Recent press reports indicate the difficulties encountered by alt meat startups in attempting to survive during the critical phase of transition from pilot plant to commercial operation. As yet, no company has successfully negotiated the gulf between laboratory-scale production and marketing a consumer-acceptable product at scale.
Examples include Upside Foods and Eat Just that were following the Silicon Valley dictum of Fake it ‘till you make it”. Mycorena has announced that it will not proceed with a large plant intended to produce a fungal-based product to have been erected in Falkenberg in Sweden.
Preparation of alt-meat products using fermentation of fungi represents one of a number of alternatives to real meat. Blending a fungal-derived product with ground beef does represent a commercial approach as applied by Mush Foods based in Israel. Essentially, the fungal component serves as a “hamburger helper” with claims that the diluted product is indistinguishable from 100 percent meat.
The situation with cell-cultured meat producers is, however, dire. Eat Just, an operation conceived and led by Josh Tetrick, has apparently suspended production in Singapore and is embroiled in litigation with ABEC, the supplier of bioreactors who are claiming over $62 million for equipment and services.
SCIFi Foods has ceased operation as venture capital funding has dried up. Joshua March, CEO of the failed company, noted, “A tight funding and hostile political environment is preventing the company from raising funds to commercialize a cultivated meat burger.” March noted, “It became effectively impossible for us to raise the tens of millions SCIFi needed for a small commercial launch, much less the hundreds of millions needed for full commercialization.” This comment encapsulates the stumbling advances demonstrated by the cell-cultured segment of alt meat.
Over-optimistic predictions of demand based on environmental and welfare considerations appear naïve in retrospect. Technical problems in scaling up from pilot plant operation are currently insurmountable. Legislators in beef-producing states have advanced legislation either banning or severely restricting the labeling of cell-cultured and plant-based alternatives to beef, pork and chicken. Surveys, including those conducted by Purdue University, have indicated that demand for alt meat is limited as consumers are satisfied with current diets. The predicted higher cost of alt meat, especially from cell-culture, will be a barrier to adoption. The leading public quoted plant-based producer, Beyond Meat, has a questionable future based on a history of continued losses and heavy debt.
Venture capital companies have tightened their purse strings and are now questioning the future of alt meat. They are looking beyond the hype and deception and embracing reality.
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