Want to solve Hunger with an alternate to meat? By now, both solutions have probably appeared on your radar, especially if you are involved with the food business. What you may not know is that two very different factions have gotten involved behind the scenes.
Per Eco- Business, the global market for insect-based protein in 2015 was $ 33 Million and is expected to increase to $ 773 Million by 2024. Despite the huge growth rate, that is a small slice of the global meat and seafood market, which is currently estimated at $ 844 Billion by Statista.
This correlates with our own observation that insect food companies are small start-ups funded either by the founders or angel investors using direct sales via e-commerce to create a viable business.
We have worked with several start-ups in this field. If you are considering an entry into this market, please contact us for a no-obligation conversation.
Unlike insect protein, Lab-Meat has drawn the interest not only of Silicon Valley but also the venture arms of traditional protein producers such as Tyson. While getting funding has not been an issue, growing meat in a Petri dish has proven to be difficult and capital intensive. What did not help were companies such as Hampton Creek(now called Just), which was the darling of Silicon Valley until their mayonnaise product turned into a sales fiasco.
Unlike insect food, lab-meat has a high capital cost for entry and while it is being worked on, the final break-through in both taste and cost is still in the future.
Updates:
Improving texture: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/27/science/lab-meat-texture.html date: October 29, 2019