Meatable Successfully Hosts First Cultivated Meat Tasting in European Union
April 17 2024 - 7:00AM
Business Wire
- Netherlands-based food tech pioneer Meatable holds milestone
tasting event of its cultivated pork sausages, a significant step
towards commercialization.
- The Netherlands is the first country in the European Union to
permit cultivated meat tastings, which have to be approved by an
independent third-party committee sanctioned by the Dutch
government.
- Tastings are essential to gain valuable feedback to inform
product optimization in the run-up to regulatory approval and
commercialization.
- The tasting marks a significant milestone for the cultivated
meat industry in Europe and sets the stage for further industry
development in the US and globally.
Meatable, the innovative food tech company on a mission to
deliver cultivated meat at scale, has successfully hosted the
first-ever legally approved cultivated meat tasting in the European
Union. This landmark event is a groundbreaking milestone for the
industry, as Meatable continues to blaze the trail for cultivated
meat tasting approvals across the continent and globally on a fast
track to commercialization.
Tastings are essential to gain valuable feedback to inform
product optimization on the road to regulatory approval and
commercialization. Following approval from the independent Expert
Committee sanctioned by the Dutch government on its dossier
including extensive product safety data, Meatable welcomed a number
of guests to its new headquarters in Leiden, the Netherlands, to
enjoy its delicious cultivated pork sausages. Among those who
participated in the tasting were Michelin starred chef Ron Blaauw,
Constantijn van Oranje, Prince of the Netherlands and Special
Envoy, Techleap; and entrepreneur Ira van Eelen, whose father
Willem van Eelen is considered the founder of cultivated meat.
Krijn de Nood, founder and CEO of Meatable, said: “We are
incredibly proud to hold the first official cultivated meat tasting
in the European Union, marking a landmark moment for Meatable and
our industry. At Meatable, we have been working tirelessly over the
last five years to develop a delicious product that looks like,
tastes like and has the same texture and flavor profile as farm
raised meat. We now have the opportunity to verify those findings
and further optimize our product before mass market entry. I want
to thank our guests for supporting the product and contributing to
our mission to satisfy the world’s appetite for real meat without
harming people, animals or the planet. We look forward to hosting
many more tastings in the future as we work towards regulatory
approval and global commercialization.”
Constantijn van Oranje, Special Envoy, Techleap, said:
“The Netherlands is a pioneer in the development of cultivated
meat, and it was an honor to join the frontrunner in the field
Meatable for the first European tasting of their products.
Meatable’s cultivated meat has great potential to reduce the food
industry’s impact on the environment, and I look forward to
continuing to support the company as they work towards this goal on
a path to commercialization.”
Ira van Eelen, daughter of cultivated meat pioneer Willem van
Eelen, said: "This is a huge step for the sector. Before
cultured meat companies can submit their dossier to the relevant
authorities it is essential that their product can first be tasted.
This way, valuable feedback can be collected for further product
development. The fact that this is now possible in the Netherlands
itself, without having to resort to other countries, is
unique!"
One step closer to cultivated meat on your plate
Since launching in 2018, Meatable has been executing on its
mission to create delicious and environmentally-conscious
cultivated meat products affordably and at scale, utilizing the
fastest production process in the industry. Using its proprietary
Opti-OX™ technology, Meatable takes one cell from a pig and turns
it into a cultivated sausage in only four days, 60 times faster
than the time it takes to rear a pig for pork on a traditional
farm. By reducing cell differentiation time, the company can
produce high-quality cultivated meat at a significantly reduced
cost. In comparison to its previous production time of eight days,
Meatable’s process now requires half as many bioreactors at scale,
cutting CAPEX costs and enabling a more efficient use of production
space.
This year, the company plans to launch its first products in
Singapore, where it has held multiple product tastings following
approval to do so from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA). Pending
approval from the SFA to sell its products, Meatable’s products
will be available in selected restaurants. The company is also
focused on gearing up for its entrance into the U.S. aiming for
2025, pending regulatory approvals.
Meatable is currently approved to hold tastings in the
Netherlands and Singapore and has hosted tastings in both countries
to-date. For more information on Meatable, please visit
https://meatable.com.
About Meatable Based in the Netherlands, Meatable
is an innovative food technology company, aiming to deliver, at
scale, cultivated meat that looks like, tastes like, and has the
nutritional profile of traditional meat because it is real meat.
Meatable’s goal is to satisfy the world’s appetite for meat without
harming people, animals or the planet. Its process centers around
the use of pluripotent stem cells with patented Opti-OX™
technology, which enables cells to multiply and differentiate into
mature muscle and fat cells – the key ingredients for real, tasty
meat. This breakthrough technology allows cells to be
differentiated in only four days, the fastest process in the world,
and enables Meatable to produce meat rapidly, sustainably and
cost-effectively.
The Netherlands has long been at the forefront of the cultivated
meat industry. The first patent for cultivated meat was filed by
Dutch national Willem van Eelen in the late 1990s; the first
cultivated meat hamburger was developed at the University of
Maastricht in 2013 by a team, which included Meatable’s co-founder
and CTO Daan Luining; and the country became the first in Europe to
introduce legislation around the approval of tastings in 2023.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240417792291/en/
Media: Michael Wolfe, ICR MeatablePR@icrinc.com