Future Feast: Mapping the Cultivated Meat Sector

The importance of the cultivated meat industry has been continuously growing, with the potential to substitute animal-based production systems and contribute to mitigating the effects caused by climate change. Despite the current uncertainty regarding scalability, reaching price parity with conventional meat and increasing consumer acceptance, we are witnessing an increasing number of cultivated meat companies joining the race and expanding and diversifying their product portfolio. Their rapid growth in size and technological advancement are supported by the developing competitive ecosystems.

This chapter analyses 18 globally leading cultivated meat companies, highlights differences and provides an outlook on the industry. Cultivated meat company horizontal diversification within conventional meats, rare or even extinct animals, and vertical expansion along the value chain supplying growth media and equipment. Cultivated meat companies have successfully demonstrated to attract large funds that can further push the novel industry even further. The increasing number of applications for regulatory approval provides a positive outlook to an upcoming race for more innovation and efficiency in the cultivated meat industry.