It is not news that cultivated meat isn’t yet approved in Europe, yet we are here at the Dutch food tech company Meatable in the city of Leiden, munching tiny bits of sausage produced in their lab in a few meters away.
But for the team members it is a crucial moment: “We are incredibly proud to host the first official cultivated meat tasting in the European Union, marking a landmark moment for Meatable and our industry. We now have the opportunity to verify those findings and further optimize our product before mass-market entry,” said Krijn de Nood, founder and CEO of Meatable during the event.
But the same rules apply not just to commercialize products, but also to barely taste them. This reveals complicated for those willing to place new products to the market, but unable to tell if the products is any good.the world's largest cultivated lab center in May 2023, it was too early to allow its guests to taste its cultivated beef burger.
The cells that brew in the lab’s fermentors are fed with a nutrient medium, and when they reach the correct size, the white-colored substance is collected and stored, before it is combined with the plant-based ingredient.During the tasting, we trialed fully plant-based sausages to compare them to the sample with the cultivated pork fat. As de Nood told us, we shouldn’t be surprised it tastes like pork, which it really did.
Although he admits that 'cultivated meat won't show up massively on the radar in the next decade and consumers acceptance could be built up slowly through tastings: “This will be a gradual process people will understand that this is just another option in the supermarket." he said.Like many European novel food companies, Meatable is planning to launch in Singapore, where the approval process is quicker and more efficient.