Lab-grown meat and fish from Delft campus will hit store shelves next year

Meat, fish and meat substitutes that start-ups are currently being created in a laboratory with the help of Dutch corporation DSM, may be sold in stores for the first time within a year. The CEO of the food ingredients firm, Dimitri de Vreeze, confirmed the plan during the official launch of the next phase of development at the Biotech Campus in Delft. The company, along with insurance firm ASR, want the campus to grow into a "world leader" in life sciences.

DSM and ASR will invest half a billion euros in the campus over the next twenty years. This includes laboratories with equipment for making proteins and producing food using yeasts and other micro-organisms. With the investment, more of these machines can be produced, and both DSM and start-ups on the campus can further develop their products and processes more quickly. The companies can then press ahead by making the taste and texture of a product more similar to that of the animal variant.

One of the start-ups is Bialtec, which makes proteins from bacteria for cattle feed as a replacement to conventional feed. The stomachs of the animals become full more quickly because of those proteins. As a result, they do not need to eat as much grass, and they also produce less manure.

The investment enables Bialtec, which is headquartered in Colombia, to focus on their development in Europe, said regional manager Luisa Toro Alzate. The product is already being sold to animal feed producers in Latin America, but not yet in Europe. The intention is that feed manufacturers in the Netherlands can also buy it. "We are in talks with Dutch investors about the development of our concept," she said.

Laboratory-developed meat, fish and meat substitutes from laboratories are not currently for sale in the Netherlands. The products must first be approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Laboratory-grown meat will be on sale in Asia next year. Pork from the Dutch cultured meat company Meatable will be on the menu in restaurants in Singapore, sold as dumplings and sausages. In 2025, Meatable products will also be available in local supermarkets.

Two years ago, DSM, then still a chemical company, announced that it would focus entirely on life sciences and making healthy foods. Last Monday, DSM sold the last part of its chemical branch.