biopharma industry, if not for governments helping the companies that can’t qualify for standard bank loans, giving them long-term low interest loans.”
Among all these challenges is the regulatory aspect. It does feel like a landmark year, as Aleph Farms’ Gavriel proclaimed – whether that’s a good one or bad remains to be seen.
Israeli food tech startup Forsea Foods has unveiled the first prototype of its cultivated eel, linking up with Tokyo vegan restaurant SAIDO to create dishes with the cell-cultured fish. It aims to launch the seafood product by 2025.
Forsea Foods, the only known company working on cell-based eel, has created the first prototype of its cultivated eel. The startup has partnered with Japanese chef Katsumi Kusumoto, executive chef and owner of Tokyo vegan restaurant Saido, to create two traditional dishes using its cultured fish, showcasing its application and potential.
Kusumoto and Forsea Foods have developed two popular Japanese dishes – unagi kabayaki (marinated grilled eel over rice) and unagi nigiri (a type of sushi). Now that the company has achieved a working proof of concept – which it claims features “the same tender, succulent texture and rich savoury flavour as real eel” – it is prepping for scale-up.
Saido owner and executive chef Katsumi Kusumoto (left) and Forsea Foods’ cultured eel (right) | Courtesy: Saido/Anatoly Michaello
Forsea Foods’ cultured eel will be welcomed by Japan
Founded in 2021, Forsea Foods employs a proprietary method for culturing seafood, using organoid technology to create 3D microtissues comprising fat and muscle, which can mimic the functions and structure of organs. These spontaneously differentiate into edible cells, replicating the natural process of cell formation.
Moreover, the cell lines can self-organise into tissue structures without the need for scaffold support. This simplifies the production process, eases supply chain bottlenecks for eel meat, and improves scalability. It also enables efficient and cost-effective production by significantly decreasing the reliance on costly growth factors, which will help Forsea Foods disrupt a $4.3B market and bring its eel closer to price parity with its conventional counterpart.
The company, which won the Startup Pitch Hour Prize at the Asia-Pacific Agri-Food Innovation Summit last October in Singapore, has previously raised $5.2M in seed funding, and now expects to add to that amount. Partnering with Kusumoto helped showcase the potential of its product. “Unagi is an enduring favourite in Japan,” said the chef. “Its timeless appeal, however, is impacted by a growing awareness among the Japanese population of the need to take a more sustainable approach.”
“Forsea is pioneering the fusion of traditional, high-quality Asian cuisine with groundbreaking technology to create the world’s first cultured unagi – one that will provide the consumer with a genuine seafood experience without putting further strain on aquatic life,” said Forsea Foods co-founder and CEO Roee Nir.
The news will likely be welcomed by Japan’s government, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida endorsing cellular agriculture last year and announcing plans to create a sector for these novel foods to reduce the country’s climate footprint. “We will develop the environment to create a new market, such as efforts to ensure safety and the establishment of labelling rules, and foster a food tech business originating in Japan,” he said.
To that end, the government awarded ¥1.87B ($13.1M) to Tokyo-headquartered IntegriCulture last month, which has created a cellular agriculture infrastructure platform called CulNet and claims to have developed serum-free cultivated chicken and duck meat at a fraction of the cost needed for animal-based growth factors.
Forsea Foods founders Roee Nir, Yaniv Elkouby, Iftach Nachman and Moria Shimoni (left to right) | Courtesy: Tal Shahar
However, Japan’s regulatory framework will soon become more complicated, after the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (which will continue to oversee food safety) transfers its food hygiene standards division to the Consumer Affairs Agency in April. It means companies must liaise with two agencies on regulatory conversations, but does make Kishida the ultimate person responsible for these matters.
A spokesperson for Forsea Foods confirmed that the company is communicating with regulatory authorities in Japan, as well as Singapore. Saido has already been serving vegan unagi to diners, and once regulatory approval comes through, the restaurant intends to serve the cultivated eel too.
Are there any concerns about potential backlash from patrons over a vegan restaurant serving cultured meat? “Forsea’s co-founder Iftach Nachman is an ideological vegan… For him, cultivated meat is vegan,” said the Forsea Foods spokesperson. “We believe that the decision whether cultivated meat is vegan or not really depends on one’s opinion. We believe that there is a certain segment of the vegan population that welcomes cultivated meat as a means of overcoming the challenges of the traditional industry.” [Since it is made from extracted animal cells, cultivated meat isn’t usually regarded as vegan-friendly – for an ethical take, this is a good read.]
The spokesperson added: “Saido is not only for vegans, but also for customers who come for excellent cuisine and new dining experiences.”
Overfishing and pollution have left eels endangered
Both Kusumoto and Nir touched upon a similar theme – the decline of conventional eel populations as a result of overpopulation and pollution. In Japan, which consumes over 70% of all eel catch, the fish has maintained luxury status, with wholesale prices reaching $40 per kg, according to one estimate (Forsea Foods predicts this to be $60 per kg in wholesale, and $250 per kg for restaurants).
But eel consumption has declined over the last two decades, falling from about 160,000 tons in 2000 to just over 60,000 tons in 2021. And this isn’t just limited to Japan – in the EU, eel populations have diminished dramatically, decreasing by 98% from 1980, leading to an export ban on eels in 2010.
This has resulted in eel becoming a critically endangered species, with overfishing, poaching, illegal trading, and breeding troubles all playing a role. Known as mysterious creatures, these fish undergo an unusual metamorphosis, with a breeding process that includes a 6,500-km-long migration to one of two spots: the Sargasso Sea (near the Bermuda Triangle), or off Guam. This makes captive breeding difficult, especially amidst elevating demand for the fish.
The overfishing of eels, meanwhile, disrupts the marine and freshwater ecosystems they come from – these fish maintain a balance in biodiversity by preying on smaller fish, ensuring that no single marine species takes over the ecosystem. Eels, in turn, are a food source for birds like the grey heron and the great cormorant.
Courtesy: Anatoly Michaello
This underpins the need for alternatives to conventional eels. While Forsea Foods is the sole company dealing with cultivated versions of the fish, fellow Israeli company Steakholder Foods unveiled a 3D-printed alternative in December (it plans to include cultured eel cells in the product at a later stage, if costs allow). And New York’s Ocean Hugger Foods and Japanese giant Nissin already have plant-based eels on the market (using aubergines and soy protein, respectively).
Now, Forsea Foods hopes to launch its eel commercially in 2025, as it seeks strategic partners in Japan and across Asia. To advance its progress in this region, it has formed new engineering and food applications departments, and appointed a new business development manager in Japan. The company also views the EU and the US as rapidly developing markets.
“This year, we will [be] working to improve process parameters in our lab and increase our scales,” revealed the spokesperson. “In addition, we are planning to conduct a few tasting events of our products, expand our relationships in Asia and launch our next financing round.”
The Israeli startup’s unveiling of its cultivated eel comes a week after fellow Rehovot-based company Aleph Farms gained the country’s first approval for cultured meat, and the world’s first for cell-based beef. “It is great to see more geographies approve cultivated meat and, equally important, to see more types of cultivated animal proteins entering the market,” Robert E Jones, president of Cellular Agriculture Europe and co-founder of the Global Cellular Agriculture Alliance, told Green Queen. “Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United States, and the UK have made early investments to build complementary protein ecosystems, and the dividends are now paying off.”
Israeli-cultivated meat producer Aleph Farms has received the world’s first regulatory approval for cell-cultured beef, marking a milestone in the alternative protein sector.
This makes Israel – still in the middle of regional conflict – only the third country to greenlight cultivated meat, paving the way for Aleph Farms to introduce its Black Angus Petit Steak to diners soon.
Israel’s Aleph Farms has become the first company in the world to earn regulatory approval for cultivated beef, after the Israeli Ministry of Health (IMOH) issued a ‘no questions’ letter for its consumer brand Aleph Cuts in December – akin to an FDA ‘No Questions’ letter in the US. It allows the producer to market its products – currently priced similarly to premium conventional beef – in the country, with plans to roll out at restaurants and, eventually, retailers.
With the greenlight, Israel joins a very short list of countries to allow the sale of cultured meat – only Singapore (Eat Just in 2020) and the US (Upside Foods and Eat Just in 2023) have done so. But these approvals were all done for cell-based chicken products, meaning Aleph Farms is the first company permitted to sell cultivated beef.
“This announcement marks a critical leap in the global race to make the meat that people love, that’s also better for our climate, biodiversity, and food security,” said Bruce Friedrich, founder and president of alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI). “We’re thrilled consumers in Israel will soon join those in the US and Singapore as being among the first to be able to purchase these delicious products.”
Aleph Farms’ cultured meat costs the same as premium beef
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
The decision brings an end to a process a year-and-a-half in the making, when Aleph Farms filed its initial submission to the health ministry, following a pre-submission consultation. The company worked closely with the Food Risk Management Department, led by co-founder Dr Ziva Hamama, to ensure “full compliance with safety standards” for these novel proteins.
“This regulatory approval grants us permission to produce and market our product in Israel, subject to specific directions for labelling and marketing provided by the Israeli Ministry of Health, and the completion of Good Manufacturing Practices inspection for our pilot production facility,” explained Yifat Gavriel, the company’s regulatory affairs chief.
The first product to be unveiled is Aleph Farms’ cultivated thin-cut Petit Steak, which was first introduced in April with the Aleph Cuts brand. The hybrid meat product comprises non-modified, non-immortalised cells of a premium Black Angus cow named Lucy, alongside a plant protein matrix made of soy and wheat. Apart from the starter cells derived from one of the cow’s fertilised eggs, there are no other animal-sourced components (such as fetal bovine serum, or FBS) in the cultivation process or final product.
The controlled and traceable process is carried out in an aseptic production environment, which – the company states – increases transparency and significantly reduces contamination risks. Plus, there’s no presence of antibiotics in the process.
Once the requirements mentioned above (labelling and mark-of-facility inspection) are fulfilled, we will introduce Aleph Cuts to diners, offering exclusive tasting experiences curated in collaboration with select partners. “At first, the product will be available in select restaurants,” Yoav Reisler, senior marketing and communications manager at Aleph Farms, told Green Queen. “Afterwards, it will become available at foodservice and retail locations.”
On the cost question, he revealed: “At the time of our soft launch, Aleph Cuts will be priced similarly to premium conventional beef. We are taking various steps to drive economies of scale and achieve price parity with more of the conventional beef market within a few years from launch.”
No doubt, making it a hybrid product helps too, as this is the path some envision cultivated meat to enter the market (Dutch producer Meatable is taking this approach too). “Hybrid products will allow the cultivated market the chance to build and become normalised with consumers, while also – importantly – generating the revenues and business necessary to keep dollars flowing into the space, so scale can be further achieved,” one alt-protein investor told Green Queen in December.
Cultured meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per pound to be price-competitive with conventional meat. But while companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for these proteins to reach parity. “Of common animal proteins, beef delivers the highest value in global markets, so by focusing on cultivated beef, we are able to shorten the timeline to price parity,” explained Reisler
Israel’s need – and support – for cultivated meat
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
“The entire Aleph team has united in strength and determination to deliver no matter what during these difficult times in Israel. We are excited to carry this resilience forward in the form of innovation in agriculture and food security,” said Aleph Farms co-founder and CEO Didier Toubia.
It’s a milestone for a country that has long been supportive of alternative proteins – and for good measure, given the nation’s battle with food insecurity: government figures show that 16% of Israeli families and 21% of children did not have adequate access to safe, nutritious food in 2021. Among families with children, 19% experienced food insecurity, and 8.5% suffered from severe insecurity.
As cultivated meat doesn’t rely on livestock agriculture, huge swathes of farmland, or vast amounts of water, the benefits are as important for climate change as they are for food security. This is especially true for beef, which emits more greenhouse gas emissions than any other foodstuff. It’s a meat loved by Israelis, who eat 19.6kg of it per year and are expected to consume over 29kg annually by 2029.
But uniquely, Israel is known to be one of the most vegan-friendly countries in the world. According to a 2017 survey (the latest data available), 5% of its citizens identify as vegans and 8% as vegetarians. At the same time, 23% expressed a desire to cut their intake of meat.
This explains Israel’s support for alternative proteins, which “stands out globally”, according to Alla Voldman, VP of strategy and policy at GFI Israel. “Three out of the first eight cultivated meat companies worldwide are Israeli. 15% of global investments in the field are allocated to Israeli-cultivated meat companies,” she noted.
This ecosystem includes the world’s largest cultivated meat consortium, which Aleph Farms is a part of. A three-year project to scale up production and drive down costs of cultivated meat, it received funding to the tune of 66 million NIS ($18M).
“We believe that the robust presence of cultivated meat companies, fermentation, and plant-based, coupled with advanced academic research, entrepreneurship, industry, and unique consumer market, provide Israel with an opportunity to lead the field forward,” Voldman added. “This strengthens our ability to provide value to countries worldwide in an era of climate and food security crises.”
Toubia added: “We believe that addressing joint challenges like food security is the best way to ensure the prosperity of the Middle East and other parts of the world that rely heavily on massive food imports, especially in Asia.”
But the incidence of veganism be a catalyst for the success of a fellow alt-protein pillar in cultivated meat? “I’m not sure it’s one of the most significant markers,” Reisler said. “Aleph Cuts are animal-based products, as the original source of animal cells is a cow. However, many vegetarians and vegans may call Aleph Cuts vegetarian-friendly and vegan-friendly, as the product is not harvested from an animal carcass and there is no slaughter involved in the production.” [As noted above, the starter cells for Aleph Farm’s beef steaks are sourced from the fertilised eggs of a cow, and as such, cultivated meat isn’t usually regarded as vegan-friendly – for an ethical take, this is a good read.]
What’s next for Aleph Farms after regulatory approval?
Courtesy: Aleph Farms
Aleph Farms’ regulatory approval in Israel is a huge win – but it isn’t stopping there. The company has filed for clearance in Singapore, Switzerland, the UK and the US, and is advancing its applications in other markets too. “Entrance to Asia (via Singapore) and the Middle East (via Israel) is currently our main focus. We expect to receive positive indications from the Singapore Food Agency soon,” confirmed Reisler.
Pressed on the progress with these applications – particularly in the UK, as there is talk about a bilateral deal to fast-track approval for Aleph Farms – he told Green Queen: “We maintain a dynamic, ongoing channel of communication with those regulatory agencies as part of our review process. They have been receptive in regard to our production and process development, and have shown appreciation for our methodological science-based approach to ensuring the safety of our process and product.”
The company is simultaneously pursuing a kosher certificate for its facility from local rabbinate authorities too. This is key for a company based in Israel and catering to a large Jewish population, which eats kosher food as directed by the Torah. There are encouraging signs for Aleph Farms here, with Israel’s chief rabbi David Lau declaring last January that its non-FBS steak could be considered kosher and akin to eating a vegetable (parve).
As it awaits decisions from other regulators globally, its approval in Israel could be a precursor for things to come. “2024 stands to be a landmark year for the advancement of regulatory pathways and commercialisation of cultivated meat,” claimed Gavriel.
Meatable is expecting a green light for its cultivated pork from Singapore this year, and France’s Vital Meat claims it’s the frontrunner to be the first European startup to be approved in the city-state. Meanwhile, Australia’s Vow Food is in the middle of a consultation process after its cultured quail was cleared as safe to eat by the bilateral Food Standards Australia New Zealand in December.
“There’s still work ahead of us to continue to scale up, meet consumer expectations and move toward the mainstream. However, I think on the technology side, the scientific side, in terms of process development, early industrialisation and regulatory compliance, we have made a huge leapfrog, and I’m quite happy to see that,” Toubia told Green Queen founding editor Sonalie Figueiras on the Green Queen in Conversation: Cultivated Meat Pioneers podcast in September. “The industry is really on the verge of going to market and starting initial acceptance.”
Following a $105 Series B round in 2021, Aleph Farms has raised a total of $118M in funding – Toubia has outlined the company’s aim to reach $1B in revenue by 2030. This will be helped by its manufacturing advancements over the last couple of years. In February 2022, it moved to a 65,000 sq ft plant in Rehovot, Israel, which increased its capacity by six times to be able to initially produce 10 tonnes of cultivated steak annually. Last year, it announced the acquisition of another manufacturing facility in Modi’in, Israel, alongside a new manufacturing agreement with ESCO Aster in Singapore (the world’s only approved industrial manufacturer for cultured meat).
“With its global leadership in cellular agriculture, Israel continues to push for greater regional integration and economic collaboration, which will be crucial for stabilising the region,” said Toubia. “We believe that addressing joint challenges like food security is the best way to ensure the prosperity of the Middle East and other parts of the world that rely heavily on massive food imports, especially in Asia.
“Now more than ever, Aleph Farms remains committed to making the world a better place.”
As Arturo Jose Garcia and Allie Molinaro argue, cultivated meat can be a boon for smallholder farmers, not to mention reduce global dependence on antibiotics, decrease the need for dangerous slaughterhouses, and empower a future of delicious, sustainably grown food.
In December 2020, a Singaporean restaurant grabbed worldwide headlines by serving the first commercially available cultivated meat. This was also the first time a country approved the sale of cultivated meat, which many hoped would signify a shift in the way we raise and consume animal-sourced food. Still, its acceptance on diners’ plates, in restaurant critics’ write-ups, and the flood of new funding to other cultivated meat companies meant for the first time the just transition of food was seen as an immediate possibility.
Fast forward to 2024, it is clear that food systems change is no longer an option, but a necessity. That sentiment echoed through the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, which wrapped up in mid-December. However, it is also clear there is no silver bullet that will transform our food systems. What we need instead are different but equally important levers that complement one another that, on their own, can’t achieve much, but together they are game-changing.
Cultivated meat, one of those necessary levers, promises a more sustainable, healthier, compassionate, and environmentally friendlier way to produce the meat we love to eat. Imagine real meat, with a fraction of the impact on the environment and animals. Don’t we owe it to ourselves, the animals, and the planet to pull on this lever and give cultivated meat a shot?
Unfortunately, there are already efforts to cap the cultivated meat promise by the knees both internationally and here in the United States, likely spearheaded by farming industry groups. But what these groups fail to realize is that cultivated meat is not meant to preclude farming- it was originally meant to operate in tandem with small farmers. In the Netherlands, local farmers grow corn, barley, and wheat that are used to make feed or the cell cultures, and ranchers keep a small herd of cows on pasture who are used for an occasional harmless biopsy. Keeping fewer animals without the need to slaughter them can be a win for smallholder farmers, public health, and worker safety. But cultivated meat bans exacerbate the problems that this promising innovation has the potential to mitigate and solve.
In a decentralized model, cultivated meat production can open new market opportunities for small farmers who are currently struggling to compete with mega agribusiness. As it stands, only four highly industrialized companies control each of the beef, pork, and chicken markets. If small farmers who are being outcompeted turn to partner with cultivated meat, they can create a novel value-added market for themselves catered toward more ethically minded consumers. This also removes the headache of finding a slaughterhouse with processing capacity and may improve farmers’ mental well-being as they can allow their animals to live out their natural lifespans, collecting biopsies from the same animal for years until she passes naturally, while still feeding the same amount (or more) people than with traditional cycles of fattening and slaughtering.
In addition, keeping fewer animals and raising them on pasture instead of in crowded and unsanitary Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) and feedlots reduces the need for routine antibiotics. Currently, industrial agriculture accounts for over two-thirds of the use of medically important antibiotics, which is giving rise to antibiotic resistance. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria kill over 1 million people per year, including 35,000 Americans. However, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are on track to kill 10 million people per year by 2050 without intervention. To put that into perspective, just under seven million people have died from Covid-19 since 2020. In a post-antibiotic world, none of us are safe. Routine procedures such as appendectomies and commonly treatable illnesses such as pneumonia, ear and dental infections, and urinary tract infections become deadly.
Finally, eliminating the need for slaughter eliminates the need for notoriously problematic slaughterhouses. Slaughter and processing plants are some of the most dangerous places to work, with the highest amputation and serious injury rates in the U.S. workforce. One worker recently fell into a machine with corrosive chemicals and suffered severe burns. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) had previously cited the plant with two repeat and six serious violations. Even without injuries, the conditions are terrible. Workers have reported wearing diapers because they were not allowed to go to the bathroom. In 2020, they were a superspreading site for COVID-19 as workers were forced to come in without proper personal protective equipment (PPE). And in recent months, several U.S. processing plants have come under fire for using child labor.
We need to shift away from industrial animal agriculture, continue to uplift small family farms and regenerative land stewardship, promote diets that are in line with planetary boundaries, and foster the development of alternative proteins and cultivated meat. Food systems solutions must be multifaceted, drawing from a range of techniques and strategies simultaneously. A system that is not one size fits all but is beneficial for all. Cultivated meat is just one piece of the puzzle in our food systems and a just transition. And with the global population heading towards 10 billion and global meat consumption projected to increase by 50% or more by 2050, it’s all hands on deck.
In yet another move targeted at the alternative protein industry, House representatives in Arizona have proposed bills prohibiting the “misbranding” of meat alternatives and banning cultivated meat altogether. The latter’s legislation would allow people to sue cultured meat companies for up to $100,000 if they hurt their business.
Two months after a lawmaker in Florida introduced a proposal hoping to be the first US state to ban cultivated meat, Arizona is following suit with its own duo of bills looking to outlaw the production and restrict the labelling
Arizona House representative Quang Nguyen has drafted HB 2244, a bill that would make it illegal to “intentionally misbrand or misrepresent” an alternative meat product as meat, while fellow Republican David Marshall has gone a step further with an attempt to ban the sale or production of any cultured meat product.
It’s a step in the opposite direction from the national policy – in June last year, the USDA granted clearance for the production and sale of cultivated chicken to Californian companies Upside Foods and Eat JUST, becoming just the second country to do so (after Singapore). The US is also home to the largest number of publicly announced cultured meat companies, representing 60% of global funding in the space.
Arizona’s proposed labelling ban
Courtesy: Victoria Sergeeva/Canva
Nguyen’s HB 2244 aims to illegalise the ‘misrepresentation’ of meat on plant-based and cell-cultured products, in the same vein as many other arguments used to ban meat-related terms on alternative protein products globally.
The bill states that foods “not derived from livestock or poultry” cannot be labelled as poultry or meat products. It suggests that this “misbranding” can be done in several ways, including affixing a false or misleading label, using a historically meat-related term, or representing a product as meat if it “is a cell-cultured food product” or “a synthetic product derived from a plant, insect or other source”.
The proposed legislation would allow the health department to take complaints and investigate violations, as well as seek injunctions or other civil reliefs to “restrain and prevent violations”. Each day a breach occurs is treated as a separate offence, with a maximum penalty of $100,000 per violation.
Nguyen told local outlet Capitol Media Services that the bill isn’t intended to block companies from offering or consumers from buying these products, but stressed that it was a matter of transparency and disclosure. “The bill doesn’t ban lab meat,” he said, using a term much derided by the industry. “But if it’s lab meat, it needs to be labelled that. If you don’t want to buy lab meat, then don’t buy it. That’s all.”
He added that the idea of cultured meat is actually appealing. “There are a lot of poor people out there that actually could use lab meat,” he explained, reflecting on his journey as a refugee from Vietnam who grew up in a low-income household. “If you wanted to throw lab meat up on my table when I was a little kid growing up in the war, I’d be chewing on that.”
Could Arizona ban cultured meat?
Eat JUST’s GOOD Meat is one of only two cultivated meat companies to have received regulatory approval | Courtesy: Eat Just
Marshall, however, does want to prohibit people from buying or selling cell-cultured meat. In HB 2121, he moves to ban the sale or production of these foods for both human and animal consumption, calling it “a matter of statewide concern necessary to protect public health”.
There is a noted focus on the cattle industry, which forms one of Arizona’s five Cs of the economy (alongside copper, cotton, citrus and climate). “The production and sale of lab-grown, cell-cultured animal products threaten to harm this state’s trust land beneficiaries and the highest and best use of state trust land, which includes the lease of state lands to ranchers for livestock grazing to fund public schools and other public institutions,” reads the bill.
Calling the cattle ranching industry “integral to this state’s history, culture, values and economy”, Marshall argues that the ban is “necessary to protect this state’s sovereign interests, history, economy and food heritage” – a tact similar to the one adopted by Italy in its ban on cultured meat.
Anyone found violating the legislation would be subject to a civil penalty of up to $25,000, but more notable is the stipulation that anyone whose business is “adversely affected” by the sale of cultivated meat can file a suit to stop the act and collect damages of up to $100,000 (plus legal fees).
The meat-climate disconnect shapes up global bans
Upside Foods’ cultivated chicken is available at Bar Crenn in San Francisco | Courtesy: Upside Foods
The proposed ban comes a couple of months after Florida House representative Tyler Sirois introduced a bill to ban the production, sale, holding and distribution of cultivated meat in the state, with criminal penalties imposed on violators. It follows Texas governor Greg Abbott’s signing of a bill requiring clear labelling of plant-based and cultivated meat, seafood and egg products, as well as Nebraska’s proposed Real MEAT act mandating the word “imitation” on alt-protein.
These bills are aimed at protecting America’s livestock industry, which already receives 800 times more funding than plant-based and cultivated meat companies. This is despite cultured meat having a much lower impact on the environment than conventional meat, with alt-protein think tank the Good Food Institute (GFI) predicting that if produced via renewable energy, the former can reduce emissions by 92%, require 95% less land, and use 78% less water than cattle-derived beef.
But this hasn’t penetrated the viewpoints of most Americans, who eat six times as much red meat as the amount recommended to keep in line with the 1.5°C heating goal (which itself has been breached). In July, a Washington Post and University of Maryland poll found that 74% of Americans don’t believe eating meat has any impact on climate change.
However, there has been some support from the central government for alternative proteins. The Biden administration has set aside $6M for alt-protein R&D at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, while its $10M NIFA grant for alt-protein led to the creation of the Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture in Massachusetts.
Arizona and Texas should look into following California’s lead – the state is home to both Upside Foods and Eat Just, as well as one of the two restaurants currently serving cultured meat in the country. In July 2022, it became the first state to invest in research for these foods, allocating $5M of the state budget for alt-protein research.
How Arizona’s bill is received remains to be seen, but climate activists would hope that it doesn’t go the same way as Italy or Romania (which has also voted to prohibit cultured meat, with fines between €40,000 and €60,000). France, meanwhile, is deliberating its own ban.
“Consumer demand and science-based food safety requirements should determine what’s sold in our supermarkets, not arbitrary government regulation,” GFI policy director Curt Chaffin told Capitol Media Services. “In a time when American farmers and food producers are facing stiff competition around the globe, politicians should not be policing what’s made and sold in Arizona.”
In collaboration with other institutions and government bodies, the University of California, Davis is launching an Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein to research and accelerate the commercialisation of alternative proteins. Can it help UC Davis shrug off its pro-livestock reputation?
UC Davis is leading the launch of the new Integrative Center for Alternative Meat and Protein (iCAMP) in collaboration with the USDA, UCLA, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Solano Community College, and the Culinary Institute of America.
The Center will bring together leading researchers, academic institutions, industry professionals, advocacy groups and food innovators, who will work towards the large-scale commercialisation and technological advancement of alternative proteins. These include cultivated meat, plant-based and fugal foods, as well as blended meat products.
Globally, our demand for meat is expected to increase by 50-100% over the next 25 years, according to iCAMP director David Block. But meat accounts for 60% of food system emissions and has a much higher impact on land and water use than most plant-based foods. “Expansion of conventional animal agriculture is unlikely to be able to meet demand at a reasonable price,” said Block. “We have to come up with alternatives and create additional sustainable food sources.”
David Block. Courtesy: UC Davis
Targeting future protein’s challenges
At iCAMP, researchers will explore ways to increase consumer acceptance and preference for future proteins, which will give companies a deeper understanding of their needs and help them develop highly desirable products tailored to a varied set of customers. These applications can be across flavour, nutrition, shelf life and stability, cooking properties, cost, and more.
The Center acknowledges that the future protein sector continues to face challenges, citing flavour and texture are key obstacles. A recent Mintel survey showed that taste is the biggest reason (48%) for Americans’ reticence to try alt-meat. As a spokesperson for vegan meat leader Impossible Foods told Green Queen this past November: “Taste is the #1 reason why consumers will decide to purchase a product again or not. Many consumers have unfortunately had a less-than-positive first impression of various plant-based products, and that casts doubt on the rest of the category as a whole.”
Then there’s the price parity question – especially with cultivated meat, which needs significant scaling up to attempt to match the costs of conventionally produced meat. Cultured meat needs to reach production costs of $2.92 per lb to be price-competitive with traditional meat, and while companies have managed to cut manufacturing costs by 99% in less than a decade, McKinsey analysis estimates that it will still take until 2030 for these proteins to reach parity.
This is echoed by Block: “We are not to the point where the product is anywhere near the cost of conventional meat. Widespread distribution of affordable products is likely to take 10 to 15 years.” He also leads the UC Davis Cultivated Meat Consortium, where scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and educators are developing tech to grow animal cells in a cheaper and more efficient manner.
Courtesy: Turtletree
Why UC Davis has been criticised for its stance on meat
While undoubtedly a positive sign for the industry, UC Davis does have a chequered history when it comes to alternative protein. Frank Mitloehner, the head of an agricultural research center at the university, led an online backlash against the 2019 Eat-Lancet report that recommended cutting back on red meat to help save the planet. The same year, he promoted a quiz comparing the ingredients of the Beyond Burger to premium dog food, an online campaign run by meat industry interest groups.
Mitloehner has emerged as an anti-alternative protein campaigner backed by the animal agriculture industry. According to the New York Times, his Clear Center receives nearly all its funding from industry donations (including $2.9M from the Institute for Feed Education and Research and nearly $200,000 from the California Cattle Council) and works with a livestock lobby group on messaging campaigns.
But it’s not just Mitloehner who has been perpetuating such ideas. A group of researchers at UC Davis – described as “a well-known Big Ag conspirator“ by the marketing campaign body Changing Markets Foundation – released a pre-print, non-peer-reviewed paper last year claiming that cell-cultured meat is 25 times worse for the environment than beef, which went viral on social media.
Courtesy: Changing Markets Foundation
The study suggested that a vegan agenda is causing wildlife loss, barren Earth, and soil damage, going on to accuse “elite organisations” like the WEF of lying about animal agriculture’s environmental impact. These claims have been used to promote the narrative that people should eat more beef, and were promoted by American conservative figures like Donald Trump Jr and Tomi Lahren.
The paper had an impact on policy too. In Ireland, when the government was considering culling 200,000 dairy cows over three years as part of its push to cut agri-emissions by 25%, the UC Davis study was used to push back on the proposal, as critics blamed cultivated meat for its alleged contribution to the climate crisis. (The 25% reduction target currently remains in place, but proposals to achieve it still need to be confirmed.)
For what it’s worth, alternative protein think tank the Good Food Institute carried out a life-cycle assessment in 2021 showing that cultivated meat can save up to 91% of greenhouse gas emissions when compared to animal-derived meat.
Collaboration and funding is key
Courtesy: UC Davis
UC Davis – which also serves as the R&D headquarters for Singaporean precision fermentation startup TurtleTree – was among the first academic institutions to receive federal funding for cultivated meat research in 2022, when the state of California provided $5M in funding to UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC Davis. The $1.67M received by the latter’s Cultivated Meat Consortium is being used to start iCAMP, with the consortium becoming an internal part of the new alt-protein center.
iCAMP will focus on workforce development too, which includes cases and education for students and professionals to help propel the sector forward. Here, industry partners will play a key role by directing and financing research projects. Through this atmosphere of collaboration and knowledge exchange, the center aims to develop breakthrough technologies, cut production costs, increase scalability, and ultimately make alternative proteins more accessible globally.
Additionally, researchers are working with industry and regional developers to build a “more complete ecosystem” of food tech business incubators, pilot facilities and contract manufacturers, with innovative ways to connect with the public. These range from food policy seminars to introducing consumers to novel meat products in campus dining areas and beyond.
To that end, iCAMP will launch on January 17 with an Innovation Day at the UC Davis Robert Mondavi Center for Wine and Food Science, where scientists, programme leads and partners will share research to accelerate alt-protein innovation. It will include discussions on plant-, fermentation-, and cell-based foods, as well as food safety, consumer acceptance, and regulation and policy. Plus, there will be a focus on supporting businesses and academic institution IP, and building regional bioprocessing and workforce capacity.
