Research
What is cellular agriculture?
Cellular agriculture is an alternative farming method for products like meat, milk, eggs and other raw ingredients. It differs from existing agricultural practices because it uses isolated cells rather than animals to produce food. There are two classes of cellular agriculture, both involving cell growth under controlled conditions but with different overall methods of production.
The first is acellular agriculture. Acellular goods do not contain cells within the final consumer product, but instead contain proteins, fats or flavour compounds that have been isolated from cultured cells.
The second is cell-based agriculture. Unlike acellular goods, plant-based goods contain cultured animal cells in the final product. Food produced using cellular agriculture contains authentic animal proteins and cells. Because of this, these products fundamentally differ from those made exclusively using plant proteins, another emerging class of alternative protein.
Cellular agriculture processes
Acellular agriculture uses an established technique called recombinant protein expression. Recombinant protein expression is the process of hijacking (typically) bacteria or yeast cells to produce a target molecule, such as a milk protein. To hijack the cell, the DNA corresponding to the molecule is selected and added to the genetic makeup of the bacteria/yeast. The microorganisms are cultured, producing many copies of the target molecule, which is then isolated from the micro-organisms, purified and used to formulate a product. Recombinant protein expression has been used since the late-1970s to produce food ingredients, medicines and vaccines. The novelty of applying this process in cellular agriculture is the large-scale application of the technology.
Cell-based food products are made by culturing animal cells to produce fat or muscle. Cells are first isolated from animal tissue, then fed specific nutrient mixes under controlled conditions. The most common cell type used to produce cell-based products are muscle-derived cells called myocytes. Cell culture is a well-established process in research laboratories around the world and is commonly used to study the efficacy of drugs or model disease development. Some production processes for cell-based products use genetic modification, while others do not.
Academic resources
The following are a small selection of the technical reviews and publications available on cellular agriculture. They should be treated only as a entry point to the scientific literature. A glossary of commonly used terms can be found here.
Hybrid alternative protein-based foods: designing a healthier and more sustainable food supply – Kaplan & McClements (September 2025). A perspective article that explores some of the factors that should be considered when combining different sources of alternative proteins, followed by an overview of studies that explore the development and testing of hybrid alternative protein products, including cultivated meat–plant hybrid products.
Biomaterials in cellular agriculture and plant-based foods for the future – Gordon et al. (July 2025). A discussion of biomaterials used in cellular agriculture, with discussions around sustainability, design, scaling production, consumer acceptance, nutrition, regulatory status and safety considerations.
Methods to isolate muscle stem cells for cell-based cultured meat production: A review – Lee et al. (March 2024). A review of the technical processes and variations used to produce cultured animal cells.
Interdisciplinary methods for analysing food matrix structures of hybrid cell-based meats: A review – Ogilvie et al. (January 2024). A review that describes key aspects of food matrix structure in animal-origin meat and plant-based meat alternatives, the techniques used to study these structures, and how the insights gained can be used to improve novel food design.
Sculpting the future of meat: Biomaterial approaches and structural engineering for large-scale cell-based production – Jin & Bennie, et al. (December 2023). Examines various approaches to structuring cell-cultured meat and their scalability and feasibility for cost-effective production.
Scaffolding biomaterials for 3D cultivated meat: Prospects and challenges – Bomkamp et al. (November 2021). A review describing the structure of muscle tissue, the typical production process for cultivated meat, and explores the various types of scaffolding biomaterials that can be used in the production process.
Other helpful resources
The resources below are intended to help inform an interested reader, as they develop their understanding of cellular agriculture and related themes. The resources are compiled from academic and grey literature and will be updated periodically.
Sustainable agriculture
These resources discuss the sustainability of food production systems in Aotearoa New Zealand, Singapore and globally. While many of the articles do not explicitly discuss cellular agriculture, they provide an overview of existing food production systems.
Aotearoa NZ
The Future of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Food Sector: Exploring Global Demand Opportunities in the Year 2050 – NZ Ministry for Primary Industries (April 2023). Aims to understand drivers of change within the New Zealand food sector and assess challenges and opportunities the sector may face over the next three decades, with a focus on future consumer demand.
The Science of Regenerative Agriculture – Pure Advantage (2020). Discusses the ways regenerative agricultural practices can increase farming sustainability and productivity. A more detailed presentation is found here.
Farms, forests and fossil fuels: The next great landscape transformation? – Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (March 2019). This article gives an in-depth overview of farming in Aotearoa New Zealand, discussing the multifaceted landscape of its environmental impacts and potential solutions. It critically summarises scientific studies conducted within Aotearoa New Zealand that improve on-farm sustainability by altering farming practices.
Singapore
Understanding urban agriculture in context: environmental, social, and psychological benefits of agriculture in Singapore – Nicholas, Groot & Harré (July 2023). A study of sustainable urban farming in Singapore and its environmental and social benefits.
Technology innovations for food security in Singapore: A case study of future food systems for an increasingly natural resource-scarce world – Mok et al. (August 2020). Discusses technological responses to food security challenges in Singapore, including urban farming, smart agriculture, processing technology and alternative food sources.
International
The future of food and agriculture – Drivers and triggers for transformation – Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2022). This report considers the future sustainability and resilience of global agrifood systems by analysing the effects of various socioeconomic and environmental drivers and the potential impacts of policy and governance interventions.
Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030 – RethinkX (2019). A report looking at the potential impacts of the development and adoption of future food technologies on the US agrifood industry, with a particular focus on precision fermentation.
The future of food and agriculture: Alternative pathways to 2050 – Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (2018). This report presents a critical analysis of the food production system internationally, highlighting the anticipated challenges to food production over the next 30 years. It then uses scenario modelling to explore different possible outcomes of interventions within specific agricultural segments.
Alternative proteins
The term ‘alternative protein’ encompasses a range of protein sources that are potential substitutes to traditional animal proteins (beef, lamb, chicken, fish). It includes fermented proteins, insect protein, plant proteins and meat alternatives including cellular agriculture, both acellular and cell-based. The following resources discuss the growing presence of alternative proteins in New Zealand and Singapore.
Aotearoa NZ
Unleashing Aotearoa New Zealand’s next protein revolution – Food HQ (July 2023). An in-depth analysis of the emerging protein market in Aotearoa New Zealand, including ten major emerging protein sources that are laboratory-based, plant-based, or from additional natural sources.
WELL_NZ: Alternative Protein 2022 – establishing a fact-base – Te Puna Whakaaronui (November 2022). Report from New Zealand’s food and fibre think tank on alternative proteins, discussing aspects of conventional and alternative meat and dairy, and the potential impacts of a shift to alternative proteins in New Zealand.
Singapore
Mapped: Singapore’s Plant-Based Meat B2B Ecosystem – Good Food Institute Asia-Pacific (2021). Describes Singapore’s alternative protein ecosystem, discussing supporting organisations from both the private and public sectors.
International
State of the industry report – Fermentation: An introduction to a pillar of the alternative protein industry – The Good Food Institute (2020). An overview of the wider alternative protein fermentation industry touching on acellular agriculture.
Cellular agriculture: An extension of common production methods for food – The Good Food Institute (March 2018). This article compares existing industrial precision fermentation techniques to acellular agriculture.
Cell-based agriculture
The following resources discuss cell-based meat in New Zealand and Singapore, as well as in an international context.
Aotearoa NZ
The role of red meat in healthy & sustainable New Zealand diets – Beef + Lamb NZ (November 2020). This in-depth article describes the role of red meat in Aotearoa New Zealand society, covering nutrition, eating patterns, chronic disease, farming and sustainability. Page 56 covers cellular agriculture.
Synthetic food: should NZ worry? A scene setter – berl (May 2019). A high-level review of cellular agriculture, its technical challenges, potential benefits and the potential implications of its uptake on the Aotearoa New Zealand agricultural sector. A summary can be found here.
Singapore
Singapore emerging as a hub for cellular agrifood production and sales — Tackling the issue of food security – Mitsui & Co. Global Strategic Studies Institute (December 2022). Describes the Singapore cultivated meat landscape and potential challenges facing local industry.
International
2023 state of the industry report: Cultivated meat and seafood – Good Food Institute (April 2024). A high-level overview of the current state of the global cellular agriculture industry.
Cultivated meat: Out of the lab, into the frying pan – McKinsey & Company (June 2021). Looks at the status of the international cultivated meat industry, giving a quick introduction to consumer perception, health & safety, production costs, policy responses and the future of the cultivated meat industry.
The long and narrow path for novel cell-based seafood to reduce fishing pressure for marine ecosystem recovery – Halpern et al. (February 2021). A research article on cell-based seafood covering technology, society, market and its role in conservation. It concludes that cell-based seafood is unlikely to have benefits from a conservation perspective as is often claimed.
Life cycle analyses of cell-based meat
The argument by proponents of cell-based meat and milk is often the promise of environmental benefits when compared to traditional pastoral agriculture. The resources below discuss the predicted lifecycle of cell-based meat versus conventional agriculture, as well as discussing ways to compare the lifecycle of different manufacturing approaches.
The climate impact and land use of cultivated meat: evaluating agricultural feedstock production – Kossmann et al. (January 2025). Compares the climate impact and land use required for cultivated meat production vs. conventional pork production, concluding that cultivated meat production using plants as raw material is unlikely to improve land use efficiency or significantly mitigate climate change.
A proposed framework for evaluating meat alternatives – Semper et al. (November 2024). A proposed framework for evaluating meat alternatives, including assessment of economic and environmental benefits when compared to animal-derived meat.
Will “cultured meat” transform our food system towards more sustainability? – Hocquette et al. (March 2024). A review looking at the environmental footprint of cultured meat when compared to conventional agriculture, placed in the context of ethical debate over the introduction of cell-based future food technologies.
Ex-ante life cycle assessment of commercial-scale cultivated meat production in 2030 – Sinke et al. (January 2023). Models the environmental performance of cultivated meat production in the year 2030, making the prediction that at this stage cultivated meat production will be three times more efficient at turning crops into meat than chicken, the most efficient food animal, with a similar climate footprint.
Prospective life cycle assessment of a bioprocess design for cultured meat production in hollow fiber bioreactors – Tuomisto et al. (December 2022). A life cycle assessment (LCA) of cultivated meat grown in hollow fibre bioreactors, providing a framework to compare bioprocess design scenarios based on their environmental impacts.
Research databases
The following databases are useful compilations of technical resources for researchers and industry professionals within the cellular agriculture space.
Alternative protein researcher directory – Good Food Institute (active database). Contains the contact details of global researchers working within the alternative protein sector who are searching for collaboration opportunities.
Expanding access to cell lines – Good Food Institute (active database). A directory of cell lines useful for cultivated meat or seafood research that are available to the research community.