Cultivated meat media kit

The basics

Cultivated meat—real meat, grown directly from animal cells—offers the game-changing potential to make meat in a healthier, safer, and more sustainable way. Cultivated meat looks, cooks, and tastes the same as the beef, pork, chicken, and fish we eat today, but grown directly from animal cells, without the need for antibiotics, hormones, and steroids.

By producing meat this way, we can satisfy the growing global demand for protein while reducing pressure on our planet and enhancing food security. When produced at scale using renewable energy, cultivated meat is projected to generate a fraction of the emissions and require much less land and water compared to conventional meat production.

Nomenclature consensus

Following multiple consumer studies and corporate surveys, global industry consensus has landed on “cultivated” as the preferred term for meat produced directly from animal cells.

Studies conducted by Embold Research and commissioned by GFI demonstrate consumer preferences for using “cultivated meat” over other terms such as “cultured,” lab-grown,” and “cell-based.”

Globally, cultivated meat companies and key industry stakeholders have aligned on “cultivated.” In fact, 30 key industry stakeholders across Asia—from companies to regional coalition groups, and government initiatives—adopted “cultivated” as the preferred English-language descriptor for all food products grown directly from animal cells.

Alt proteins are the key to solving our planet's most pressing challenges; biodiversity, climate change, global health, and food security.

Global challenges require scalable solutions

If the world is to achieve its climate, global health, food security, and biodiversity goals, diversifying how meat is made will be as essential as the global transition to renewable energy. This is why we need alternative proteins.

Explore

Major milestones for cultivated meat

2025

A charcuterie board. Photo courtesy of mission barns. — *Photo courtesy of Mission Barns*

As of November 2025, cultivated meat could be sold in Singapore, the United States, and Australia. A total of seven companies (UPSIDE Foods, GOOD Meat, Vow, Wildtype, Mission Barns, Believer Meats, and PARIMA) have received regulatory clearance to sell multiple different cultivated meat products:

GOOD Meat: cultivated chicken (Singapore and U.S.)
UPSIDE Foods: cultivated chicken (U.S.)
Vow: cultivated quail (Singapore and Australia)
Wildtype: cultivated salmon (U.S.)
Mission Barns: cultivated pork fat (U.S.)
Believer Meats: cultivated chicken (U.S.)
PARIMA: cultivated chicken (Singapore)

November 2025: The first time ever that a cultivated meat product was sold in a U.S. grocery store, with Mission Barns selling a limited number of their pork meatballs (made with a base of pea protein and the company’s cultivated pork fat) at Berkeley Bowl West. Additional tastings are scheduled for 2026 at the same location.

October 2025: In an unprecedented move by a nonprofit, GFI acquired cell lines and growth media developed by SCiFi Foods (which ceased operations in June), and is partnering with Tufts University to make them publicly available—a step projected to save academia and industry millions while removing major barriers to entry and easing scientific bottlenecks for startups. That same month, North Carolina-based Believer Meats completed its USDA certificate of inspection and label approval for its cultivated chicken, following a “no questions” letter from FDA received in July. Also in October, PARIMA became the first European company to obtain approval for cultivated meat, following a rigorous review from the SFA that enables the company to sell its cultivated chicken in Singapore.

July 2025: Following a rigorous USDA review, Mission Barns’ cultivated pork fat was cleared for sale in the United States—marking the first time in the world foods produced with cultivated pork ingredients can be sold. In September 2025, Mission Barns’ meatballs and bacon, a blend of plant-based proteins and cultivated pork fat, were sold to patrons at Bay Area restaurant Fiorella.

June 2025: Wildtype debuted its cultivated salmon at Kann, a Haitian restaurant in Portland, Oregon with James Beard-award winning Chef Gregory Gourdet. Following FDA’s completion of its rigorous pre-market safety review, this launch marks the fourth regulatory greenlight for cultivated meat in the United States—and the very first for seafood anywhere in the world.

In July and August of 2025, Wildtype’s cultivated salmon was also served at OTOKO, a Japanese restaurant in Austin, TX. In September, the Texas legislature’s two-year ban on cultivated meat sales went into effect and it was subsequently taken off the menu. That ban is set to expire in September 2027. By year’s end, Wildtype’s cultivated salmon was being served at restaurants in San Francisco, Seattle, Tuscon, and Portland.

June 2025: Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) officially approved Vow’s cultivated quail for commercial sale in Australia, opening up a potentially lucrative new market for the cellular agriculture sector and setting an important precedent for global regulators.

2024

A bowl of salad with cultivated chicken — *Photo courtesy of UPSIDE Foods*

In November 2024, building on its successful Singapore debut, Australian startup Vow briefly debuted its Japanese quail product in Hong Kong, making it the first company to sell cultivated meat in China. Vow received its initial regulatory approval in March 2024 to sell its product in Singapore, and in 2025, received approval to sell in Australia.

Earlier in 2024, Israel’s Ministry of Health (MoH) issued a pre-market approval for Aleph Cuts, the world’s first cultivated beef steaks, in a “No Questions” letter. This green light is the first ever for non-chicken cultivated meat anywhere in the world and the first for cultivated meat of any kind in the Middle East. As of April 2025, additional administrative steps remain (inspection and labeling) before this product can be sold in Israel.

Also in 2024, Singapore lined its grocery shelves with a hybrid cultivated chicken product from GOOD MEAT containing 3% cultivated meat and 97% plant-based ingredients. Available as a frozen retail product to home cooks in Singapore, the new hybrid chicken product is a solid step toward scaling the emerging cultivated meat industry. By dramatically reducing per-piece costs through hybrid formulations, cultivated meat companies can sell to a larger share of the population while they work to scale up manufacturing volumes.

2023

An image of cultivated meat, cultivated chicken on a plate. Photo courtesy of good meat. — *Photo courtesy of GOOD Meat*

In 2023, two American companies – UPSIDE Foods and GOOD Meat – received landmark grants of inspection from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), allowing them to sell their cultivated chicken products in the United States. In 2025, three more American companies—Mission Barns, Wildtype, and Believer Meats—received regulatory greenlights to sell their cultivated products in the United States These regulatory breakthroughs means Americans are closer to purchasing cultivated meat than ever.

2022

Aleph farms_product images — *Photo courtesy of Aleph Farms*

In 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USDA) became the second regulatory agency worldwide to greenlight cultivated meat, setting out a clear path to market in the United States for cultivated meat companies under a transparent regulatory process. This historic news follows the Singapore Food Agency’s world-first approval of a cultivated meat product in late 2020.

Cultivated meat FAQs

Read responses to some of the most frequently asked questions about cultivated meat.

What is cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat is real meat, grown directly from animal cells, with the potential to offer consumers the same experience as conventional meat in terms of taste, smell, texture, and consistency.

Given rising global demand for meat, diversifying how meat is produced can help address the world’s climate, biodiversity, global health, and food security challenges within the next two critical decades. Meat produced via cell cultivation can dramatically reduce emissions, require far less land, reduce the use of antibiotics in our food system, and feed more people with fewer resources.

How is cultivated meat made?

A small sample of cells is fed basic nutrients—amino acids, fats, vitamins, salts, and sugars—in clean, controlled environments similar to those used to make yogurt, cheese, and beer. These cells then grow and develop into meat or seafood. Once the cells have matured, they’re harvested, prepared as either an ingredient or end product, then ready to be cooked and enjoyed—just like the meat we eat today, but made in a vastly more efficient, safer way.

Cultivating meat at scale doesn’t require antibiotics and avoids many of the food safety risks linked to conventional meat production. Cultivated meat also has the potential to improve meat’s nutritional profile, such as its saturated fat, cholesterol, and vitamin content. Learn more about the science of cultivated meat here.

Is cultivated meat safe?

Yes, all cultivated meat and seafood products must undergo stringent regulatory review and meet rigorous food safety standards before they can be sold.

In countries where cultivated meat is approved for sale, companies have completed comprehensive pre-market safety assessments and facility inspections conducted by the appropriate food safety agencies. These reviews examine the production process, inputs, quality controls, manufacturing practices, and the final product to ensure cultivated meat is safe for consumption.

The clean and controlled environment in which cultivated meat is produced, akin to modern breweries, offers numerous advantages for product safety, including the reduced risk of contaminants and foodborne pathogens. As more countries establish regulatory pathways for cultivated meat, governments around the world are implementing robust, science-backed frameworks to ensure consumer safety.

Can cultivated meat improve public health?

Yes. On a global scale, a shift toward cultivated meat and other alternative proteins reduces the threats of antimicrobial resistance and pandemics by minimizing a key driver of risk—using animals for food.

Antibiotic resistance: Globally, most antibiotic use in animals is attributable to the meat industry, with cattle and swine receiving the majority of medically important antibiotics. The widespread use of antibiotics is leading to more and more antibiotic-resistant superbugs, with the rate of multidrug resistance growing worse in low- to middle-income countries. A study in The Lancet estimates that by 2050, these superbugs could kill 10 million people a year and cost the global economy $100 trillion. At scale, cultivated meat can be produced without antibiotics, thus won’t contribute to the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms.

Pandemic risk: According to the UN Environment Program, two of the seven most likely causes of the next pandemic are increasing demand for animal protein and industrial animal farming. Waves of avian flu and other viruses will continue with business-as-usual animal agriculture. According to the CDC, three out of four new or emerging infectious diseases in humans come from animals. Cultivated meat is produced in facilities with cleaner conditions than conventional meat processing facilities. This reduces the risk of both foodborne illnesses and zoonotic diseases.

A photo of a person using apps on a smartphone

Cultivated meat visual library

Our cultivated meat image library presents an ever-increasing selection of cultivated meat images available for use under Creative Commons licenses. Check out photos from Avant Meats, New Age Meats, Shiok Meats, Wildtype, BlueNalu, and more!

Find images

Contribute images

Dig deeper into the data

Read these related resources to learn more about the burgeoning field of cultivated meat.

Cultivated grilled chicken on a bed of mushroom pasta and herbs viewed from above

Cultivated meat

This is your guide to cultivated meat. Explore our tools, resources, and expert analysis of the cultivated meat industry.

State of the Industry: Cultivated meat, seafood, and ingredients

This report details the commercial landscape, investments, regulatory developments, and scientific progress in the cultivated meat and seafood industry.

An illustration of people bringing puzzle pieces around a globe

Make alternative proteins part of your climate story

Alternative proteins are a critical piece of the climate puzzle. Find inspiration for future stories here.

2024 state of global policy report cover

The State of Global Policy: Alternative proteins

Our annual State of Global Policy report tracks public investment in alternative proteins and showcases the actions governments take to position themselves as leaders in the field.