How far has cultivated meat come in a decade?

Michal Klar is an investor in climate-friendly food tech and alt protein startups in APAC.

On August 5, 2013, the world’s first cultivated burger was taste tested.

Back then, one food expert said the burger was “close to meat, but not that juicy.” Ten years on, what progress has the tech made? But first, why does it matter?

Photo credit: Good Meat

As much as 14.5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are attributed to livestock, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Without addressing that problem, the world won’t be able to meet the Paris Agreement target to limit global warming to under 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2050.

One study published earlier this year shows that some types of cultivated meat can save up to 92% of GHG emissions if fully renewable energy is used in the production process.

It may be helpful here to clarify the difference between cultivated meat and plant-based meat for the uninitiated.

In a nutshell, scientists making cultivated meat, sometimes referred to as lab-grown, take muscle samples and stem cells from animals and grow this small sample into a larger amount. Meanwhile, plant-based meat is created by extracting and altering the proteins found in plants to make a product similar to meat. The Impossible Burger of Burger King fame is an example of plant-based meat.

By some measures, we’ve come a long way, but in other aspects, progress has been rather slow. Here’s my take.

📉 Cost progress: 5/10

That first burger was developed as a scientific project by Mark Post and his team at Maastricht University, which was funded by Google’s co-founder, Sergey Brin.

Reportedly, the cost to develop and make the two patties was about US$330,000. Today, it is down to hundreds or tens of dollars per pound – several orders of magnitude less but still far more expensive than conventional meat or plant-based meat.

The price continues to go down with research and development and scale-up, but the last stretch to compete with traditional meat products might be the hardest yet.

🍔 Product progress: 6/10

The original cultivated meat was one product (ground beef) and was pretty dry, as it had no fat cells.

Today, there’s much more variety and complexity of products and prototypes, with everything from chicken to steak, salmon, and foie gras. A lot of them are “hybrids,” mixing animal cells with plant proteins/fats.

💰 Funding progress: 7/10

🌏 Availability progress: 3/10