Those expecting to see products made from meat grown in a lab from animal cells on supermarket shelves by now will be sadly disappointed.
There has been tremendous interest in this area of innovation over the last few years, not least for its touted long-term potential to aid world food security. The companies behind the development of cultivated meat have attracted significant backing from investors.
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As you will see below, so far, there has been approval granted for these products in a small number of markets, even if others – Italy and Austria, for example – have ruled against it. Most jurisdictions – including the EU – have yet to make a ruling.
As of yet, consumer-facing products have only appeared in very few high-end stores or restaurants.
There are still large hurdles to overcome, none higher than the cost of producing such animal protein.
Eat Just/Good Meat founder Josh Tetrick, for example, has told Just Food in an interview that scaling-up was a “massive challenge”.
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By GlobalDataBut slow progress is not the same as stopping entirely and there are plenty of entrepreneurs involved in this nascent industry who are determined to see it succeed.
The list of countries below will increase when that success starts to become evident.
The first three
Singapore
In December 2020, Singapore, keen to be seen as a leader in the food technology area, became the first territory to give regulatory approval to cell-based meat.
The south-east Asian city-state’s regulator, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), gave the nod to cultivated meat products made by US firm Eat Just.
Eat Just’s “chicken bites” were approved for sale there, initially in a local restaurant.
At the time, Eat Just’s Tetrick said on Twitter he was “proud to share that Eat Just is the first company in history to receive approval to sell cultured meat (safe meat from animal cells instead of slaughtered animals)”.
However, in March 2024, Eat Just set out the reasons for a pause in its production of cultivated meat in Singapore.
The company’s cell-based meat arm, Good Meat, halted the sale of cultured-chicken to Hubers Bistro diners in the country. Eat Just said it was preparing for “a new phase of selling to consumers”.
Two months later, Eat Just revealed it had secured its first retail listings for its cell-based meat.
Its cell-cultivated chicken was to be sold under the Good Meat 3 brand at Huber’s Butchery in Singapore. The product comprises 3% cultivated chicken, with the rest made of plant-based ingredients.
Other cultivated meat company approvals in Singapore are understood to be in the pipeline, including that of Netherlands-based Mosa Meat.
In July 2024, locally-based Umami Bioworks, which had recently inked a deal with US firm Friends & Family Pet Food Co. (FnF) to create lab-grown fish treats for cats, was said to be “actively in discussions” with its local regulator ahead of a planned launch in 2025.
The US
Approval in the US is slightly more complicated in that cell-based meat has been given approval at the national level but has been banned by certain states.
In June 2023, the US cleared cultivated-chicken from locally-based Upside Foods and Good Meat for sale.
The approval followed a four-year joint regulatory process by the US Department of Agriculture and the country’s Food and Drug Administration.
Cell-based chicken products from both companies were subject to a “historic two-agency regulatory process” with Good Meat’s parent Eat Just describing the ruling as a “watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry”.
At the time, Good Meat said it had already begun commercial production and signed a deal to supply its first restaurant through the José Andrés Group in Washington DC.
However, there has been some pushback from individual states.
In May 2024, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation which banned the sale of lab-grown meat in the southern state.
He said the state was “fighting back against the global elite’s plan to force the world to eat meat grown in a petri dish or bugs to achieve their authoritarian goals”.
The ban, aped by the governor of Nebraska later in the year, is facing a legal challenge.
Israel
Israel-based Aleph Farms, which had previously submitted applications to sell its Aleph Cuts product in Switzerland and the UK, received regulatory approval for producing and selling cultivated-beef in its home market in January 2024.
The company said it received a “no questions” letter for its cultivated-beef product, Petit Steak, from Israel’s Ministry of Health “following a rigorous review process”.
Getting the green light allowed Aleph Farms to be the first producer and marketer of cultivated-meat in Israel and the Middle East.
Like Singapore, Israel’s government is keen to support local food technology businesses. The country has scores of researchers across 11 academic institutions and two dedicated food-tech research centres to help keep it at the forefront of developments.
The next four?
The UK
In July 2024, UK cell-based protein business Meatly received regulatory clearance to sell cultivated-meat for use in its home market, but only in in pet food.
London-based Meatly described the news as “a huge leap forward for the cultivated-meat industry” after passing the UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) “rigorous inspection process”.
Meatly’s production facility was approved by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and APHA to produce and handle its cultivated chicken.
The company, which was established in 2022, said it has proactively prepared a safety dossier and conducted testing to demonstrate that its cultivated chicken is safe and healthy for pets.
The green light has not yet been given for cell-based food aimed at UK consumers of the human variety.
In August 2023, Aleph Farms revealed it had requested UK approval for cell-based meat
Aleph Farms estimated the UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) would take up to two years to consider the application.
The FSA confirmed it had received Aleph Farms’ submission. The agency said it could not comment further until the application was entered onto a publicly available “register of regulated product applications”.
The Netherlands
In July 2023, The Netherlands became the first EU member to allow taste testing of cultivated-meat products in a move seen as a prelude to market approval.
The Dutch government has partnered with the cultivated meat industry – specifically local companies Meatable and Mosa Meat – to develop a code of practice for the facilitation of taste tests for cell-cultured meat and seafood products.
Like Israel and Singapore, The Netherlands is keen to become a global hub for food-tech, including cultivated-meat production.
In January, the country announced the launch of two government-backed cellular agriculture scale-up facilities “offering companies the resources needed to move beyond research and into scalable production.”
The projects are part of the Cellular Agriculture initiative, backed by the National Growth Fund.
The Cultivate at Scale (CaS) facility in Maastricht is dedicated to cell culture bio-processing. The facility is open-access, allowing companies to use it for for research, development and pilot-scale production.
Switzerland
In July 2023, Israel’s Aleph Farms applied for regulatory approval for its lab-made steak to the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office (FSVO) in collaboration with Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain Migros, which first invested in the company in 2019.
The Israeli company is keen to target fine dining foodservice outlets in the country.
As yet, no approval has been forthcoming. But, despite the delay, there is a feeling that Switzerland could become a serious player in the cultivated-meat area, partly because of the effort being made by major food companies there.
December 2024 saw the launch of the Cultured Hub facility in Kempthal.
A joint venture between three Swiss industry heavyweights – retailer Migros, ingredients supplier Givaudan and processing business Bühler Group as first announced in 2021 – uses their experience to accelerate the production of lab-grown animal protein.
The facility, dubbed The Cultured Hub, features advanced labs and fermentation capabilities to help start-ups scale from lab to pilot operations.
Yannick Gächter, CEO of The Cultured Hub, said: “The launch of The Cultured Hub is a pivotal moment in the global push for sustainable food production. The opening of this facility is not just an achievement for our team, but a landmark moment for the industry.”
Spain
Spain, too, has yet to approve cell-based meat but as long ago as January 2021 it showed its interest in the potential of this nascent technology.
It was announced then that local start-up BioTech Foods would be leading a government-backed project that would see ten research institutions and seven organisations come together to make meat directly from animal cells.
Called the Culturedmeat project, BDI Biotech, Neoalgae, Argal, the Autonomous University of Madrid, Oviedo University, Barcelona Science Park, University of Seville and University of Granada were among the consortium partners announced.
