Upside Foods' cultivated chicken — grown from animal cells — recently launched at the Michelin-starred restaurant Bar Crenn in San Francisco, marking the first-ever consumer sale of cultivated meat in the U.S.

Stephanie Lind, founder of Elohi Strategic Advisors, has spent more than 25 years working for Fortune 500 food companies, including PepsiCo, Sysco and McDonald’s supply chain partner Havi Logistics — most recently in global sales initiatives for Impossible Foods. She shares some insights on how she sees cultured meats products ramping up in the marketplace.

What do you see as the initial stronger market for cultivated protein products – retail or foodservice? 

Stephanie Lind: Cell-cultured meat will most likely launch into foodservice, rather than retail.  

• The products being cultured — foie gras, bluefin tuna, oysters — are higher-end items that most people eat at restaurants, rather than at home.  
• They’re also products that will tend to taste better when prepared by professional chefs who have more experience and information about handling and preparation.   
• In the beginning we’d expect manufacturing capacity constraints to limit supply and drive up costs. Most likely these items will begin as luxuries or indulgences at fine dining establishments.
• Movement into full-service and quick-service restaurants will probably begin with blends of cell-cultured and plant-based meats, to control capacity and costs.

Do you see cultivated meat products being available as both ready to cook/eat packaged goods and raw bulk for retail?

Stephanie Lind: Availability as ready-to-cook or ready-to-eat packaged goods will not happen in the beginning.  Creating and developing the product has to come first, and regulatory approval is just a first step toward that.  Most likely the timeline will begin with fine dining. Then we’ll see products developed that blend cell-cultured meat with plant-based – for cost and capacity reasons.  We’ll see movement toward more variety in the category, as it shifts from products like foie gras to higher-volume products like ground beef. There may be some limited-time-offers in full-service restaurants at first, before cell-cultured meat reaches the kind of production volume necessary to start appearing at fast food restaurants or arenas and ballparks.  And again, this is all likely to begin in the form of a blend of cell-cultured and plant-based meats, to control costs across the value chain.

What demographic does market research suggest will be the primary purchasers of your products?

Stephanie Lind: Gen Z's reputation for setting trends — a focus on health and fitness, for instance, and their environmental concerns — can make us look to them as a leading demographic for adopting cell-cultured meats. Still, we've seen in plant-based that making assumptions often proves unwise. Boomers, at the other end of the age spectrum, have their own reasons for wanting to stay healthy, and they’re the ones at the other side of the dinner table when the Gen Z kids start asking why the world is on fire. Plant-based diets and alternative proteins have crossed demographics, and we’d expect cell-cultured meat to do the same.

What consumer- and industry-facing outreach will be needed to ease apprehensions about cultivated meat products?

Stephanie Lind: To ease apprehensions about cell-cultured meat, we’ll need education, education, and more education. That education will probably include factual ad campaigns, infomercials and documentaries. ESA’s recent independent research, Taste of Change: Consumer Perceptions of Cell-Cultured Meat, investigated participants’ perceptions of cell-cultured meat, representing a variety of demographic groups. The study also tracked the effects of education on participants’ willingness to try cell-cultured meat.  Among other things, our research proved that even the briefest definition of cell-cultured can help resolve consumer confusion and move people in favor of trial.  So far, messaging about cell-cultured meat has had a tech and investor audience, and no one likes to think about "tech" and food. "Lab" and "yummy” or “craveable" do not go together in people's minds or hearts. Messaging will shift now from those tech and investor audiences to the consumer, who’ll be able to enjoy 100% chicken, beef or bacon without harming animals. Once it reaches scale, cell-cultured meat will also reduce our impact on the land, help with the continual drain on water supplies and eliminate the potential for e coli and other pathogens that enter the food supply from farm and agricultural products. Education about these issues and the part cell-cultured meat can play toward potential solutions will overcome consumers’ initial concerns. The key will be talking to consumers in a way that resonates with their wants and addresses their needs from the food supply.