Netherlands-based cultured meat company Meatable says, “We likes meat. We see it as an essential part of a balanced diet. What we don’t like is industrial farming. It’s bad for the planet.” One solution, by the way, is Meatable Creating farmed pork with the familiar bite, texture and flavor of pork. And at amazing rates; The company claims it can grow high-quality pork in just eight days.
Meatable says it hopes to launch food service next year and have its first products hit the retail market in 2025, which, terrifyingly, is just 18 months away. talked to Krijn de Nood, CEO and co-founder of Meatable, to learn more.
Tell the story behind the creation of Meatable
We founded Meatable to produce real meat, without harming people, the planet or animals. Meat consumption around the world is increasing due to population growth, but at an increasingly devastating cost in terms of resources, carbon emissions and antibiotic resistance.
“I landed on something that was close to my heart: removing animals from the food chain by developing alternative proteins”
After leaving my role as a strategy consultant at McKinsey I was thinking about how to create real impact at scale. I landed on something that was close to my heart: removing animals from the food chain by developing alternative proteins.
A mutual contact introduced me to Dan Lewining. We both recognized the need to provide innovative solutions to help the world enjoy meat in a sustainable way and quickly realized the potential to build an innovative food technology business that tackled the world’s most pressing challenges. So far, we have built an incredibly strong team of around 90 people who work passionately towards this goal.
Please give us some insight into your opti-ox™ technology which you say enables the company to produce meat faster. What is the significance of this progress for the industry?
Our entire process from cell to sausage currently takes just eight days. This is made possible by our patented opti-ox™ technology combined with pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), which replicate the normal growth process of cells and enable the creation of real muscle and fat cells.
PSCs have the natural ability to multiply and do so quickly. Next, our technique allows us to grow large numbers of cells in bioreactors and continuously harvest the cultured meat from the reactor. This is a great step that increases productivity and simplifies the process.
Even in this short time, we have been able to produce the highest quality farmed meat with the same taste, texture and nutritional value as traditional meat. And by doing it so quickly, we are able to reduce costs and work towards producing meat at a competitive price point. This will help us reach more consumers around the world and truly make an impact
Congratulations on receiving approval from the Food Agency of Singapore – tell us about the resulting opportunity for your brand.
We received approval from the SFA to hold our first external testing event, which we did in May this year. We plan to organize more in between to get the industry used to our product and be able to improve it further. The first reactions have been very positive, which gives us confidence that we are on the right track!
This is an important step in Meatable’s process towards obtaining regulatory approval to sell our farmed meat products. We aim to announce our first products for sale in Singapore next year.
Meatable has just released its first product, a farmed pork sausage – where and when will it launch and where?
The great thing about working with farmed pork is that there is so much potential in terms of products. Not only have we farmed pork sausages, but we have already showcased our farmed pork dumplings. We are working on other pork products including pork belly, pulled pork and whole cuts. We hope to launch in restaurants in 2024 and then in supermarkets in 2025.
You recently announced a partnership with Singaporean plant-based butcher Love Handle. What can we expect from this partnership?
We are very excited about this partnership. Together, Love Handle and Meatable are building the future of meat innovation centers in Singapore. We are going to use our expertise to develop hybrid products – featuring both farmed meat and plant-based ingredients to optimize taste and texture, which are indistinguishable from real meat. Other plant-based protein startups and scaleups will be able to use the center to develop and optimize their own products to drive innovation in alternative proteins.
Our recent Taste of Singapore took place at the site where we are building the Future of Food Innovation Centre, at The Arts House (Old Parliament House) in downtown Singapore.
Can you describe some of the technology and legal challenges facing Meatable and the total farmed meat industry?
for For the non-vegetable and cultured meat industry as a whole, legislation is a major challenge. Singapore is currently the most advanced country in regulating farmed meat, and has a framework called the Novel Food Safety Assessment Requirements. This framework includes safety analysis of our products, toxicology testing and evaluation of all product components. We aspire to sell our products in Singapore in 2024.
In Europe, where our headquarters are based, the process of applying for regulatory approval takes longer, even up to several years. We are currently working with European regulators to bring farmed meat products to the continent, as well as with the Dutch government to give select invitees the opportunity to taste our products. We are also in conversation with US experts and authorities, which we want to be our second launch country after Singapore. We are working hard to improve on all fronts.
“…we now have the fastest process in the field”
At this point, we are past the R&D challenge stage and we know our process is working. This means that we are now focused on ensuring that we can easily scale up the production of the highest quality farmed meat. Given that we now have the fastest process, we are confident that we can do it.
What is your mission for Meatable in the next 5 years?
We want to get approval in Singapore and launch our first product there, followed by the US. Depending on the regulatory regime in each country and region, we will look to expand further from Singapore and the US from 2026 onwards. For us, it’s really about creating impact at scale.
Farmed meat is predicted to become a $25 billion industry by 2030. From our own analysis, if we grow as planned we could save 17 tons of carbon emissions, 230 trillion liters of water and nearly 27 million animal lives by 2035. We are excited about the future and about creating a more sustainable world.