The Month In Cultivated Meat: October
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:
The UK to develop a cultivated meat sandbox.
New tastings from Magic Valley, Vital Meat, and Biokraft Foods.
The EU claims Hungarian bans are “unjustified”.
Raises and grants a signal of hope amid a tough funding environment.
🍽️Small Bites
California’s Friends & Family Pet Food Co is collaborating with Novel Farms to bring its cultivated dog and cat products to market next year.
UMAMI Bioworks—a cultivated seafood company out of Singapore—is expanding to the UK due to a “favourable regulatory environment”, and shared a partnership to expand to South Korea.
Indian-cultivated meat startup Biokraft Foods will host its first public tastings for cultivated chicken after completing internal testing.
Nutreco opened what it calls the “world’s first” dedicated food-grade powder production facility for cell feed.
Australia’s alternative protein sector came together, with Food Frontier hosting an exclusive novel food-tasting event. Magic Valley featured samples of its cultivated meat product.
Vital Meat held its first tasting event for its chicken product in Singapore. On the menu:
Chicken skin chips
Vital Chicken Broth
Chicken Ravioli
Chicken rice
💲 Raises & Investment
The UK Government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology announced £1.6 ($2.07M USD) in funding for a regulatory sandbox specifically for cultivated meat and seafood.
Tufts University Center for Cellular Agriculture was awarded $2.4M by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to establish the Foodtech Engineering for Alternative Sustainable Technologies (FEAST) center.
Bene Meat Technologies has developed cultivated beef burgers, building on its cultivated pet food product it introduced earlier in the year.
California Cultured received an undisclosed investment from Sparkalis to create a cell-based cocoa powder product.
Atlantic Fish Co won a grant from the US Department of Agriculture to advance R&D operations.
Dutch-cultivated pork startup Meatable and Chilean biotech firm Sticta Biologicals received a Good Food Institute grant.
Sallea secured $2.6M to build the scaffolds used in the production of whole cuts of cultivated meat.
🏆Awards
Vow won the Future Ready Award in the Australian Financial Review‘s 2024 BOSS Most Innovative Companies category for its cultivated quail product.
🗺Large Bites
🛑 Judge denies Upside Food attempt to dismiss Florida ban
Upside Food had their early dismissal request rejected in their challenge against Florida’s cultivated meat ban. It’s hoped the judge will rule by November, although it's increasingly unlikely they’ll be unable to go ahead with an Art Basel event in Miami Beach on December 6 where they hoped to showcase its chicken.
👏 Steakholder Foods receives a first purchase order
It’s the first purchase order from Wyler Farm under its new commercial cooperation—an encouraging sign that marks a major production milestone.
“As these initial commercial deals mature in 2025, we expect to see meaningful revenue growth and increased interest from other potential market participants. We remain focused on expanding our commercial presence in the alternative protein sector and are well-positioned to forge additional collaborations.” - Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods
👩⚖️ EU deems ban “unjustified”
The European Commission deemed the July ban on cultured meat in Hungary “unjustified.” Italy, which banned cultivated meat last year, was found to be violating EU law.
“Both bans are unfounded, not being based on scientific evidence”
📦Product Announcements
Further Foods launched its Noochies! Immune Sprinkles for cats and dogs in the U.S. and Canada.
AQUA Cultured Foods debuted its raw ‘Tuna’ at a Chicago Michelin restaurant. Although not cultivated, it shows the accelerating progress of plant-based ‘meat’ alternatives.
🎉Events
London hosted The Future Food-Tech Summit.
Missed the event? See the highlights here.
Amsterdam held the inaugural ‘Atova’s Regulating the Future of Food Conference’.
Missed the event? See the highlights here.
📻Cultivated Listens
Meatable CEO Jeff Tripician jumped on the Future Food Show. He covered their goal to get meat production down to 12 days, his 40 years of experience coming from traditional agriculture and Meatables’s licensing business model.
📑Cultivated Reads
My favourite reading this month came courtesy of a letter sent by 11 Republican Congress members to the Director of National Intelligence and the USDA’s Director of Homeland Security.
They put forward the case for tackling food insecurity perfectly:
Global protein demand is at an all-time high, having increased by 50% since 2000. With meat demand projected to double by 2050, countries around the world are recognizing the need to pursue innovative farming techniques to complement their existing agricultural structures.
The US should be a leader in this space and should not tolerate the recent movement to ban such innovative products that will help fix this rising problem.
Should China secure a dominant position in the global innovative protein market, it could fundamentally alter food supply dynamics worldwide and give China control of key aspects of global food security dynamics. Put simply, we cannot allow China to control more of the world’s food supply than it already does. To cede American leadership in the global innovative protein market to foreign adversaries like China is to forfeit the food security of the United States and its allies.
This is not to be intended as “Anti-China”, but rather the importance of shoring up domestic food supply lines and not falling behind on such critical technologies that will be important in the coming decades. Cultivated meat is a possible solution for this emerging national security issue.
A great read, and if you want the short and sweet version see the write-up from the Green Queen.
📅Looking Ahead
‘Cultivating A New Food System’ free event on November 21, hosted by Veganomist.
Support petition to help support cultivated meat in the UK.
