Did you know? More people are choosing lab-grown foods for their environmental benefits, ethical production, and healthier, safer food options. Moreover, with growing concerns about sustainability and food security, the demand for cultivated meat is soaring.
The global lab-grown meat market, valued at $0.2 billion in 2024, is expected to skyrocket to $229 billion by 2050, growing at a CAGR of 30.8%. As this industry expands, several companies are leading the charge, revolutionizing the future of meat.
In this blog, we rank the top 10 lab-grown meat brands showcasing the key players shaping this food revolution.
List Of The Top 10 Lab-Grown Meat Companies Leading In 2025
Lab-Grown Meat Company | Famous Cultivated Meats |
Mosa Meat | Beef (Burgers) |
Aleph Farms | Beef (Steaks) |
Eat Just | Chicken (Nuggets) |
Upside Foods | Chicken, Beef, Duck |
Believer Meats | Beef, Chicken, Lamb |
Gourmey | Foie Gras, Duck, Chicken |
Meatable | Pork, Beef |
Mission Barns | Pork (Bacon, Sausages), Pepperoni, Fat |
Steakholder Foods | White Fish, Beef Steak, Eel |
Bluenalu | Seafood (Bluefin Tuna, Other Fish) |
1. Mosa Meat
- Headquarters: Maastricht, The Netherlands
- Founders: Peter Verstrate, Mark Post
- Founded: 2016
In 2013, scientist Mark Post and food technician Peter Verstrate developed the first lab-grown beef burger, proving that cultured meat could be a sustainable alternative to traditional livestock farming. Then in 2016, Mosa Meat was incorporated with a clear mission—to create real meat without harming animals or the planet.
Mosa Meat focuses on producing cultivated beef, particularly ground beef for burgers. They use an advanced tissue engineering technique to multiply cells efficiently, creating high-quality meat without antibiotics or artificial additives. One key breakthrough is the elimination of fetal bovine serum (FBS), making their process completely animal-free.
Mosa Meat is committed to sustainability. Their method uses 90% less land and 95% less water than traditional beef production. Their ultimate goal is to make lab-grown meat more affordable, environmentally friendly, and widely available.
2. Aleph Farms
- Headquarters: Rehovot, Israel
- Founders: Didier Toubia & Prof. Shulamit Levenberg
- Founded: 2017
Aleph Farms focuses on producing lab-grown meat with a mission to provide a sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional meat. They specialize in growing whole cuts of steak directly from animal cells, without the need to slaughter any animals.
Aleph Farms uses cellular agriculture to grow premium cuts like the Petit Steak from cells of a Black Angus cow named Lucy. This method eliminates the need to raise cows, allowing for scalable, sustainable meat production from a single egg collection.
Their process involves cultivating cells in a bioreactor, where muscle tissue is grown to form steaks. In 2018, they achieved a major milestone by producing the world’s first lab-grown beef steak. They were also the first to grow meat in space in 2019.
Aleph Farms is committed to reducing the environmental impact of meat production. Their method uses significantly less land, water, and energy compared to conventional beef farming, positioning them as a key player in the sustainable food revolution.
3. Eat Just
- Headquarters: Alameda, California, United States
- Founders: Josh Tetrick & Josh Balk
- Founded: 2011
Originally known for its plant-based products, Eat Just expanded into cultivated meat, focusing on chicken nuggets and other poultry items. Their goal is to reduce the environmental impact of meat production while offering healthier and safer alternatives.
The company uses cell-based technology to cultivate artificial chicken meat in bioreactors. The cells are fed a nutrient-rich solution to grow into muscle tissue. In 2020, Eat Just made history by becoming the first company to receive regulatory approval for selling lab-grown meat in Singapore.
The company’s lab-grown chicken nuggets consist of 70% cultivated chicken meat and 30% plant-based ingredients, such as mung bean proteins.
Eat Just’s process is more resource-efficient than traditional poultry farming, requiring less land, water, and energy. They are committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a more ethical and sustainable food source.
4. Upside Foods
- Headquarters: Berkeley, California, United States
- Founders: Uma Valeti, Nicholas Genovese, Will Clem
- Founded: 2015
Upside Foods focuses on cultivating various types of meat, including beef, chicken, and duck. Their mission is to provide a solution to the environmental and ethical issues caused by traditional meat production.
The company uses advanced cell-based technology, where they start by extracting stem cells from animals. These cells are then cultured in bioreactors with a nutrient-rich solution, encouraging them to grow into muscle tissue.
Upside Foods grows meat in cultivators for two to three weeks. For their first product, it is molded into a chicken filet, while other products may be seasoned or breaded. The final products are then refrigerated, frozen, and packaged for distribution.
Upside Foods made a significant accomplishment in 2020 when they became the first company to receive regulatory approval for selling lab-grown chicken in the U.S.
Upside Foods’ process requires fewer resources—such as land, water, and energy—compared to conventional meat farming, making it a more sustainable choice.
5. Believer Meats
- Headquarters: Jerusalem and Rehovot, Israel
- Founder: Yaakov Nahmias
- Founded: 2018
Believer Meats was formerly known as Future Technologies or Future Meat. The company’s mission is to create real meat that can help solve global food security issues and reduce the environmental impact of traditional animal farming. Their focus is on developing cultured chicken, offering a more sustainable alternative to conventional poultry production.
Believer Meats grows meat using fibroblast cells, which replicate quickly without genetic modification. They use a process called “spontaneous immortalization” to allow indefinite cell replication.
The cells are cultured in bioreactors to form a dense biomass, which is then harvested, separated from the nutrient medium, and combined with plant-based ingredients for a meat-like texture and taste.
Believer Meats has raised significant funding to scale its operations and aims to make lab-grown meat more accessible. Furthermore, they claim that reproduction rates are 10 times higher than other lab-grown meat companies.
6. Gourmey
- Headquarters: Paris, France
- Founders: Antoine Davydoff, Nicolas Morin-Forest & Victor Sayous
- Founded: 2019
Gourmey is a French company focused on producing lab-grown meat with a strong emphasis on culinary excellence. Their mission is to offer high-quality, sustainable meat that maintains traditional flavors while being more ethical and environmentally friendly.
Gourmey primarily specializes in foie gras and poultry, aiming to bring these luxury products to the market without the need for animal farming.
The company uses a bioreactor system similar to those used in brewing beer to cultivate meat. This method involves growing animal cells in a nutrient-rich medium, which allows the cells to develop into muscle tissue that can be harvested for consumption.
7. Meatable
- Headquarters: Delft, Netherlands
- Founders: Krijn de Nood, Daan Luining, Mark Kotter
- Founded: 2018
Meatable’s mission is to make meat production more ethical and environmentally friendly while maintaining the taste and quality consumers expect. Meatable primarily focuses on cultivating beef and pork products, offering alternatives to traditional animal farming.
Meatable uses its patented technology, opti-ox™, to grow real muscle and fat cells from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) at an unmatched speed and efficiency. This groundbreaking process allows them to produce lab-grown beef and pork in just 12 to 15 days.
Opti-ox™ is the only method capable of growing muscle and fat cells from PSCs with 100% efficiency, enabling the production of high-quality meat while maintaining sustainability.
Meatable’s process is designed to be much more sustainable, using 75% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 99% less land, and more than 95% less water compared to conventional meat production.
8. Mission Barns
- Headquarters: Berkeley, California, United States
- Founder: Eitan Fischer
- Founded: 2018
Mission Barn focuses on creating lab-grown meat products with a unique twist. The company specializes in cultivating animal fat from pigs to combine with plant-based protein, creating a more sustainable and ethical alternative to traditional pork products. Their goal is to produce real meat without the need to slaughter animals.
Using a technique that combines animal cells with plant-based proteins, Mission Barns grows fat and muscle tissue in bioreactors. Their key ingredients are Pea Protein, Mission Fat™ (contains cultivated pork) and Spices.
This process allows them to create products like meatballs, bacon, pepperoni, and sausages, with the company emphasizing sustainability by reducing resource consumption compared to traditional pork farming.
9. Steakholder Foods
- Headquarter: Rehovot, Israel
- Founders: Sharon Fima
- Founded: 2020
Steakholder Foods aims to revolutionize meat production with cultivated beef, chicken, and seafood. Their mission is to create high-quality, structured meat cuts without harming animals. They focus on sustainability by reducing land, water, and energy use compared to traditional farming.
The company uses stem cells, which grow in bioreactors, and advanced 3D bioprinting to shape the meat into realistic textures. Their proprietary bio-ink technology mimics the marbling and structure of conventional cuts, offering a more natural eating experience.
Steakholder Foods has partnered with global food producers to scale its production. They continue to develop innovative techniques, aiming to make cultivated meat widely accessible while cutting down on environmental impact.
10. BlueNalu
- Headquarters: San Diego, California
- Founder: Lou Cooperhouse
- Founded: 2017
BlueNalu is dedicated to providing a sustainable solution for seafood consumption, particularly bluefin tuna, a prized species that is facing depletion due to high demand. Their mission is to cultivate lab-grown bluefin tuna, specifically the fatty belly cut known as toro, to reduce the strain on wild fish populations and offer a more environmentally friendly alternative.
Using cell-based technology, BlueNalu grows fish tissue in bioreactors, providing high-quality seafood like tuna toro without harming marine ecosystems. This tuna can be used in various traditional dishes like sushi, sashimi, and poke, offering a sustainable way to enjoy premium seafood.
By producing seafood in a lab, BlueNalu reduces the pressure on overfished populations and promotes more ethical practices in the seafood industry. Besides, BlueNalu is working on developing a resilient food security solution that can supply nationwide with accessible, safe, and high-quality seafood.
Well, we have reached the end of our list of the Top 10 Lab-Grown Meat Companies in 2025! Now, let’s take a look at some expert analysis on it.
Expert Insights On Cultured Meat Companies
Sustainability Driving Profitability | All the above meat companies emphasize reduced land, water, and emissions usage, proving that eco-friendly production methods are profitable. |
Advancements in Stem Cell and Tissue Engineering | Most companies use pluripotent stem cells and biotechnology to accelerate meat growth, cutting down production time to weeks instead of months. |
Pioneering Innovation in Meat Cultivation | Aleph Farms created the first lab-grown steak, and BlueNalu specializes in tuna showing how innovation is shaping the industry. |
Regional Leadership in Lab-Grown Meat | The U.S. (Eat Just, Upside Foods), Netherlands (Mosa Meat, Meatable), and Israel (Aleph Farms, Believer Meats, Stakeholder Foods) are emerging as global hubs for cultivated meat research and production. |
FAQs
- What is cultured meat also known as?
Ans: Cultured meat is also called lab-grown meat, cell-based meat, cultivated meat, artificial meat, and in vitro meat.
- Who invented lab-grown meat?
Ans: Dutch researcher Willem van Eelen conceived the idea of cultured meat in the 1950s. Yet, the first lab-grown beef burger was created by Dr. Mark Post at Maastricht University in 2013, costing $325,000 and taking two years to produce.
- What are the disadvantages of lab meat?
Ans: Lab-grown meat lacks an immune system, making it prone to infections or mutations during rapid cell multiplication. It also faces high production costs, limited product variety, and consumer skepticism about its naturalness.
- Are animals killed for lab-grown meat?
Ans: No, animals are not killed for lab-grown meat. A small cell sample is taken from a live animal, and the meat is grown in a lab without slaughtering the animal.
- Can vegetarians eat lab-grown meat?
Ans: Lab-grown meat is not considered vegetarian since it originates from animal cells. However, some vegetarians may choose to eat it because no animals are slaughtered in the process.
Let’s begin!