Hampton Creek promises synthetic meat by 2018

The US plant-based food producer Hampton Creek has announced its plans to launch synthetic laboratory-made meat onto the market by the end of 2018.

Its rival Memphis Meat is pursuing a similar project and aims to begin marketing plant-based chicken and duck as of 2021.

The two start-ups were created with the aim of eliminating the costs and pollution caused by factory farming. Memphis Meat has received $3 million of funding since it was founded in 2015, while Hampton Creek has received $120 million since its inception in 2011.

The problem facing both companies is the exorbitant cost of the production process, which currently stands at several thousand dollars per half kilo. Synthetic meat is obtained from bovine foetal serum, i.e. the blood extracted from the foetuses of pregnant cows whose cells are reproduced in artificial cultures.

The researchers at Hampton Creek are looking for alternative ways to prompt the cells to reproduce, for example using substances obtained from plants.