A new report by Lever VC has found that skepticism about the viability of cultivated meat may be unfounded.
In 2021, an analysis published by researcher David Humbird claimed that it was essentially impossible for cultivated meat production costs to go below $16 per kilogram, meaning products would struggle to compete with conventional meat. Humbird’s findings were widely reported by mainstream media outlets, spreading the idea that cultivated meat would never be viable.
“Technologies once deemed impossibly expensive have become mainstream solutions”
However, Lever VC’s report — titled A Second Generation of Cultivated Meat Companies Breaks Through Projected Cost Barriers — claims that recent developments have proven this analysis wrong. It asserts that the cost of cell culture media is already up to 30 times lower than Humbird thought possible, with those developed by some companies coming in at well under $0.50 per liter compared to the $6.50 per liter estimated by the analysis.
Furthermore, several cultivated meat companies have demonstrated cell densities of between 60-90 g/L, surpassing Humbird’s predictions that 60 g/L was the maximum cell density achievable in air-spared fed batch systems. This has translated to production COGS for cell mass as low as $10 to $15 per kilogram, with some companies achieving costs of under $10 per kilogram.
Setting new standards for cost-effectiveness
Lever VC finds that costs are now set to decrease even further, due to strategies such as more efficient bioreactors and in-house cell culture media production that eliminates third-party pharmaceutical markups. A focus on producing undifferentiated cell mass rather than fully structured tissue could also lower costs, along with the development of hybrid products that combine cultivated meat with plant-based ingredients.
The report adds that CapEx expenditures have reduced by nearly an order of magnitude as companies find more effective ways to manufacture bioreactors, including by avoiding off-the-shelf pharmaceutical-grade materials.
“The skepticism of some toward cultivated meat mirrored similar criticism leveled in years and decades past at transformative new technologies in other sectors, such as solar panels and electric vehicles,” says the report. “Sectors such as these faced similar doubts about cost feasibility, complexity, infrastructure requirements, and consumer acceptance. Yet through persistent innovation and significant government support, these industries proved doubters wrong. Technologies once deemed impossibly expensive have become mainstream solutions, fundamentally reshaping their sectors and continually setting new standards for cost-effectiveness and sustainability.”
