Scaling production to meet demand and achieve competitive pricing are key challenges in the cultivated meat industry.
To address these issues, Vital Meat collaborates with food industry players to incorporate its cultivated chicken into various products rather than targeting consumers directly.
“Our primary focus is on partnering with food industry players, restaurants, and food service providers to introduce our cultivated meat product into their offerings. We work with leading food companies that will use our chicken in their final products – stuffed pasta, soups, broth, nuggets,” said Olivia de Talancé, COO of Vital Meat.
By working with existing brands, Vital Meat introduces cultivated meat in familiar contexts, which helps build consumer trust and acceptance of a novel protein source.
The B2B approach also allows the firm to scale production while reducing the burden of managing branding and consumer marketing.
This enables Vital Meat to concentrate on developing high-quality cultivated chicken, and on creating an efficient production process that has the potential to scale up and drive prices down.
Affordability and consumer acceptance
Affordability remains a roadblock for the cultivated meat sector globally.
While early adopters in affluent areas like Singapore have shown interest, large-scale acceptance hinges on making cultivated meat more economically viable for the wider population.
Consumers are unlikely to make cultivated meat a regular part of their diet unless it’s competitively priced against conventional meat.
“The first obstacle to larger-scale acceptance of cultivated meat will be the industry’s ability to produce at large scale and therefore at an acceptable price,” de Talancé said.
To overcome this obstacle, Vital Meat made the strategic decision to focus on chicken as its primary product.
Chicken is widely consumed across the region. Apart from this offering a familiar entry point for consumers, the existing demand across common foods like broths, soups, and nuggets further aids in positioning cultivated chicken as a viable alternative.
This supports scalability efforts since Vital Meat can concentrate resources on perfecting a single product before expanding into other proteins.
“Our goal is to create a diverse range of cultivated meat options although our core focus is currently chicken.
“Focus is key. If our chicken doesn’t make it on the market, the other products won’t either. We have other avian products in the pipeline and our next major R&D project will be to develop pork and seafood,” shared de Talancé.
However, affordability alone won’t drive acceptance. Cultivated meat faces scepticism as a new food category, making transparent communication and consumer education crucial.
“Talking to the final consumer and being transparent will be key,” said de Talancé, explaining that educating consumers on cultivated meat’s benefits – like sustainability, ethics, and health – will play a crucial role in fostering long-term acceptance.
To this end, Vital Meat and its partners have been actively promoting consumer awareness through tastings and collaborations.
One collaboration with Hue, a modern Thai eatery based in Singapore, incorporated the firm’s Vital Chicken into traditional and modern recipes.
These included chicken skin chips served with espuma, chicken ravioli, and Singapore’ national dish chicken rice.
These partnerships aim to show that cultivated meat isn’t just a novel food technology but a culinary experience that can seamlessly integrate into familiar dishes.
Unique potential for cultivated meat in Asia Pacific
As the industry tries to nudge cultivated meat towards mainstream acceptance, the Asia Pacific market is emerging as a crucial growth region.
“The APAC market for cultivated meat is characterised by increasing consumer interest and acceptance, driven by a growing awareness of food sovereignty and open-mindedness towards new food technologies,” observed de Talancé.
This awareness is particularly evident in Singapore, where a proactive regulatory stance supports cultivated meat. The government’s “30-by-30” vision aims to produce 30% of its food locally by 2030, a target that underscores the region’s commitment to food security and innovation.
