The growth of 'cultured meat' — and how it could upend the meat industry

By Carolyn Heneghan | February 1, 2016

Dive Brief:

• A handful of startups expect to introduce meat products that are grown from animal cells in a laboratory, also referred to as "cultured meat," in the next few years.
• These startups say cultured meat is more sustainable and benefits include less use of nutrients, such as grains needed to feed food animals, less waste, and the ability to avoid antibiotics and other additives often used to produce meat. 
• Meat industry advocates question whether consumers will actually buy meat grown from animal cells, especially as consumers' focus has been on natural and organic foods.

Dive Insight:

Consumers' demand for meat remains high, and other niche meat markets have arisen to meet that demand and supplement traditional meat production, particularly plant-based proteins like soy or pea. In November, Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown called plants thefuture of protein in an interview with Food Business News.

It's true that cultured meat may not require antibiotics, growth hormones, and other common meat additives. But cultured meat does come from animal cells grown in a lab, and that can turn off consumers. 

Regardless of whether cultured meat will catch on with consumers, the growth of these meat startups is currently hampered by the same challenges most startups face — capital. Cultured meat startups are also determining how to scale up production while maintaining costs that are low enough to comparably price cultured meat alongside traditionally produced meat. One startup reports $18,000 in costs per pound of cultured ground beef, as compared with about $4 a pound for traditional ground beef in U.S. grocery stores, according to USDA.

Also up for discussion is how cultured meat would be regulated, either by the FDA or the USDA, like traditional meat manufacturers' products. The FDA would likely have the first review before the USDA stepped in, a USDA spokesman told The Wall Street Journal. Manufacturers keeping an eye on cultured meat may be interested in how regulations for this new variety of meat compare with their own — and could even affect theirs.