Nearly half of Gen Z would eat lab-grown meat: new report

Nearly half of Gen Z Brits have said they would eat cultivated or lab-grown meat products, new research from Ipsos has found.

The survey of 1,098 people revealed younger people are much more likely than older generations to say they would eat cultivated meat, with just one in five (21%) baby boomers and only 32% of the general population saying they would do so.

There is also limited understanding of lab-grown meat products in the UK, with 58% saying they either know nothing about or have never heard of cultivated meat.

Growth potential

Ipsos said there was a “genuine potential growth market for cultivated meat in Britain”.

“With limited knowledge about cultivated, or ‘lab-grown’ meat, there is a chance for producers to shape perceptions before it’s done for them,” said Peter Cooper, director of global omnibus services at Ipsos.

The public said the main benefit was that its production did not involve slaughtering animals (33%), followed by it being more environmentally-friendly (21%), reducing risks of diseases from animals to humans (20%), requiring less land (19%), and emitting fewer greenhouses gasses compared to conventional livestock farming (19%).

“That being said, consumers do still have some concerns, in particular around the unclear long-term health impacts of cultivated meat. This will need to be addressed for perceived environmental upsides to be realised.”

Read more: Food safety bosses reveal eight companies to ‘fast track’ lab-grown meat

The research revealed 48% of people were concerned about the long-term health impacts. Other concerns included it being an unnatural food source (42%) and that it is currently expensive to produce (25%).

Cultivated meat manufacturers and consultants said the research tracked with their understanding of the market.

”This new data underscores what we’ve known for a long time, that the next generation is driving a seismic shift in food preference,” said Jim Mellon, chairman of Agronomics. ”Younger people have a growing interest and open-mindedness toward clean food. These are the consumers of the future, and their values are shaping the food system of tomorrow.”

Mosa Meat CMO Tim van di Rijdt echoed this and said it was “very encouraging”. “It seems there are tens of millions of people in the UK either enthusiastic or undecided about cultivated meat. If that’s the case, production capacity will likely be a bigger bottleneck for adoption than consumer acceptance,” he added.

Mosa Meat currently has the capacity to produce hundreds of thousands of burgers per year with planned expansion, however the UK roughly consumes 2.5 billion burgers each year, “so there will be ample room for growth and multiple players to enter the market”.

“It’s great to see so many people in the UK are ready for the arrival of cultivated meat as part of a diversified food system, while a small but significant number are aware of its environmental and food security benefits,” said Linus Pardoe, senior UK policy manager at non-profit and thinktank the Good Food Institute Europe, in response to the data.

He also said caution was understandable, but added that cultivated meat will have to be approved by the FSA before it is available in the market.

This comes as the FSA announced a new pilot business support service to assist firms in the development of cultivated meat products. It will work with companies in the UK market and builds on its current sandbox programme announced in March, which involves eight companies. ”