The Month In Cultivated Meat: April
Vow received a historic approval, Tokyo researchers claim a lab breakthrough and the biggest cultivated meat court case gets the go-ahead as Upside Foods fights Florida's ban.
This month:
Australia’s Vow received approval as it moves closer to a domestic launch
Meatable & TruMeat partnered on a new facility to scale cultivated meat
U.S. judge greenlit lawsuit against Florida’s cultivated meat ban
Did Tokyo researchers hit a breakthrough?
A glimpse into the future of cultivated meat consumer appliances
Why Hoxton Farms’ CEO is targeting meat eaters, not vegetarians, for their cultivated fat.
🍽️ Small Bites
Culture Biosciences introduced a new bioreactor for biotech and cellular agriculture teams to make the development of products faster and more scalable.
Steakholder Foods published its year-end results, making a notable stride into commercialisation, recording its first commercial revenues. It signed agreements with multiple food producers to use its meat mixes to form fish, meat and plant-based products.
Vow claimed to have broken a world record by harvesting 20,000 liters of cell culture through its new bioreactor.
Mission Barns’ CEO and Chef & Director of Product Development cooked their cultivated pork meatballs on CBS News.
💲Raises & Investment
It continues to be a tough fundraising environment, with no new raises this month.
New data has put the rough 2024 in perspective, with the sector only managing to secure $139M, its lowest annual total since 2019.
✅Approvals
Australia’s cultivated quail company Vow received approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ).
Vow is one step closer to launching cultivated quail in its home country
Importantly, there were no safety concerns raised.
Ministers will have 60 days to review. If they accept FSANZ’s recommendations, the regulatory approval process will be completed and Vow can start to commercialise its products.
🤝Partnerships
n!Biomachines (a subsidiary of The Cultivated B) partnered with automation giant Siemens to showcase its Auxo V bioreactor at last month’s 2025 Hannover Messe trade fair.
TruMeat & Meatable partnered to build a high-volume cultivated meat facility in Singapore. It will be operated by TruMeat and utilise Meatable’s technology, aiming to achieve price competitiveness with conventional meat.
BlueNalu, which is creating cultivated seafood, announced an expansion of its partnership with European food company Nomad Foods.
BioCraft Pet Nutrition announced a collaboration with Prefera Petfood to commercialise cat food made from cultivated mouse meat.
🗺️Large Bites
👨⚖️Florida’s attempt to dismiss cultivated meat lawsuit denied
Positive news on the fight to overturn Florida's disastrous cultivated meat ban.
A judge denied Florida’s attempt to dismiss Upside Foods’ lawsuit against the ban.
Today’s ruling is an important vindication of the principle that states cannot close their borders to innovative out-of-state competition, and a warning to other states that are considering banning cultivated meat — Paul Sherman, Senior Attorney at Institute for Justice
Impact: It’s a big win, as it sets up a blockbuster lawsuit that will be critical for cultivated meat in the U.S., especially as other states such as Nebraska push forward on similar bans. Hopefully, the ban will be declared for what it is - unconstitutional.
💪University of Tokyo researchers claim cultivated meat “breakthrough”
The researchers developed a bioreactor and process to improve cultivated meat texture in what’s being called a ‘transformative step’.
The breakthrough lies with how the bioreactor mimics an animal’s circulatory system, with the final product more akin to a nugget-sized whole cut of cultivated meat, rather than ground cultivated meat formed into nuggets.
Although the news is big, there’s more nuance than the headlines might suggest, as explained by Ph.D Eric Schulze, ex-Upside Foods and former FDA regulator.
Hollow fiber technology has been around for many years, and indeed, just about all cultivated meat companies consider it at some point…That said, the main issue is really the cost. You typically need A LOT of cell culture media perfused through the system (2-10x over other methods). This is simply not cost effective with today's media formulations…unless the media itself comes down in cost significantly (<$0.05 per liter) and the cells are much more efficient, then I don't see this scaling well. — Eric Schulze via Reddit
Impact: Although this is a big step forward, researchers have said the product is still many years away. The big challenge remains whether they can make breakthroughs in reducing input costs, which would be the real breakthrough.
📦Futuristic cultivated meat appliances shown off in Japan
Japan’s Cultivated Meat Future Creation Consortium showcased a consumer 3D-printed cultivated meat device.
The product would allow individuals to produce cultivated meats from their kitchen, based on their own preferences. Just like other household applications such as a bread maker.
Impact: It’s a glimpse into the future of consumer products. But don’t expect it anytime soon, with an ambitious goal of commercialisation by 2031 at the absolute best case.
🥄Tastings
IntegriCulture, Japan’s first cultivated meat company, unveiled several prototype dishes made from duck liver cells.
The unique creamy texture was rich and delicious, and I wanted to eat it with wine — Green Queen
📦Product Announcements
Biokraft Foods developed what it claims to be India’s “first” cultivated trout fillet, made in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. It marks an important milestone as they eye formal approval for their chicken.
We will file for the approval of the chicken meat product, which is expected to happen in the next two months — Founder and CEO Kamalnayan Tibrewal via the Green Queen
🧑⚖️Regulation
A new cultivated meat ban is a step closer to becoming law in Nebraska. A bill banning cultivated meat in Nebraska advanced to its final round in the Legislature after a failed attempt to change the focus to labeling.
Banning cultivated meat won’t protect farmers; it will only limit Nebraska’s ability to lead, grow its meat production capacity, and weaken its food system — CEO and founder of UPSIDE Foods
📻Cultivated Listens
This month on the Future of Food Interviews, Alex sat down with Dr. Max Jamilly, CEO and co-founder of Hoxton Farms.
Dr. Jamilly explains why they’re so focused on cultivated fat, explaining their goal of becoming the world’s largest supplier of healthy, cultivated fats.
Hoxtom Farms aims to sell its cultivated fat to other businesses and meat producers through a B2B model.
This is a must-listen for anyone interested in cultivated fats—a few things stood out to me:
Raised $35M to date
Part of the UK novel foods sandbox which aims for regulatory approval and consumer launch by 2027
First pilot production facility in Shoreditch, London
Will be used as an input in not only cultivated meat but also traditional meat and plant-based meats due to fats’ ability to greatly improve taste and texture
They’re not targeting vegans or vegetarians, but rather the meat industry and flexitarians
📖Cultivated Reads
This month’s read sums up a report from FoodTech investor Lever VC on why the industry is breaking through cost barriers. A big focus was reevaluating a claim in 2021 that said cultivated meat would never be viable.
Costs are dropping fast, with media prices (this is cell fertilizer to help grow the meat) have fallen, cell densities have soared, and production costs are now as low as $10/kg. Aussie startup Vow even predicts they'll soon turn a profit per unit sold.
The report cites media costs have dropped to ~$0.50/liter (vs. a $6.50 prediction in 2021).
Today numerous cultivated meat companies are producing cultivated meat using media that costs $1 per liter or less and several are under $0.50 per liter. Believer Meats for example, cited media costs of $0.63/L in a peer-reviewed paper last year. — Lever VC
There’s a long way to go, and the proof will be in the pudding—the next few years will be critical to proving cost competitiveness at scale.
📅Looking Ahead
IFFA 2025 – Frankfurt, Germany
What? The world's leading trade fair for innovations in meat and alternative proteins.
Where? Frankfurt, Germany
When? May 3–8
Future Food Asia 2025
What? The premier event focusing on agrifood innovation in Asia.
Where? Singapore
When? May 20–22
That’s all the April edition. As always, stay curious and stay cultivated.