In the world of alternative proteins, perfecting the large-scale production and commercialisation of cultivated meat is considered a form of holy grail to many.
There have been many iterations of marketing strategies over the years to make this more appealing to the average consumer, from an initial focus on the sustainability benefits, to a focus on the food safety and hygiene benefits, and most recently the potential to integrate production into traditional meat supply chains.
So far the consensus is that an amalgamation of all these traits is likely to be necessary for cultivated meat to make its mark – but also that pricing and affordability needs to be top-of-mind for the industry to make even a dent in the price-sensitive Asia Pacific market.
This has naturally led to a focus on achieving price parity with conventional proteins as quickly as possible, which has in turn made premiumisation a continued necessity for most cultivated meat producers.
“We do see quite a bit of demand from producers being driven by cost currently,” cultivated protein contract manufacturing firm Esco Aster Founder and CEO XL Lin said.
“Unagi is a good example of this – it is hardly the most consumed protein in any market, but it is a premium one because it cannot be farmed so the price is generally high and getting more and more expensive.
“We are also seeing an equivalent number requests for ‘exotic’ meats like quail and livestock meats like beef and pork.
“[For us, another way of looking at this is in terms of maximising] the value we can create from our processing – for instance, since we are already looking at creating beef muscle protein from cows, we also look at recreating the whole cow from meat to leather and even the cow hoofs, where the hoof keratin is also a useful resource.”
In short, the tech for cultivated protein has the potential to be utilised for many more uses beyond just meat production, and unlocking all of this potential will mean increasing value and thus helping to bring down costs.
See more of Lin’s insights into the industry in the video above.
Breaking down key terms in cultivated meat tech:
- Suspended culture: A type of cell culture where cells float freely and multiply within a liquid growth medium, forming a suspension
- Adherent culture: A type of cell culture where cells are physically attached to a surface and grow into a single layer
- Solid-state fermentation: A type of fermentation where microorganisms grow on solid substrates. These microbes are given enough moisture to support growth, but generally are not exposed to free-flowing water.
- Continuous fermentation: In this fermentation process, fresh nutrients are continuously added and the products of the fermentation are continuously removed from a bioreactor – This allows for the continuous growth and production of bioproducts.
- Batch fermentation: In this type of fermentation, nutrients and other ingredients are added at the beginning of the process and products are harvested at the end – meaning each cycle will only produce one round of products.
In 2022, Esco Aster became the first company in the world to be certified for the production of cultivated meat for commercial sale, by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA).
As seen in the video, the firm has access to a wide range of different technologies to accelerate bioprocessing and cultivated production, but Lin believes that it will still be a good few years before the discussion to move from the premium to lower-cost productions can take place.
“The area we believe we will see a lot of innovation in is continuous processing – this tech means we can continuously seed and harvest cells from the process, which would reduce the cost of goods and move us closer to cost parity,” Lin added.
“This is something we believe we will be able to achieve in the next five years or so, to demonstrate scale-up via this platform.”
