NEW TECH FOODS

Food-tech start-up TissenBioFarm has announced a major breakthrough for the cell-based F&B category: the production of cultivated meat with cell density equivalent to that of conventional meat.

Mosa Meat, a Dutch cell-cultivated beef company, has raised €15 million in new funding, following a €40 million round and a successful crowdfunding campaign, bringing total capital raised over the past two years to €58 million.

A new report from The Vegan Society, unveiled today (2 January 2026) for Veganuary, offers insights into how vegan diets are shaping global culture and F&B industry innovation.

Simona Fehlmann, CEO and co-founder of Sallea, explains how scaffold innovation is enabling manufacturers to produce structured whole cuts like steaks and fillets, overcoming key technical challenges in lab-grown meat production.

Here’s our round-up of the top 10 stories that shaped the new tech foods landscape this year – showing how science, sustainability and creativity are changing the way our food is made.

Dutch cultivated meat company Meatable is ceasing operations and will dissolve its legal entity after failing to secure continued funding.

Malaysia’s Islamic authority has issued a landmark ruling allowing cultivated meat to be considered halal, marking a first for a Muslim-majority country.

Believer Meats – one of the few cultivated meat companies to clear both the FDA and USDA steps required to sell its products in the US – has ceased operations.

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA), in collaboration with Food Standards Scotland (FSS), has released the country’s first safety guidance for cell-cultivated products (CCPs), commonly known as lab-grown meat.

Cultigen Group has launched Cellbase, a B2B marketplace designed to help cultivated meat companies source equipment and materials more efficiently.

Germany-based cultivated fish producer Bluu is entering new markets beyond food as it looks to supply high-value marine ingredients to the health and beauty sectors.

Agronomics Limited portfolio company SuperMeat has secured $3.5 million in funding through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE), with Agronomics contributing $2 million – $0.75 million in cash and $1.25 million via new shares.

A dairy farm in Zuid-Holland has become the first in the world to produce cultivated meat on-site, through a collaboration between start-up RespectFarms and farmer Corné van Leeuwen.

Pluri has secured new international collaboration agreements across its cell-based food and agriculture subsidiaries, extending its commercial footprint in Asia, Europe and the US.

UK cultivated fat producer Hoxton Farms has submitted its first regulatory dossier to the Singapore Food Agency (SFA), seeking approval to commercialise its cultivated pork fat in Singapore.

Food-tech start-up Atlantic Fish Co has closed its seed financing round, raising $1.2 million to accelerate development of its cultivated seafood platform.

Fork & Good has announced the acquisition of fellow cultivated meat company Orbillion, combining their respective expertise in cultivated pork and beef to create what the companies describe as a cost-effective platform for red meat production.

JSBio has announced an expanded focus on cellular agriculture, leveraging its biopharma expertise to advance the scalability and cost-efficiency of cultivated meat production.

Believer Meats has received approval from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for its product label and large-scale production facility in North Carolina.

Atlantic Fish Co (AFC) has raised $1.2 million in seed funding to accelerate the development and regulatory progress of its cultivated seafood products.