Lab-grown meat While analogues may satisfy some consumers, the die-hard meat-eating habits of others have led to a race-to-market for meats produced via non-agricultural methods. The first prototype burger made from lab-grown animal cells was unveiled in 2013 by Professor Mark Post, later chief scientific officer of Mosa Meats and, at the time, it seemed more science fiction than viable solution — not least because it cost €250,000 to produce. 22 But Mosa's announcement sounded the starting gun in a race to bring the first lab-grown (also known as cultured or 'clean') meat to market. The process involves extracting cells from an animal (non-invasively) and plying them with nutrients and growth factors (sugars, salts, pH buffers, amino acids, micronutrients and proteins). This causes the cells to proliferate and form muscle tissue, fat, or connective tissue. As well as entailing a massive reduction in carbon footprint of meat production, cultured meats contain no antibiotics, helping to reduce antibiotic resistance and food borne disease, and the levels of fat and cholesterol can be controlled to make meat-eating healthier. Like Mosa Meat, many of the start-ups are working on beef. Israel’s Aleph Farms, which has produced a prototype minute steak, is focusing on beef first because cattle are the most environmentally problematic livestock.23 Others are betting on early differentiation: California-based Memphis Meats is working on poultry; Dutch-based Meatable 24 and the UK's Higher Steaks 25 are both concentrating on pork; and Singapore's Shiok Meats 26 has opted for cultured crustaceans. Despite the international activity and multiple millions of investment from venture capitalists and traditional meat companies, like Cargill and Tyson Foods, the most ambitious estimates put lab-grown meat on dinner plates in about two years' time. Others maintain five years is more realistic. The main technical challenges are finding affordable growth media and production and supply chain scale-up. Moreover, cultured meat has not received regulatory approval in any market to date; in Europe, companies will have to compile and submit a dossier under the novel foods regulation. Once they get there, the rewards will be considerable. The AT Kearney report predicted that cultured meat will outpace even meat analogues by 2040, with a 35% market share. 27
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