First-Ever In-Market Study of Cultivated Meat Demonstrates Strong Acceptance

ALAMEDA, Calif, March 13, 2024 – This week, a landmark study1 was published in Future Foods, a peer-reviewed scientific journal dedicated to sustainability in food science, finding that buying and eating cultivated meat “significantly boosted” diners’ acceptance of this novel food. The study, conducted at Huber’s Butchery and Bistro in Singapore, where GOOD Meat cultivated chicken dishes have been served since early 2023, also found that after trying cultivated chicken, diners expressed a strong willingness to eat it again, and to recommend it to friends or family.

“This report is significant, as it’s the first-ever study of actual paying consumers of cultivated meat. The findings are clear: when consumers are free to buy cultivated meat, they are much more likely to accept it and suggest it to their friends and family,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat.

In surveying more than 100 people who sat down to a meal at Huber’s in 2023, Singapore Management University researchers Mark Chong, Angela Leung, and Tricia Marjorie Fernandez used a real-life setting to determine whether “presenting cultivated meat in the context of a familiar meal in a familiar social setting” would predict diners’ willingness to try it again and recommend it to others. In addition to the findings detailed above, the study also reinforced GOOD Meat’s “strategy of socializing cultivated chicken to consumers through curated food trials at restaurants: eating is believing.”

“We undertook this study because it represented an unprecedented opportunity to study consumer reactions in an actual consumption setting,” stated Dr. Mark Chong, one of the study’s authors and Professor of Communication Management (Practice) at Singapore Management University. “Our findings scientifically validate the importance of sensory experience (e.g. through product trials) and tastiness to consumers' repeat consumption of cultivated meat.”

Taste was another important factor in the study, showing that “tastiness” of the cultivated chicken itself was more important to diners than whether the chicken was presented in a “familiar meal or dish”. Survey participants gave cultivated meat a score of 4.2/5 on taste, and 4.45/5 on willingness to recommend to others.

“Singaporean diners are renowned for their discerning taste in food, so while environmental and public health benefits can be additional motivators, the product has to hit the mark on flavour,” said The Good Food Institute APAC Managing Director Mirte Gosker. “This data shows that cultivated meat can pass that high bar and turn skeptics into enthusiasts, so now we need costs to come down enough to enable such products to reach the masses. That’s going to require greater global collaboration, market access, and investment, but Singapore has made clear that it’s open for business and ready to meet this moment.”

1. Mark Chong, Angela Leung, Tricia Marjorie Fernandez, “On-site sensory experience boosts acceptance of cultivated chicken,” Future Foods, Volume 9, 2024, 100326, ISSN 2666-8335, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fufo.2024.100326.