Cultured meat sector on brink of major consumer success, finds study
The UK has been very successful to date in adopting a framework to underpin the emerging alternative meat market, says Animal Alternative Technologies following the publication of a report on the sector titled ‘How well is Europe playing the cultured meat game?’.
With cultured meat being declared safe to eat by the US government, the starting pistol has been fired for the lab-grown meat market. The stage is now set for a rapid expansion of the production of meat using animal cells grown in the laboratory, with the European market expected to be worth $818million by 2026 – admittedly far behind China and North America, with $14.8billion and $4.4billion in expected market size by 2026 respectively.
Produced by IP specialist GovGrant, the study suggests that by 2035 cultured meat – which requires no land, pesticides, animal feed or abattoirs – will make up almost a quarter of global meat consumption, with the UK already ahead of many in the race.
Alec Griffiths, IP manager at GovGrant, says: “With the FDA rubber-stamping lab-grown meat as safe, the market should really take off now.”
UK-based cultured meat organisations have received £28.55million in investment, raising more in the sector than China, South Korea, Japan and France. The UK is beaten only by the US, Israel, the Netherlands and Singapore.
Clarisse Beurrier is co-founder of Animal Alternative Technologies, a Cambridge-based spin-out of the University of Cambridge based in the Department of Veterinary Medicine.
“Consumers are looking for more sustainable protein,” says Clarisse, “and the UK’s National Food Strategy recommends that meat consumption is cut by 30 per cent within a decade to help address the impact of the animal agriculture industry being the ‘biggest destroyer of nature’ and ‘a major source of climate warning’. The UK health professions have also called for a meat tax.”
Fellow co-founder Yash Mishra concurs.
“There is a growing number of cultured meat companies in the UK,” he says, “and I’m aware of people who have moved from places like South America to start a cultured meat company in the UK because of the infrastructure and opportunities it presents.
“The formation of the Alternative Proteins Association last year brought together cultured meat companies from across the country to collaborate, promote the industry and interact with various governmental bodies as a collective. Last year, it was very encouraging for us to see organisations like the UK Food Standards Agency, Innovate UK, British Standards Institution, DEFRA, BBSRC, etc participate or even organise roundtables dedicated to cultured meat or alternative/novel proteins in general. These showed us that pertinent UK governmental bodies are giving increasing consideration and resources to the budding cultured meat industry and a framework of sorts is being built for our industry, which are all critical for the UK to be a world-leading developer of cultured or cultivated meat.”
Adam Simmonds, research associate at GovGrant, says: “Although it’s some way behind the US, the UK is still a leading innovator in this area. Plus, because there’s such huge potential demand among consumers here, that’ll only spur companies on to innovate further and perfect their products.
“This could become an interesting area of growth for the UK, particularly as not many nations possess the expertise to produce this meat. There will definitely be an uplift in investment in UK producers, who’ll want to take full advantage of the upcoming boom in demand.”
Yash concludes: “On the whole, it is a very exciting period for the cultured meat industry in the UK as the ecosystem is shaping up and many young companies like ours are growing and developing innovative technologies that can help shape the way we will feed the UK and the world.”
