Hampton Creek Foods, the maker of plant-based mayonnaise and other vegan products, reportedly is developing lab-grown meat that will grow from animal cells in a plant-based medium, according to a number of media reports.
The heavily funded food startup, which caused a stir in 2015 with its Just Mayo, hopes to get its product in stores next year, ahead of other lab-grown meat startups including Memphis Meats and Mosa Meat.
The goal is to make an affordable, healthier meat that also has no environmental impact.
The Wall Street Journal noted that producing clean meat is expensive. Memphis Meats, which in March unveiled what it called the first chicken strips grown from self-reproducing cells, estimates that its can grow a pound of chicken for less than $3,000.
"Clean meat is one of the most exciting innovations of our age, and we have the technical ability to make it a reality," says Bruce Friedrich, executive director of Good Food Institute, which offers consulting for early-stage companies developing plant-based foods.
"The science has been demonstrated. We just need to scale up production to bring down prices to make this product commercially viable for the mass market." Friedrich predicts Hampton Creek will be the first of many food companies to dive into this field.
