The Global Market for Cultured Meat – Market Size, Trends, Competitors, & Forecasts, 2023

The Global Market for Cultured Meat – Market Size, Trends, Competitors, and Forecasts (2022)

Executive Summary

Cultured meat refers to meat created using cell culture techniques within a laboratory or manufacturing facility. It is produced by growing master cells collected from cattle, chicken, pigs, fish, and lamb, as well as other types of livestock and seafood. In addition to meat and seafood production, cultured meat techniques can be used to ethically manufacture other types of animal products, such as leather, as well as animal byproducts, including lab-grown milk and hen-free egg whites, for example. Cultured meat is ethically produced, because livestock is not used within the manufacturing processes beyond collecting the initial cells required for cell culture.

The number of startups focused on developing cultured meat (and the required cell culture media, supplements, and methods to produce them) has been rising year after year. There are now an impressive 99 companies worldwide developing cultured meat components, services, and end-products, compared to only four in 2016. Additionally, nearly 40 life science firms have declared and formally launched products to supply market competitors with the essential inputs they need to support cultured meat and seafood production.

Because cultured meat is an early-stage industry, the language to describe it is evolving in real-time. Currently, company executives use a range of terms to describe the field, including but not limited to cultured meat, cultivated meat, cell-based meat, clean meat, cellular agriculture, and lab-grown meat, as well as slaughter-free meat and ethically grown meat, to a lesser extent. The potential of cultured meat has captured the imagination of investors, researchers, and consumers alike. Although the cultured meat market is a nascent industry, 2020 was a landmark year because a cultured chicken product developed by the company Eat Just made its debut on a restaurant menu in Singapore, after the country’s food agency approved its sale to the public. The regulatory approval of this cellular food product within Singapore provides hope that other regulatory approvals could follow worldwide.

Flow of capital into the cultured meat industry has also grown substantially in recent years, reaching approximately $1.0 billion over the past 12 months. Additionally, investments in 2020 surpassed $360 million and this was six times (6X) greater than the amount that was invested in 2019. Major investments within the cultured meat market have included Cargill’s investment into Memphis Meats and Aleph Farms, as well as Tyson Foods Venture Fund’s investments into Memphis Meats and Future Meat Technologies. Wealthy investors are also piling into the cultured meat market. For example, billionaires Bill Gates and Richard Branson joined with Tyson Foods, DFJ, Atomico, and Cargill to invest in the Silicon Valley start-up Memphis Meats. The start-up company rose to fame when it produced the world’s first lab-grown meatballs made by cultivating cow muscle tissue within a sterile environment. Another notable name in cultured meat investing is Dr. Rick Klausner, who is a lead investor in the Dutch company Meatable. He is the former director of the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) and former Executive Director of Global Health for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The cultured meat industry also witnessed its first public-sector R&D funding awards within the U.S. and the European Union, and China signed a $300 million deal to buy lab grown meat produced in Israel in a deal that openly signals its intent to supply cultured meat to its population of 1.4 billion.

By 2040, a projected 60% of the meat will be created from cells grown within bioreactors and sold across grocery stores and restaurants worldwide. The rise of the cultured meat market will be supported by the sustainability of the process, as well as the industry’s ability to provide “tailor-made nutrition” through its meat and seafood products. Recent surveys indicate that nearly 50% of the consumers do not have any reservation about cultured meat. Over the next 10 to 20 years, the cultured meat market his projected to act as a major disruptor to the conventional meat market.

The main objectives of this cultured meat report are to provide the reader with the following details:

• The history and science of cultured meat production
• Benefits and advantages of cultured meat production
• Production technologies to support cultured meat production
• Emerging applications within the cultured meat market
• Cost of cell culture medium to support cultured meat production
• Cell lines, culture media, scaffolding, and bioprocess designs to support cultured meat production
• The geographic distribution of cultured meat research laboratories
• Funding opportunities for research into cultured meat production
• Rates and volumes of scientific publications about cultured meat technologies
• Collaborative researchers within the cultured meat market
• Granted and pending patents for cultured meat products and technologies
• Capital investments made from 2016 to present into cultured meat companies
• Leading investors funding the cultured meat market
• The number and global distribution of cultured meat companies
• Current cultured meat products under development
• Strategic partnerships within the cultured meat industry
• Estimated time for cultured meat products to reach commercialization and widespread adoption
• Timelines and requirements for cultured meat to reach cost parity with conventional meat
• Government regulation of cultured meat by region
• Global consumption and market size for the conventional meat market
• Anticipated disruption timeline for the conventional meat market
• Global market size for cultured meat, segmented by geography and meat type
• Future market size for the cultured meat, segmented by geography, meat type, and year
• Profiles of all known cultured meat companies and their products under development

Key questions answered in this report include:

• What are alternative names for cultured meat?
• What are the technological and nutritional advantages of cultured meat?
• Do the cultured meat products have the same color, flavor, and nutrients of conventional meat?
• What are the methods and technologies involved in the production of cultured meat?
• What is the current production cost of cultured meat and what will it be in the future?
• Does cultured meat technology have other applications within the food sector?
• What is being done to bring down the cost of cultured meat to be on par with conventional meat?
• How many research labs in the world are engaged with cultured meat research?
• How many laboratories are offering collaborative research on cultured meat?
• How many scientific papers have been published about cultured meat since 2000 and what are the year-over-year trends?
• Who are the major patent holders within the cultured meat market?
• How much capital has been invested into the cultured meat sector from 2016 to present?
• How much capital has been invested into cultured meat by type?
• How much venture capital have cultured meat companies received?
• What is the current status of the cultured meat industry?
• What types of cultured meat products are under development by current market competitors?
• What are recent developments and newsworthy events within the global market?
• How long it will take for the cultured meat products to reach commercialization?
• How long will cultured meat take to reach widespread adoption?
• What is the size of the cultured meat market, segmented by geography and type of meat?
• What will the size of the cultured meat market grow to by 2032, segmented by geography, type of meat, and year?

To summarize, this report reveals all major market competitors worldwide, including their strategic advantages, core technologies, and products under development. It describes the current state of cultured meat research, as well as emerging technologies, patents, funding events, scientific papers, strategic partnerships, and importantly, the market’s presumed trajectory toward global adoption. Importantly, it presents a comprehensive market size breakdown segmented by type of meat and geography (North America, Europe, Asia/Pacific, and Other). It also provides future projections through 2032, segmented by type of meat, geography, and year.

Although not yet mainstream, cultured meat is fast becoming a real alternative to its farm-grown counterpart as billionaire entrepreneurs, investment firms, and industry heavyweights invest into companies from across this nascent field. With the competitive nature of this global market, you don’t have the time to do the research. Claim this report to become immediately informed, without sacrificing hours of unnecessary research or missing critical opportunities.