UK set to become world-leading lab-grown meat producer

The UK is set to become a world-leading developer of lab-grown meat as the sector is predicted to rapidly increase its market share within the food industry, research shows.

Developing lab-grown meat, which involves cultivating meat by culturing animal cells, is now expected to make up almost a quarter of global meat consumption by 2035, according to a new report by Source Advisors.

The IP sepcialists found that UK organisations have received £28.55 million in investment for the lab-grown meat market, falling behind only Israel, the Netherlands, Singapore and the US, where the FDA has declared that cultured meat is safe to eat.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Currently, UK cultured meat company HigherSteaks has received the largest amount of capital investment of any company in the UK sector, sitting in sixth place for Europe.

For the UK as a whole, the report shows that it’s forecasted cultured meat market has over half the value of all major European markets.

“With the FDA rubber-stamping lab-grown meat as safe, the market should really take off now,” GovGrant IP manager, Alec Griffiths said.

“That makes it more important than ever for companies to protect their assets, so we can expect to see an acceleration in the number of patents filed in the coming months and years – and plenty of new faces in the sector.”

GovGrant research associate, Adam Simmonds added: “Although it’s some way behind the US, the UK is still a leading innovator in this area. Plus, because there’s such huge potential demand among consumers here, that’ll only spur companies on to innovate further and protect their products.

“This could become an interesting area of growth for the UK, particularly as not many nations possess the expertise to produce this meat. There will definitely be an uplift in investment in UK producers, who’ll want to take full advantage of the upcoming boom in demand.”