The Impossible Burger 2.0, a plant-based vegan burger that tastes like real beef. Copyright © Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
2. Innovation in Meat Analogues
Meat alternatives – non-traditional protein sources intended to be used and consumed in a similar way to meat products – are available around the world. Some of these have long been readily available in certain regions. For example, the Quorn meat substitute brand, launched in the UK in 1985, uses fermentation technology to create mycoprotein (a type of single-cell protein) from the soil fungus Fusarium and is well established in many Western markets.16 Insect proteins, already in the mainstream in some Asian markets, are used by a growing number of companies in Europe and North America in products for human consumption and in animal feed.17
In recent years, the interest, innovation and investment in meat analogues – non-traditional protein sources that are designed to be direct, imitative substitutes for conventionally produced meat – have increased significantly. Technologies are delivering, or are expected to deliver, products that have the potential to reduce traditional meat consumption without a drastic shift in eating behaviours. These developments coincide with the growing realization that, for environmental and public health reasons, reducing global traditional meat consumption is both necessary and desirable.
Two broad categories of meat analogues – advanced plant-based ‘meat’ and cultured meat – mark a particularly radical departure from the traditional meat and non-meat options seen to date. The driving principles in their production are mimicry and efficiency – principles identified by Mark Post, the innovator behind the first lab-grown burger in 2013,18 as the two key requisites for the acceptance and industrialization of a meat alternative.19 Both raise challenging questions for producers, policymakers and consumers alike around how ‘meat’ should be defined and regulated, and around the possibility of satiating the world’s growing demand for meat while dramatically scaling back animal agriculture.
Plant-based ‘meat’
Advanced plant-based ‘meat’ products are those that use plant-derived ingredients to directly mimic animal-derived meat and which are designed to be indistinguishable from their animal-based equivalents. Drawing a clear line between plant-based ‘meat’ and the plant-based meat alternatives that have come before is not straightforward. The distinction on which plant-based ‘meat’ innovators have patented – or sought to patent – their products and processes lies in the versatility and sensory experience of cooking and eating. They are marketed predominantly as processed meat products – burgers, sausages, meatballs – but are distinct from more mainstream plant-based meat alternatives in that they contain novel ingredients or use innovative processes intended to achieve an unprecedented degree of mimicry in taste, texture, look and cooking qualities. Advanced plant-based ‘beef’ burgers, for example, developed by companies such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and Moving Mountains, comprise a unique set of ingredients that, in combination, produce a patty whose texture resembles that of minced beef, has a pink hue that turns brown on cooking, and exudes liquid on eating (see Figure 1).
For the most part, these products use non-genetically engineered ingredients such as beetroot juice to achieve these qualities, while Impossible Foods’ ‘Impossible Burger’ contains soy leghemoglobin (SLH), a plant protein. SLH is isolated from the root of the soybean plant and, like haemoglobin in blood and myoglobin in muscles, it is a molecule that carries oxygen, storing it in the roots of legumes. When the ‘Impossible Burger’ is cooked and eaten, SLH is exuded as a red-tinted liquid – comparable to myoglobin, the substance that ‘bleeds’ from minced beef – and gives a metallic iron-like (and thus meat-like) flavour to this product.20
Cultured meat
Cultured meat is grown in vitro from animal-derived stem cells using a growth medium (Figure 1). It is ‘biologically equivalent’21 to meat but is not harvested from a living animal. Culturing meat involves biotechnological processes borrowed from regenerative medicine (the branch of medicine that aims to develop ways to regenerate cells, tissues or organs)22 and aims to scale up these approaches to manufacture meat through cellular and tissue culture, termed ‘cellular agriculture’. Although no agreement has yet been reached on the definition for this process, cellular agriculture entails using a ‘set of technologies to manufacture products typically obtained from livestock farming, using culturing techniques to manufacture the individual product’.23
The cells used to initiate the cell culture can be sourced from primary animal tissue through a biopsy procedure; alternatively, cell lines (stem cells) that can replicate indefinitely can be produced via genetic engineering, gene editing or through induced or spontaneous mutations.24 Cells are cultured within specific liquid media, which provide the conditions needed for tissue growth. The exact media used will depend on the cell species and tissue type, but the process requires nutrients (supplied by foetal calf or horse serum, chicken embryo extract, collagen, serum-free media, etc.).25 Other inorganic and organic components (antibiotic/antimitotics or carbohydrates, amino acids and vitamins) can be added to the media to enable cell growth.26 A scaffold is required for cells to proliferate and develop the structure required for producing a tissue (for example, a muscle) instead of an unorganized collection of muscle cells. The components used in these processes are dependent on their stages of development, and research in this area is still in its infancy.27 For example, even though a few companies, such as Higher Steaks and Aleph Farms, already use only animal-free growing media, more research is needed for lowering the costs of serum-free processes.28
Figure 1: Cultured meat and plant-based ‘meat’ production processes
Figure 1: Cultured meat and plant-based ‘meat’ production processes
The current market landscape
Much of the development in the field of cultured meat has been driven by start-up companies and university laboratories, with funding from large corporations (see Annex 1).29 Products are mainly at the prototype stage and are not yet available for purchase in restaurants or retail outlets. It is estimated that the value of the global cultured-meat market could reach $20 million by 2027, primarily driven by increases in meat consumption and innovation in the technology necessary to scale up from laboratory to factory production.30
The global market for plant-based meat alternatives was estimated to be worth $4.63 billion in 2018 and, according to business information providers Research and Markets, is projected to reach $6.43 billion by 2023 (growing at a compound annual growth rate – CAGR – of 6.8 per cent).31 Research published in March 2018 by Mordor Intelligence put the expected CAGR of the market over the 2018–23 period at a slightly lower 5.8 per cent. According to Mordor, Europe presented the largest regional market for meat substitute products in 2017, with 39 per cent of global market share,32 while the Asia-Pacific market is estimated to be the fastest growing due to rising levels of economic development and to its large population.33 According to research undertaken by Nielsen for the US Good Food Institute, plant-based meat analogues still accounted for less than 1 per cent of the value of the total US retail market for meat as of 11 August 2018, but had risen in value by 23 per cent since the equivalent period of 2017. The worldwide market for meat has been valued at $1 trillion.34
The food service sector is also offering plant-based meat alternatives. The ‘Beyond Burger’ is already sold in over 25,000 restaurants, hotels and universities worldwide. The ‘Impossible Burger’ is available in more than 4,000 locations in the US. Moving Mountains’ products are stocked at over 500 locations in the UK and are also available in the Netherlands.
Regionally, North America is projected to dominate the cultured-meat market in 2021, as the region is characterized by significant investment in the development of meat analogues.35 The market is also expanding into Asia, since China’s signature in 2017 of a $300 million agreement to import cultured-meat technologies from Israel, and the Japanese government’s participation in May 2018 in a $2.7 million funding round for a new ‘clean meat’ start-up, Integriculture.36
In major Western markets the retail sector is both responding to and helping to drive this rising acceptance of plant-based meat alternatives. Major grocery retailers selling plant-based meat analogues include UK-based Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose & Partners and Ocado, and Whole Foods, Target, Safeway, Kroger and Walmart in the US.37 Around the world, there has been an increase in the number of all-vegan grocery stores, which also serve as retail channels for plant-based ‘meat’ products: these include Naturalia Vegan (France), Sweet to Lick (US), Veganz (Germany and the Czech Republic), and Vegan Supply (Canada).38 Certain brands have been successful in penetrating multiple markets: Beyond Meat’s plant-based ‘Beyond Burger’ recently launched in Tesco, the UK’s biggest retail supermarket, with the same market strategy used in the US, whereby the product is sold alongside animal-based meat patties.39
The food service sector is also offering plant-based meat alternatives. The ‘Beyond Burger’ is already sold in over 25,000 restaurants, hotels and universities worldwide, including in major restaurant chains such as TGI Fridays and BurgerFi, in the US, and Honest Burgers and All Bar One, in the UK.40 The ‘Impossible Burger’ – the ‘bleeding plant-based burger’ mentioned earlier – is available in more than 4,000 locations in the US (including in two major chains – Bareburger and White Castle), and has been launched in Hong Kong and Macau, with plans to expand worldwide.41 British company Moving Mountains’ products are stocked at over 500 locations in the UK and are also available in the Netherlands.42 The Vegetarian Butcher, a Dutch supplier of plant-based meat alternatives, has expanded to 3,000 sales outlets in 14 countries.43 The Asian market already has cultural ties with vegetarian food, and recent campaigns by restaurants, food bloggers and start-ups have contributed to an increase in consumption of meat alternatives. Hong Kong-based start-up Right Treat has developed a plant-based pork substitute, branded ‘Omnipork’, with the intention that it can be widely used within Asian cuisine.44 Shifts in dietary habits towards vegetarianism and a reduction in meat consumption have been a major driver behind these launches.
Summary
- Two broad categories of meat analogues – advanced plant-based ‘meat’ and cultured meat – mark a particularly radical departure from the traditional meat and non-meat options.
- Producers of both plant-based ‘meat’ and cultured meat aim to deliver products that are indistinguishable from conventional meat.
- Markets for meat analogues are growing in Europe, North America and Asia where both the retail and food service industries are increasingly selling plant-based ‘meat’. Cultured meat is not yet on the market but significant scale-up of investment has been seen in Europe, North America, China and Israel.
16 Wiebe, M. G. (2002), ‘Myco-protein from Fusarium venenatum: A well-established product for human consumption’, Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 58(4): pp. 421–27, doi:10.1007/s00253-002-0931-x (accessed 22 Nov. 2018).
17 Verbeke, W., Spranghers, T., De Clercq, P., De Smet, S., Sas, B. and Eeckhout, M. (2015), ‘Insects in animal feed: Acceptance and its determinants among farmers, agriculture sector stakeholders and citizens’, Animal Feed Science and Technology, 204: pp. 72–87, doi:10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2015.04.001 (accessed 17 May 2018); Stice, C. and Olson, S. (2014), WhooPea: Plant Sources Are Changing the Protein Landscape, Lux Research, December 2014.
18 Post, M. J. (2013), ‘Cultured beef: Medical technology to produce food’, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 94(6): pp. 1039–41, doi:10.1002/jsfa.6474 (accessed 17 May 2018).
19 Post, M. J. (2012), ‘Cultured meat from stem cells: Challenges and prospects’, Meat Science, 92(3): pp. 297–301, doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2012.04.008 (accessed 14 May 2018).
20 Fraser, R. Z., Shitut, M., Agrawal, P., Mendes, O. and Klapholz, S. (2018), ‘Safety Evaluation of Soy Leghemoglobin Protein Preparation Derived from Pichia pastoris, Intended for Use as a Flavor Catalyst in Plant-Based Meat’, International Journal of Toxicology, 37(3): pp. 241–62, doi:10.1177/1091581818766318 (accessed 31 May 2018).
21 Stephens, N., Dunsford, I., Di Silvio, L., Ellis, M., Glencross, A. and Sexton, A. (2018), ‘Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture’, Trends in Food Science & Technology, 78: pp. 155–66, doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2018.04.010 (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
22 Post, M. J. (2012), ‘Cultured meat from stem cells: Challenges and prospects’.
23 Stephens et al. (2018), ‘Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture’.
24 Ibid., p. 157.
25 Ibid., p. 159.
26 Ibid., p. 159.
27 Ibid., p. 159.
28 Higher Steaks (2018), ‘About us’, https://www.highersteaks.com/about-us/ (accessed 12 Dec. 2018); Michail, N. (2018), ‘Aleph Farms CEO on its 3D cultured beef: “Unlike other companies, our meat grows together like real meat”’, FoodNavigator, 2 May 2018, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2018/05/02/Aleph-Farms-CEO-on-its-3D-cultured-beef-Unlike-other-companies-our-meat-grows-together-like-real-meat# (accessed 14 Jan. 2019).
29 Stephens et al. (2018), ‘Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture’.
30 AP News (2018), Cultured Meat (Poultry, Pork, Beef, Duck) Market – Global Forecast to 2027 – ResearchAndMarkets.com’, 11 May 2018, https://www.apnews.com/e46c4b5af8854db7bfa158005e27fae1 (accessed 15 Nov. 2018).
31 PR Newswire (2018), ‘Meat Substitutes Market 2018 – Global Forecast to 2023’, News provided by Research and Markets, 23 March 2018, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/meat-substitutes-market-2018—… (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
32 Mordor Intelligence (2018), ‘Meat Substitute Market – Growth, Trends and Forecasts (2019–2024)’, https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/meat-substitute-market (accessed 2 Jan. 2019).
33 Ibid.
34 The Good Food Institute (2018), ‘The Plant-Based Alternatives Market is Skyrocketing’, https://www.gfi.org/images/uploads/2018/09/Good-Food-Institute-Plant-Ba… (accessed 27 Nov. 2018); Michail, N. (2018), ‘Mosa Meat CEO on clean meat, competition and disrupting a $1 trillion market’, FoodNavigator, 16 January 2018, https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2018/01/16/Mosa-Meat-CEO-on-clean… (accessed 27 Nov. 2018).
35 Ibid.
36 Starostinetskaya, A. (2017), ‘Israel and China sign $300 million lab meat deal’, Veg News, 13 September 2017, https://vegnews.com/2017/9/israel-and-china-sign-300-million-lab-meat-d… (accessed 15 Nov. 2018); Starostinetskaya, A. (2018), ‘Japan part of $2.7m investment in new clean meat brand’, Veg News, 4 June 2018, https://vegnews.com/2018/6/japan-part-of-27m-investment-in-new-clean-meat-brand (accessed 15 Nov. 2018).
37 Von Alt, S. (2018), ‘Vegan at Walmart? Here Are 10 Delicious Plant-Based Finds’, Chooseveg, 27 April 2018, http://chooseveg.com/blog/vegan-at-walmart-10-delicious-plant-based-foods/ (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Chiorando, M. (2017), ‘Vegan Growth Driving Meat-Alternative Market To Exceed $6 Billion By 2023’, Plant Based News, 29 March 2018, https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/vegan-growth-driving-meat-alternative-market-to-exceed-6-billion-by-2023 (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Beyond Meat (2018),‘Store Locator’, http://beyondmeat.com/store-locator; (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Butler, S. (2018), ‘Quorn invests £7m into R&D on back of veganism boom’, Guardian, 23 July 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jul/23/quorn-invests-7m-r-and… (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Smithers, R. (2018), ‘Vegan burgers: now juicy, pink and bloody’, Guardian, 19 May 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/may/19/fake-steak-supermarkets-flexitarians-meat-free-burgers (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Senthilingam, M. (2017), ‘Are Germans leading a vegan revolution?’, CNN, 31 July 2017, https://edition.cnn.com/2017/05/03/health/germany-vegan-vegetarian-diets/index.html (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
38 Krantz, R. (2017), ‘11 All-Vegan Grocery Stores Around the World You Should Visit’, Chooseveg, 18 July 2017, http://chooseveg.com/blog/11-all-vegan-grocery-stores-around-the-world/ (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
39 Graham, R. (2018), ‘Beyond Burger on way to UK freezers as Authentic Food Co distribution deal agreed’, The Grocer, 30 May 2018, https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/home/topics/future-of-meat/beyond-burger-on-way-to-uk-as-distribution-deal-agreed/567624.article (accessed 2 Jan. 2019); Smithers, R. (2018), ‘“Bleeding” vegan burger arrives on UK supermarket shelves’, Guardian, 12 November 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/nov/12/bleeding-vegan-burger-arrives-on-uk-supermarket-shelves?CMP=fb_gu&fbclid=IwAR2FxIpfpiRgP1VxJDIhXPNq9IYxODLMAg8HpLJhf5Jxn50khO27ZfvpS_s (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
40 Beyond Meat (2018), ‘Store Locator’, https://www.beyondmeat.com/store-locator (accessed 22 Jan. 2019).
41 Lee-Zogbessou, J. (2018), ‘Impossible Foods: the rise of the meat-free plant-based burger’, Verdict Foodservice, 2 October 2018, https://www.verdictfoodservice.com/insight/impossible-foods-plant-based-burger/ (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
43 The Vegetarian Butcher (2018), https://www.thevegetarianbutcher.com/about-us/vegetarian-butcher-production-plant (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).
44 Wan, L. (2018), ‘Alternative protein firms need to rethink Asian preferences and nutrition priorities’, FoodNavigator, 18 June 2018, https://www.foodnavigator-asia.com/Article/2018/06/18/Alternative-protein-firms-need-to-rethink-Asian-preferences-and-nutrition-priorities (accessed 19 Nov. 2018); Watson, A. (2018), ‘Right Treat Turning Asian Pork Lovers on to the Virtues of Plant-Based Protein’, Sustainable Brands, 7 August 2018, https://sustainablebrands.com/read/behavior-change/right-treat-turning-… (accessed 19 Nov. 2018).