Cultivated meat & seafood highlights 2025: authorizations, constraints, and developments

In 2025, regulatory developments for cell cultivation technologies progressed across multiple jurisdictions. Several cultivated meat products received regulatory authorizations and entered limited commercial use, alongside political opposition and company closures.

Cultivated meat authorizations and market access

In the United States, Mission Barns (cultured pork fat cells) and Believer Meats (cultured chicken cell material) received joint FDA and USDA clearance, and Wildtype received FDA authorization for their cultured salmon cell product. Outside the US, Vow received a positive regulatory determination from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) for cultivated quail, and Singapore authorized cultivated chicken produced by the French company Parima (formed from the merger of Gourmey and Vital Meat).

Following these authorizations, a limited number of products entered commercial use. Wildtype’s cultured salmon was served in restaurants in Oregon, Arizona, California, and Washington. Mission Barns launched pork meatballs in California retail outlets, marking the first retail sale of cultivated meat in the US, and also serves the product in restaurants. In Australia, Vow’s cultivated quail became available in restaurants as well as retail, representing the country’s first commercial sale.

Political opposition and state-level prohibitions

In parallel with federal regulatory authorizations, state-level restrictions expanded in the US. By the end of 2025, seven US states - South Dakota, Mississippi, Indiana, Montana, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Texas- had enacted laws prohibiting the sale of cultivated meat, creating legal and commercial uncertainty for companies seeking to operate nationally.

Company closures

Several cultivated meat companies ceased operations in 2025. Believer Meats shut down, Dutch startup Meatable closed amid fundraising challenges, and UK-based CellRev ended activities. These closures reflected capital constraints and the challenges of sustaining operations while progressing through regulatory authorization and scale-up.

Investment in infrastructure

At the same time, public and private investment in cultivation infrastructure continued. GEA opened a USD 20 M center in the US, focused on scaling alternative protein production. In the Netherlands, a consortium announced the launch of a pilot cultivated meat production facility. South Korea announced plans for its first center dedicated to cultivated meat, supported by USD 10 million in public investment.

Regulatory developments

Several jurisdictions took steps toward developing regulatory pathway guidelines for cultivated foods. In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) launched a regulatory sandbox to support companies during the cultivated meat approval process. The UK government published its first safety guidance and announced funding for innovation hubs, including precision fermentation initiatives. Japan published a draft framework outlining safety assessment for cultivated foods. The Asia-Pacific Society for Cellular Agriculture (APAC) and Cellular Agriculture Australia announced a collaboration to address regulatory challenges. .

Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI) workshops

The Cultured Meat Safety Initiative (CMSI), a collaboration between New Harvest and Vireo Advisors, continued in 2025 to address pre-competitive safety research needs for cultured meat and seafood. While Phase 1 (2020–2021) focused on industry engagement and hazard identification, and Phase 2 (2022–2023) identified regulatory safety priorities, Phase 3 convened multi-stakeholder workshops to advance collaborative research.

Workshops were held in San Francisco, Chicago, London, and Amsterdam with experts from academia, industry, and government. Key takeaways included the need for validated analytical methods, cross-sector collaboration and data-sharing frameworks. Next steps will focus on funding and engaging researchers to conduct safety studies.

Emerging uses of cell-cultivation technology

Beyond human food, cell cultivation expanded into pet food applications. In 2025, cultivated pet food products received authorization in multiple jurisdictions, including BioCraft and Umami Bioworks in the EU, and Friends & Family in Singapore.

Non-food applications progressed as well. Umami Bioworks launched Marine Radiance, a cosmetics ingredient line derived from marine cells, and BLUU Seafood expanded into cultivated marine ingredients for health and beauty.