In the past few years, the UK has been ramping up investments in alternative proteins – foods like plant-based meat and animal-free dairy proteins produced through fermentation. In fact, we are now Europe’s largest national funder of alternative protein research, having invested more than £100m since 2020 and established several major research centres.
New research from Systemiq confirms the scale of the opportunity: advanced fermentation methods could boost sustainable food production and be worth up to £10bn to the UK by 2050.
But unlocking that growth depends on making alternative proteins affordable, delicious and widely accessible. Right now, plant-based meat doesn’t meet the bar for most consumers, while producing cultivated meat at scale presents enormous technical challenges.
Open-access research can overcome these obstacles – but, with existing funding calls coming to an end, the progress UK scientists are making risks going to waste.
Losing progress in alternative proteins
Letting the funding taps run dry would surrender the UK’s global leadership and stall innovation, preventing alternative proteins from delivering the growth government seeks. It would be like abandoning electric vehicles in the early 2000s.
The food strategy is the perfect moment to double down on the UK’s commitment to protein diversification. Over the next five years, the Good Food Institute Europe is calling on the government to invest £150m in public R&D and infrastructure for alternative proteins, financed by UK Research & Innovation and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s engineering biology infrastructure fund.
An average investment of £30m per year would be equivalent to less than 3% of the combined budgets of major funders Innovate UK and the Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council. And Green Alliance analysis shows this can drive growth – every £1 of public investment in the plant-based sector brings in £1.92 in private investment.
A plant-based innovation fund
At the heart of our proposal is a £30m plant-based innovation fund, enabling us to compete with plant-based pioneers like Canada and Denmark.
This would create new opportunities for farmers, using crops like peas and broad beans as raw ingredients for plant-based foods. Countries like Germany are already exploring how the plant-based sector can boost domestic agriculture, but in the UK, not enough has been done to build local supply chains and reduce the sector’s reliance on imported crops.
The fund would also maximise the nutritional benefits of plant-based foods. Many plant-based meat products are already high in protein and low in saturated fat, but more work is needed to further reduce salt levels and fortify them with essential micronutrients like iron and vitamin B12.
Developing tastier, more appealing products would enable businesses to reach the 38% of the public who say they want to eat more plant-based food – driving growth across the supply chain.
As countries like China and the US develop plans to diversify their protein sources, the UK’s leadership position is at stake.
A relatively modest investment in alternative protein R&D would help achieve the food strategy’s goals of building a thriving food sector and a healthier population, while delivering on the government’s promise of economic growth.
Linus Pardoe, senior UK policy manager at The Good Food Institute Europe
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