The climate impact of meat is enormous – roughly equivalent to all the driving and flying of every car, truck and plane in the world according to Greenpeace. When forests are destroyed to produce industrial meat, billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.

So it’s not a surprise that the alternative meat sector is growing at a phenomenal pace.

You have probably heard of Impossible Foods and maybe even tried Beyond Meat in a vegan burger at one of the Honest Burger restaurants in the UK – it’s incredible how much it really tastes like real meat!

Here are a few other startups to watch:

Ynsect

• • This French startup is planning to create the world’s largest insect farm. They’ve raised over $500m in the last two years to make this happen
  • Europe’s food standards agency, EFSA, authorised mealworms for human consumption in January which helped to accelerate commercial traction.

Redefine Meat

• • This Israeli company is using 3D printing technology to produce animal-free meat with the appearance, texture and flavor of whole muscle meat.

Mosa Meat

• • In 2013 they’ve created the world’s first cultured meat hamburger. It was harvested directly from cow cells, rather than raising and slaughtering a whole animal. It cost €250,000 to make. The effort was funded by Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google.
  • In the past few years they’ve made significant scientific breakthroughs, and brought the price down considerably.

Rilbite

• • Israeli food-tech company is using raw unprocessed plant ingredients to produce the same taste and texture products such as minced beef, chicken, fish, eggs or dairy directly from plants – using an un-intrusive process and keeping the plant’s taste and rich nutrition values unharmed.

Heura

• • This Spanish startup claims their products are Spain’s most-sold alternative meat products. They’ve just announced (June 2021) a €16m funding round
  • They use fewer ingredients than most similar products on the market (just 12) and 85% less saturated fat – they’ve developed a method for making olive oil into a solid, improving the nutritional value of its products.