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Cultivated meat

Cultivated meat is renowned for its complexity and innovation. Our consulting team is here to expertly navigate you through these complexities, ensuring successful implementation and growth.
Cultivated meat enables food tech companies to produce genuine animal tissues, outside the animal. While it unlocks the potential for more efficient and environmentally friendly meat production, scaling up to secure success is far from easy. For companies to prevail, it is crucial that to continue innovating and investing in research. 

Our consulting team will help you connect the dots within the cultivated meat industry so you can confidently navigate the future of alternative proteins every step of the way.

Navigating the cultivated meat industry

Perspective

Rapidly evolving

From the public unveiling of the first cultivated meat prototype in 2013 to the 100+ companies working in the field today and market approvals in US & Singapore, the cellular agriculture industry has evolved rapidly and competition is heating up.
CHALLENGE

Chance for innovators

Early innovators must engineer their own process, formulate the product, build the supply chain, and solve the challenge of economic and technological scalability. Despite these difficulties, more and more companies are already set to go to market.
Opportunity

High potential

Cultivated meat has the potential to enhance sensory and nutritional qualities compared to conventional meat while also lowering the environmental footprint and unlocking the vegan market. Additionally, cultivated ingredients like fat can significantly improve plant-based products through “hybrid” formulations.

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Key topics
Our strategy consulting team is here to advise you in the cultivated meat industry so you can confidently navigate the future of cultivated meat every step of the way.
Ingredient optimization
Functionality
Bioprocess design
Biomass
Scaffolding
Cell line development
Cell culture media
Consumer acceptance
Fats & oils
Dairy applications
Meat applications
Labeling

Cultivated meat FAQs

What is cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat, otherwise known as cultured, lab-grown, or clean meat, is meat that has been grown from stem cells. The tissue engineering techniques used to produce cultivated meat were first used in regenerative medicine after the discovery of cell lines.

In 1998, Jon F. Vein filed a US patent for the production of tissue engineered meat for human consumption. By 2030, cultivated meat could provide as much as 0.5% of the world’s meat supply, with implications for multiple sectors.

How is meat cultivated?

It takes approximately 2-8 weeks to cultivate meat, depending on the product you wish to reproduce. The cultivated meat process can be divided into three main stages:

1. Sample collection

To begin with, stem cells are harvested from animal tissue samples, often via minimally invasive methods. The cells are cultured in vitro using plant-based nutrient medium and growth serum before being grown en masse in bioreactors, also known as cultivators.

2. Cell culture and differentiation

Bioreactors provide a clean and temperature-controlled environment. Here the cells are fed with an oxygen-rich cell culture medium containing the nutrients and growth factors required to grow cells outside of an animal’s body. Additional supplements can even improve the nutritional profile compared to animal counterparts by injecting higher levels of vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids than would naturally be present.

Cell differentiation is stimulated by various factors such as scaffolding structures and adaptations to the medium, enabling the transformation into the various tissues that constitute meat. For example, fat, skeletal muscle, and connective tissue. Cell density and volume can also be manipulated to influence the end product.

3. Processing

The differentiated cells are isolated and processed into end products such as chicken nuggets, steak, tuna nigiri, or burgers. They’re then packaged, ready to be marinated, fried, or even grilled on the BBQ.

What are the advantages of lab-cultivated meat?

Cultivated products are predicted to have many benefits over conventional meat. For example:

  • Climate solution and global food security
    In addition to being an unprecedented innovation, cultivated meat could be the solution we need to reduce climate change and feed a growing global population. Not only does cultivated meat production use significantly less land and water, but it also emits far fewer greenhouse gases and toxic byproducts compared with animal agriculture.

    Since the global population is expected to grow to 9.8 billion by 2050, that means we will have an extra 2 billion mouths to feed in the next few decades. The more efficient production process for cultured meat provides a much better outlook for global food security.

  • Reduced public health risk
    The bioreactors used to cultivate meat are closed environments. Therefore, unlike conventional meat, lab-grown meat has a reduced exposure risk to enteric pathogens and is subsequently unlikely to cause foodborne illnesses. Other public health risks that could be mitigated include zoonotic diseases and antibiotic resistance, both of which are associated with animal agriculture.

  • Competitive advantages for food manufacturers
    “The companies developing lab-grown meat believe this is the product most likely to wean committed meat-eaters off traditional sources.” The Guardian

    Global meat consumption has doubled in just the past two decades and the growing demand for meat is not showing any sign of slowing down. Cultivated meat offers manufacturers the unique opportunity to tap into the omnivorous consumer market.

  • Direct benefits for the consumer

    The efficiency of the cultivated meat process means that consumers could one day enjoy cell-based Wagyu beef and lobster for the same price as a burger or mackerel. Residents of isolated communities with no arable land may be able to access meat and seafood feasts just as easily as those living in areas surrounded by grassy pastures or waters endowed with large populations of fish.

    Furthermore, cell-cultivated meat unlocks opportunities to eat meat from animals that are not widely consumed or difficult to domesticate, which could provide more diverse protein alternatives that are low-fat, highly nutritious, or even tastier. For example, VOW Food is currently researching cell lines from zebras and kangaroos.

 

How can we advance cultivated meat further?

Cell line development

There is plenty of room for innovation within the cultivated meat industry, particularly pertaining to the cell lines used for production. For example, the traits of these cell lines have often been poorly characterized outside of the context of cultured meat and further study could facilitate optimization to increase efficiency and productivity.

The isolation and documentation of cell lines through initiatives such as GFI’s cell line repositories will streamline access for researchers. What’s more, exciting opportunities exist in new cell lines and further research could accelerate the analysis of non-domesticated animal cells, deciphering information in regard to their flavor, texture, and nutrition.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)

Since there are over 2 million species of animal, machine intelligence will be critical for harnessing the vast amount of data involved in cell line analysis. In addition to scanning the natural world for proteins that have specific characteristics, AI and ML techniques can be used to advance the formulation of plant-based cell media.

Materials and equipment

Further opportunities also lie in scaling up to achieve the commercialization of cultured meat. Since many of the techniques and equipment used in the processing of cultured meat are similar to those used in biologics and conventional meat processing, maximizing meat production will require cooperation with these industries to leverage equipment and expertise.

Client Feedback
Featured case

Cultivated meat startup scouting and industry overview

client: Top 10 global FMCG
Our client asked us to provide them with a clear perspective on the opportunities and risks in the cellular agriculture industry.
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