The Month In Cultivated Meat: November
Diving into the dynamic world of cultivated meat through a monthly recap of the sectors biggest developments. The future is harm-free meat, join me on the journey.
This month:
Meatable & cultivated meats earned a spot in the Time’s Top Inventions of 2024.
Aussie powerhouse Vow hits major milestones.
Cultivated chicken maker SuperMeats inches a step closer to price parity.
A new partnership to accelerate the development of cultivated meat in South Korea.
🍽️Small Bites
Umami Bioworks and Steakholder Foods developed 3D-printed cultivated fish fillets.
Meatly claims it successfully tested its cultivated meat ingredient for pets, Meatly Chicken, ahead of its 2025 launch.
50% of dogs continued licking the bowl after the meal, 75% of dogs reportedly enjoyed the cultivated meat more than their baseline diet, and 75% of dogs started their meals immediately or within a few seconds when presented.
SuperMeats cultivated chicken announced it hit price parity with premium chicken options—at $11.79/lb USD ($25 per KG).
Forsea Foods announced a breakthrough in scaling its cultivated eel, eyeing to expand to commercial-scale production by 2026.
💲 Raises & Investment
Meatable announced a strategic investment from Thailand's leading meat company Betagro.
Meatable and Sticta received a grant to create a detailed model of pig cells to support cultivated meat research.
🏆Awards
Cultivated meat made it to the Times Best Inventions of 2024 list. Meatable received a shout-out for its patented Opti-Ox™ technology that can grow muscle and fat cells in four days.
🗺Large Bites
🛑 Upside Foods has appealed a Florida judge’s decision to deny a preliminary injunction
The cultivated chicken maker is fighting a lawsuit against the state’s ban on cultivated meat. This means that it will have to abandon its planned taste testing in Florida this month—there is no underestimating the significance of this court case.
💪 Cultivated pet food better for the environment in new life cycle assessment
Bene Meat collaborated with scientists from the Czech Technical University to understand the real impacts of moving to cultivated. It found using cultivated meat instead of beef fares far better for the planet.
Bene Meat’s cultivated pet food needs only 3.1 sq metres of land per kg of meat, which includes the growing of all necessary raw materials. For context, beef takes up as much as 120 sq metres, while producing a kg each of pork and poultry requires 7.2 and 6.6 sq metres of land. The company forecasts a further reduction to two sq metres per kg.
Life cycle assessments are important for building trust and showing through empirical evidence these cultivated alternatives are better for the environment.
The findings match other peer-reviewed analyses, such as a 2021 study that found cultivated beef can lower climate impact by 92%, air pollution by 94%, land use by 95%, and water consumption by 78% compared to conventional beef.
👏 Vow’s cultivated quail ‘Forged Gras’ alternative now available in Hong Kong
The Australian cultivated meat company’s foie gras alternative marks the region’s first commercial sale of cultivated meat. It also reinforces its status as the first company to sell multiple cultivated meat products across multiple markets.
Congrats to the entire Vow team—I hope it isn’t too long until we can finally try these products down under!
🥄Tastings
U.S. restaurant Oyamel held a cultivated meat tasting hosted by the non-profit Food Solutions Action. The tasting featured Good Meat’s chicken and Wildtype‘s salmon across several Mexican dishes.
✅Approvals
Vow progressed to a second round of public consultation in Australia after Food Standards Australia and New Zealand updated its standards to allow the sale of any cultivated meat product that passes premarket approval.
Impossible Foods’ heme protein was labeled safe by The European Food Safety Authority’s GMO panel. Although a plant-based company, this advancement is worth monitoring as these proteins can make the plant-based ‘meat’ more realistic. The founder of Impossible Foods remains a skeptic, previously calling cultured meat “not an economically viable solution” and that it “will never be a thing”.
🤝Partnerships
A new tri-party initiative was formed to accelerate the development of cultivated meat in South Korea.
The Good Food Institute APAC (GFI APAC), the Korea Biotechnology Industry Organization (KoreaBIO), and the Bio-based Future Food Industry Committee (BFFIC) all joined forces as they prepare for the first regulatory approvals next year by South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
📻Cultivated Listens
Two listens caught my eye, both of which I missed at the end of October.
The first one is Parendi Birdie of Asentia who sat down with Alex Shirazi of the Cultured Meat and Future Food Show.
Birdie talked about her new company which is building consumer products in what she’s labeling a new sector called ‘plant-forward’ by using a 50/50 split of plant-based and cultivated meat.
The second listen I highly recommend is The Dave Chang Show, which brought on Eric Schulz, a prolific builder and expert in cultivated meat. It’s probably the best introductory explainer on the sector, but also offers an update on the current timeline for commercialisation.
📑Cultivated Reads
I couldn’t help but get triggered by the latest report from the Vegan Society, which stated cultivated meat is not vegan. They argue that cultivated meat still uses animal cells and thus is only partially free of animal use.
As it currently stands, the process of cultivated meat is not enough for us to support it. There is already a myriad of vegan meat alternatives that don’t derive from cultivated or lab-grown meats — essentially, there are kinder alternatives out there.
It’s a pretty disappointing stance that might say more about their rigid ideology than actually helping animals. If they truly wanted to promote a vegan lifestyle, help animals and the planet, and convert meat eaters from harming animals they should be the biggest backers of cultivated meat.
Rant over.
That’s a wrap for this month’s bite. Stay curious, stay cultivated!
I downloaded the podcasts you recommended. I was also stunned at the Vegan Society's stance on cultivated meat. Thank you so much for your monthly round-up. It's much appreciated!