The cultivated meat market is anticipating exponential growth, predicted to surge from $214 million in 2025 to an impressive $593 million by 2032. And as the interest in cultivated meat grows among Canadian consumers, it seems a fitting time for a new player in the cultivated meat space to step on the scene.
“…building out a small team to start the world’s first cultivated butchery”
The Better Butchers, a Canadian startup specializing in the production of cultivated meat, states plans to be the first cultivated meat available on the market in Canada. And this includes opening the world’s first cultivated meat butcher shop in Vancouver, Canada, within the next two years.
The name “The Better Butchers” bares an obvious resemblance to Canadian plant-based meat company The Very Good Butchers, which made headlines after a series of tumultuous public gains and losses over the years, eventually succumbing to receivership in February of 2023. In fact, the founder of The Better Butchers, Mitchell Scott, will be known to our North American readers as the previous founder of The Very Good Butchers.
World’s First Cultivated Meat Butchery?
Speaking to vegconomist about the new company, Mitchell explains that he’s been interested in cultivated meat since reading Paul Shapiro’s book “Clean Meat” a number of years ago. He says, “When I was unceremoniously exited from the plant-based food company I co-founded, I started looking into it and ended up building out a team to start the world’s first cultivated butchery. In addition to having the potential to solve massive environmental, ethical, and health concerns, I think cultivated meat can also solve some of the consumer adoption issues facing plant-based meat, such as taste, texture, and long ingredient lists.”
The plan is to first focus on a direct-to-consumer approach before rolling it out into food service and wholesale channels, explains Scott. The company is currently working on prototypes for pork sausages, meatballs, and marinated steaks and hoping to have the cell-based prototypes completed by the end of Q1 in 2024.
Regulatory progress in Canada, while underway, is yet to be fully realized. The team at The Better Butchers has had positive discussions with the regulatory authorities in Canada and is anticipating just over a 12-month process, once the prototype is complete, to get the product approved for sale in Canada. And with things progressing faster in the United States, with two companies already approved for sale, the company will also be pursuing US regulatory approval.
With ambitious plans for the coming years, the Canadian-based team is set to make its mark on the cultivated meat industry. As it sets its sights on pioneering Canada’s first cultivated meat market and butcher shop, the journey that unfolds from here is bound to be intriguing to say the least, for both consumers, the Canadian market, and those in the industry. Watch this cell-based space.
