Top stories in Cultivated Meat - June 2025

The calm after the storm?

If you were hoping for a sizzling June in the world of cultivated meat, think more low flame than flambé. News this month felt like a tasting menu with too many amuse-bouches and not enough main courses. Still, between regulatory breakthroughs, some promising fish, and yet another spotlight on marbled texture, the sector managed to simmer on. But let’s be honest — the energy of past years is fading, and 2025 is starting to look more like a slowdown than a sprint.

In terms of visibility, media coverage seemed to recycle the same talking points. A lab-grown burger made from cow cells resurfaced in the headlines, wrapped in familiar questions: is it ready for restaurants, or still an expensive science project? A London tasting of cultivated fish hosted by Umami Bioworks showed that flavor can impress, but texture remains elusive. Meanwhile, a roundup of “10 leading companies” in the field mostly celebrated incremental improvements, like cheaper growth factors or better cost control — useful, but hardly revolutionary.

Still, a few companies grabbed the spotlight with actual movement. Sydney-based Vow became the first startup to serve cultivated meat in Australian restaurants, launching its Forged brand of Japanese quail. Across the Pacific, Wildtype secured final FDA clearance for its cell-based salmon, becoming the first cultivated seafood officially ready for the U.S. market. In Chicago, Clever Carnivore shared its rock-bottom media costs — just 7 cents per liter — pointing toward a leaner production model. And in the Netherlands, Cultivate at Scale teamed up with Sartorius to upgrade its facility with a 1,000-liter bioreactor, nudging the whole ecosystem one step closer to commercial viability.

On the money side, Europe seems to be playing the long game. Nordic Foodtech VC closed the first round of its second fund at €40 million, aiming to back the next generation of alternative proteins. A broader report from DigitalFoodLab showed Europe now accounts for half of all global alt-protein investments — a striking figure, especially as overall FoodTech funding crashes. It’s a regional bet that new tech can still break through, even as others pull back.

Legal momentum is stirring too, albeit slowly. The European Union’s proposed Biotech Act could, if passed, finally unclog the regulatory pipeline for cultivated meat approvals. Right now, companies like Meatable are looking east to Singapore, simply because getting a green light in the EU takes too long. The Act is designed to speed things up and reduce the exodus of talent and IP — but until it’s actually law, don’t hold your breath.

On the research front, the scientific community continues its quiet but crucial work. One team introduced a self-healing hydrogel scaffold for marbled meat, trying to replicate the complex intramuscular fat patterns of real steak. Another team in Tokyo focused on taste, studying how amino acids evolve in cultured beef to fine-tune flavor. In Norway, a modeling study explored whether a carbon tax could help cultivated proteins outprice conventional meat — a sharp reminder that regulation and economics are inseparable in this field.

Meanwhile, the broader alternative meat sector isn’t faring well. A retail study showed a clear drop in shelf space and sales for plant-based products in the U.S., especially fresh, refrigerated ones. That’s a warning: novelty alone won’t keep consumers coming back. Whether lab-grown, plant-based, or something else entirely, alt-meat needs to prove it can stick in the daily diet — not just the headlines.

See you next month!

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