Extract from Top stories in Cultivated Meat – September 2025

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September brought a strange calm to the world of cultivated meat regulation. After the August frenzy of approvals and debates across the U.S. and EU, policymakers seemed to have gone on collective mute, leaving space for builders, biologists, and business leaders to make the noise instead. And make it, they did: from automated “dim factories” to Michelin-starred hybrids, the month brimmed with invention.
Automation took center stage this September as Lucid Automation unveiled a “dim factory” model for a San Francisco-based cultivated meat pilot plant. Think of it as the quiet hum of the future: machines running around the clock, minimal human oversight, and an intricate “data integrity stack” monitoring every cell culture in real time. The goal? To inch closer to “lights-out manufacturing,” where production is so seamless it doesn’t even need people in the room. Meanwhile, the podcast How Does Your Meat Grow? continued its educational mission with Dr. Estere Sienkmane and Dr. Alice Esperanza walking listeners through the fundamentals of cellular agriculture, reminding everyone that, before the steak, there’s always the science.

San Francisco smelled of sizzling innovation as Mission Barns hosted its first-ever cultivated pork dinner. Guests at Fiorella enjoyed meatballs and bacon made with the company’s signature Mission Fat, a cell-grown ingredient that blends seamlessly into traditional dishes. For CEO Cecilia Chang, it wasn’t just dinner, it was proof that cultured fat can win hearts (and taste buds). Across the world, India’s Biokraft Foods raised $230,000 in pre-seed funding to expand its 3D-bioprinted cultivated chicken and trout. It’s a modest sum, but a significant signal for a country whose protein future may depend on startups like this one.

In Sweden, Re:meat began building a pilot facility in Lund’s Biotech Heights, complete with patented food-grade bioreactors, while Myriameat in Germany unveiled a hybrid sausage blending conventional and cultured meat — no plants, just two technologies shaking hands.Aleph Farms dominated headlines twice: first with a new European production hub in Switzerland’s Kemptthal, and again when an independent analysis confirmed that its cultivated beef steaks can be produced profitably today, no futuristic assumptions required!

Meanwhile, the CRAFT Consortium in the Netherlands received a €2 million grant to develop what they call the world’s first “cultivated meat farm,” integrating cell culture directly into existing agricultural systems. And in a gourmet twist, Carnéa Meat Co., led by former Impossible Foods talent, joined the hybrid race with “balanced proteins” that pair animal cells with plants, a Michelin-starred chef is advising on flavor.

If investors sounded worried this month, they had good reason. At the World Agri-Tech Summit in London, financiers admitted that the agrifoodtech investment model needs “a rethink.” Funding has dropped 37% year-on-year to just over $5 billion, a sharp fall from the $52 billion peak of 2021. But perhaps this contraction will separate enduring ideas from inflated hype.
In Europe, public perception continues to shape the industry. The EIT Food report Reimagining Protein found that while Europeans are open to alternatives, many see cultivated meat as confusingly “artificial,” especially when paired with plant-based ingredients.

Swiss-based FOOD FOUNDERS Studio offered a counterpoint to all this uncertainty, securing CHF 1.2 million to commercialize academic foodtech research. By turning lab breakthroughs into viable startups, they may just be the continent’s new innovation engine. And in a thoughtful essay, analysts asked the big question: why are Europeans so slow to embrace food tech? Their answer: deep culinary heritage, low trust in corporate science, and perhaps, as one observer noted, “too much love for the cow.”
The science, on the other hand, never sleeps. A sweeping analysis revealed that Europe’s alternative protein research output has tripled since 2020, with public funding now exceeding €320 million. From cultured meat to fermentation and plant-based innovation, the continent’s labs are humming louder than ever.

Researchers also pushed the technical frontier with a Pooled CRISPR screen identifying two key genes (TP53 and PTEN) whose suppression dramatically improves the growth of bovine stem cells. It’s an elegant step toward faster, cheaper cell lines for cultivated beef.
Meanwhile, a comprehensive review in Scaling Cultured Meat: Challenges and Solutions unpacked the engineering puzzle of cost-effective mass production, from serum-free media to scalable bioreactors. The message is clear: the science is ready; now it’s the economics’ turn to catch up.
Beyond cultivated cells, the alt-protein world kept buzzing. France’s NxtFood, maker of the ACCRO brand, raised €49 million to expand its plant-based platform — proof that, despite slower retail sales, investor appetite remains. Dutch startup Revyve secured €24 million to grow its yeast-based egg alternatives, while Finland’s Perfat Technologies raised €2.5 million to transform vegetable oils into solid, healthier fats. Even as meat cultivation advances, the race for better fats and proteins remains wide open.

See you next month!

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