Battle Brewing Over ‘Clean Meat’ Labeling

The capital infusions come from a $150-million venture capital fund Tyson launched in December 2016 to invest in companies “developing breakthrough technologies, business models, and products to sustainably feed a growing world population.” Tom Hayes, Tyson president and CEO, admitted the company’s decision to invest in cultured meats and plant-based proteins “seemed counterintuitive to some inside our company.” But meeting the growing worldwide demand for protein, in ways that are sustainable, “will take a combination of innovative and traditional approaches,” he explained.

Earlier this year, Tyson New Ventures LLC also invested in Memphis Meats, a San Francisco-based startup developing meat that is cultured from living animal cells without the need to breed or slaughter the animals. Last year Memphis Meats received $17 million in VC funding from a group of investors including Cargill, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. So far, the company has raised at least $22 million in funding.

“The world loves to eat meat, and it is core to many of our cultures and traditions,” said Uma Valeti, MD, cofounder and CEO of Memphis Meats. “However, the way conventional meat is produced today creates challenges for the environment, animal welfare, and human health.”

Supporters boast that clean meat production eliminates environmental contamination from animal waste runoff, requires no antibiotics or artificial hormones, produces no bacterial contamination, and doesn’t harm animals. Clean meat could be produced with up to 96 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45 percent less energy, 99 percent lower land use, and 96 percent lower water use than conventional meat, according to a study from the University of Oxford.

USDA has estimated that the average U.S. consumer will eat more than 222 pounds of red meat and poultry this year, surpassing a record set in 2004. Despite this, 60 percent of U.S. consumers say they are cutting back on meat, and 17 percent of those aged 15-70 claim to be eating a predominantly plant-based diet, according to data from HealthFocus International. Worldwide, meat substitute sales could reach $5.2 billion by 2020, according to Allied Market Research, an 8.4 percent annual increase from 2015. While this is only a small fraction of the $750-billion market for conventional meat, projected supplies are likely to be insufficient as the world’s population reaches 9.7 billion by 2050.

All this is good news for companies developing alternative protein food products, which, in addition to Beyond Meat and Memphis Meats include Amy’s Kitchen, JUST, Inc. (formerly Hampton Creek), and Morningstar Farms in the U.S.; Cauldron Foods, Quorn Foods, and Vbites Food in the U.K.; Garden Protein International in Canada; and MosaMeat and Meatless B.V. in The Netherlands.

How to Grow Clean Meat

The idea of using tissue engineering to produce edible meat is far from new. In 1932, Winston Churchill predicted that within 50 years, “We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.” His forecast wasn’t far off. In-vitro cultivation of muscle fibers was first performed in 1971. In 2000, inventor Jon Vein received one of the first U.S. patents for the production of tissue engineered meat for human consumption.

Today, two main biotechnologies are used to produce cultured meat. The first, called the “self-organizing technique” uses muscle cells of donor animals to self-replicate in a nutrient medium containing salts, pH buffers, and other molecules. The technique can be used to create highly-structured meat, such as steak. But new animal cells are needed regularly and quantity production is limited.

The second or “scaffold-based technique,” uses adult stem cells where embryonic myoblasts or adult skeletal muscle cells are attached to an edible or biodegradable scaffold or support structure and fed a culture medium in a stainless-steel bioreactor. This approach is used to produce ground meat products. Numerous technological issues remain to be solved and production costs, while falling, remain exorbitant.