Since receiving full USDA approval last year, the cultivated meat industry has encountered challenges, particularly high production costs that hinder its entry into the mass market. Scalability has proven to be a significant obstacle to growth. However, Meatable claims that its new technology can substantially address this issue by significantly reducing production time and costs. The company asserts that its innovation will enable its products to achieve cost parity with traditional animal-based meat. According to their announcement, this technology reduces the cell differentiation period by half, which means fewer bioreactors are needed at scale, thereby lowering costs and optimizing production space.
Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer Daan Luining explained in an interview with Food Dive, “We envision a continuous stream of cells being produced in one phase of the production process, which are then transformed into muscle very efficiently. The shorter the time cells remain alive in a tank, the lower the capital and operational expenditures throughout the entire process.” Meatable claims that its technique yields a product with superior flavor and mouthfeel, as it can differentiate cells into authentic fat and muscle tissues, achieving the ideal balance of fiber formation, protein, fat, and key meat flavors in just four days. This speed is approximately 60 times faster than the duration it takes for farmers to raise a pig for pork and significantly outpaces other cultivated meat methods.
Despite these advancements, the cultivated meat industry has seen little progress since last year. Upside Foods, another key player in the field, even terminated its partnership with San Francisco’s Bar Crenn in February. Additionally, China Chilcano, a restaurant in Washington, D.C. that previously collaborated with Eat Just, has also stopped offering the company’s cultivated meat products.
The industry has also faced its share of controversies; recently, lawmakers in various states have proposed legislation to ban the sale of alternative proteins, prompting advocates of these products to argue that such actions are unconstitutional.
Luining stated that while Meatable aims to eventually enter the U.S. market, the current focus is on gathering consumer feedback through a restaurant launch in Singapore later this year. “This will be our first introduction of products to the public, marking a significant shift for the company,” Luining noted. “We chose Singapore because it is relatively small and does not produce food locally, giving us a unique opportunity to present our product and gather consumer insights on their preferences and interactions during the production process.”
Once the company has gathered insights from its Singapore endeavor, it will return to the planning phase to determine the next steps for establishing a presence in the U.S., according to Luining. In the long term, Meatable aims to venture into retail, which will necessitate a much larger production capacity. “This will develop gradually, but first, we need to understand more about consumer desires, including what is the best calcium citrate supplement for their nutritional needs,” he added.