Bio-solution · AP02 · Alternative proteins
Plant-based meat and dairy analogues and cultivated (cell-cultured) meat and seafood instead of a share of conventional meat and its antibiotic, antiparasitic and feed-chain chemical inputs
Replaces
A share of conventional meat, seafood and dairy — and the antibiotics, antiparasitics, feed-crop pesticides and fertilizer of the animal chain
A share of conventional meat, seafood and dairy — and the antibiotics, antiparasitics, feed-crop pesticides and fertilizer of the animal chain
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Scope
Plant-based products (pea, soy, wheat, fava proteins; extrusion and texturizing); cultivated meat and seafood (animal cells grown in bioreactors)
Plant-based products (pea, soy, wheat, fava proteins; extrusion and texturizing); cultivated meat and seafood (animal cells grown in bioreactors)
Suppliers 9
| Redefine Meat | Israel | active |
| Aleph Farms | Israel | active |
| NotCo | Chile | active |
| Fazenda Futuro (Future Farm) | Brazil | active |
| Shuangta Food 双塔食品 (SZ 002481) | China | active |
| Starfield 星期零 | China | active |
| Green Monday / OmniPork (Hong Kong) | China | active |
| Integriculture | Japan | active |
| CellMEAT | South Korea | active |
Route into Russia / EAEU NOVEL
- Regulator
- Rospotrebnadzor / EAEU
- Typical time
- state registration as a new type of food; no fixed term published
- Legal basis
- TR CU 021/2011: novel foods (not previously consumed in the EAEU, incl. from microorganisms, fungi, algae) need state registration; no specific route for cultivated meat
Information, not legal advice — confirm the procedure for your product.
Proof 3 claims
Old process
Conventional animal husbandry and meat production.
Conventional animal husbandry and meat production.
→
New practice
Plant-based meat alternatives and cellular agriculture (cell-cultured meat and precision fermentation).
Plant-based meat alternatives and cellular agriculture (cell-cultured meat and precision fermentation).
- Displaced at scale?
- no
- Caveats
- Evidence indicates that plant-based meat alternatives have not displaced conventional meat at scale. Studies consistently show that plant-based meat remains a niche product with a small market share (often below 5% in the U.S. and under 1% in Spain), and that many consumers purchase these products as complements to, rather than replacements for, animal meat. Cultivated meat is not yet commercialized at scale.
- checked
- 2026-10-06
| Plant-based meat alternatives represent a relatively small threat to the retail and food service markets for conventional animal proteins, with market share remaining near or below 3 percent in retail and 5 percent in food service in the United States from 2020 to 2023. “This is especially evident as the share of the market captured by PBMA on an annual basis across 2020 to 2023 has not changed substantially, remaining near or below 3 percent (retail) or 5 percent (food service) in each year.” United States · 2020-2023 · pilot or niche | peer-reviewed ✓ exa.ai |
| Plant-based meat in Spain is a niche product, with its market share of the overall sales volume of pre-packaged meat falling from 0.46% in 2023 to 0.40% in 2025. “Plant-based meat’s market share, as a percentage of the overall sales volume of plant-based and animal-based pre-packaged meat 1, fell from 0.46% in 2023 to 0.40% in 2025.” Spain · 2023-2025 · pilot or niche | weak (company, news, market research, other) ✓ gfieurope.org |
| High retail prices for plant-based meat relative to conventional animal-based counterparts are a major barrier to consumer adoption and market growth. “Price also plays a major role in consumer acceptance, with most PBMA priced over meat limiting consumer adoption (Clark & Bogdan, 2019; Joseph, Searing, Watson, & McKeague, 2020; Pierce & Azoff, 2023) .” · · | peer-reviewed exa.ai |
Details
Replaces (partial): a share of conventional meat and its chemical inputs · Scope: plant-based and cultivated meat/seafood · Evidence: high (plant-based), low–medium (cultivated)
The chemical problem#
- Animal products use most agricultural land and feed-crop inputs, and most antibiotics sold for food animals.
- Food-system studies find that animal products provide a minority of calories and protein but cause the majority of food-related land use and emissions.
- As in AP01, the substitution is indirect: fewer animals → fewer antibiotics, less feed chemistry, less manure. Ratings stay Partial or Watchlist.
Product overview#
- Plant-based meat and dairy — pea, soy, wheat and fava proteins texturized by high-moisture extrusion; fats and flavours (incl. fermentation-made heme or fats) for meat-like products; oat, soy and pea drinks.
- Hybrid products — plant proteins with mycoprotein or cultivated cells (see AP01).
- Cultivated meat and seafood — animal muscle and fat cells grown in bioreactors on culture media; approved for sale in Singapore (2020), the USA (2023) and Israel (2024).
Active ingredient / Composition#
- Plant-based: protein isolates/concentrates (60–90 % protein), plant fats, binders (methylcellulose or fibres), flavours.
- Cultivated: cell lines (stem or immortalized cells), growth media (amino acids, glucose, growth factors — increasingly animal-serum-free), scaffolds (plant or seaweed-based).
Key facts#
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Footprint | Global LCA dataset: plant proteins have far lower land use and emissions per gram of protein than beef, lamb and most animal products |
| Cultivated cost | Techno-economic analysis: large cost reductions in media and bioreactors are needed to reach commodity meat prices |
| Approvals | Cultivated meat: Singapore (2020), USA (2023), Israel (2024); several countries ban or restrict it |
| Regulation | Plant-based: normal food law (labelling disputes over “meat” names). Cultivated: EU novel food; Russia/EAEU: no approval route yet |
Advantages#
- No antibiotics, hormones or slaughter; lower zoonotic risk.
- Plant-based products use existing food-processing equipment and crops (pea, soy) — a market for local protein crops.
- Cultivated seafood could relieve pressure on wild stocks.
Mode of action#
- Extrusion aligns plant proteins into fibrous, meat-like structures.
- Cultivated meat: cells proliferate in suspension or on scaffolds, then differentiate into muscle and fat tissue.
Application#
| Product | Target | Method, timing and specifics |
|---|---|---|
| Burgers, mince, nuggets | Volume market | Plant-based from pea/soy texturized protein |
| Dairy drinks and desserts | Lactose-free, dairy-free | Oat, soy, pea bases (plus AP01 proteins for functionality) |
| Premium meat and seafood | Niche, regulatory pilots | Cultivated or hybrid cultivated/plant products where approved |
| Protein-crop processors | New demand | Pea, fava, soy protein isolation for food-tech buyers |
Limitations#
- Plant-based sales growth slowed after 2021 in several Western markets; taste, price and “ultra-processed” concerns.
- Cultivated meat: high cost, limited bioreactor capacity, regulatory bans in some jurisdictions.
- Nutrition equivalence (iron, B12, protein quality) must be designed in.
Evidence of displacement — D1: works, adoption not proven#
Verified figures (the number is in the quoted sentence and the sentence is on the source page):
- displacement — Plant-based meat alternatives represent a relatively small threat to the retail and food service markets for conventional animal proteins, with market share remaining near or below 3 percent in retail and 5 percent in food service in the United States from 2020 to 2023. (United States, 2020-2023; peer-reviewed: exa.ai)
- displacement — Plant-based meat in Spain is a niche product, with its market share of the overall sales volume of pre-packaged meat falling from 0.46% in 2023 to 0.40% in 2025. (Spain, 2023-2025; weak: gfieurope.org)
Suppliers — real products and services (from the vendor index)#
Active vendors whose own card shows plant-based or cultivated meat/seafood products or plant-protein ingredients.
| Company | Region · Country | What the index shows | Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Redefine Meat | Africa/ME · Israel | plant-based whole-cut meat alternatives | card |
| Aleph Farms | Africa/ME · Israel | cultivated beef (Petit Steak: cultivated cells + plant protein) | card |
| NotCo | LatAm · Chile | AI-designed plant-based foods | card |
| Fazenda Futuro (Future Farm) | LatAm · Brazil | plant-based meat and dairy alternatives | card |
| Shuangta Food 双塔食品 (SZ 002481) | Asia · China | world-scale pea protein; plant-based meat lines | card |
| Starfield 星期零 | Asia · China | plant-based protein brand | card |
| Green Monday / OmniPork (Hong Kong) | Asia · China | OmniPork/OmniSeafood plant-based products | card |
| Integriculture | Asia · Japan | cultivated meat; CulNet culture-medium platform | card |
| CellMEAT | Asia · South Korea | cell-cultivated seafood with serum-free medium | card |
Government funding signals#
Scanned 2026-10-01 (OpenAIRE + NSF); candidates reviewed by hand.
Signal: Strong. 50 cultivated-meat candidates, e.g. EC 101277827 (cultivated meat by rapid manufacturing of muscle-fat-protein building blocks, 2026), UKRI BBSRC/EPSRC doctoral and project awards on scalable cultivated-meat bioprocesses and food-waste feedstocks, and Czech TA ČR projects on growth-factor stabilization (FGF2) and microalgae for cultivation media.
Scientific evidence#
- Poore J, Nemecek T (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360: 987–992.
- Post MJ, Levenberg S, Kaplan DL, et al. (2020). Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat. Nature Food 1: 403–415.
- Humbird D (2021). Scale-up economics for cultured meat. Biotechnology and Bioengineering 118: 3239–3250.
Bioeconomy value#
Plant-based protein creates demand for protein crops and texturizing plants. Cultivated meat is a watchlist technology whose bioreactor and culture-media suppliers (e.g. Integriculture) overlap with the industrial fermentation base already in the index.
Cross-links: AP01 precision fermentation and mycoprotein; FD02 insect protein; FI05 chymosin.