Briefing: L Catterton-backed Aleph Farms files for UK cultivated meat approval

Israeli cultivated meat start-up Aleph Farms has submitted an application to the UK’s Food Standards Agency to sell its beef steak product in the country.

It follows on the heels of Aleph Farm’s July application to the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office for the same beef product, which was done in collaboration with Swiss supermarket giant Migros.

The approval process in both countries is expected to take at least two years. Singapore and the US remain the only two countries where cultivated meat has received regulatory approval.

Aleph Farms was founded in 2017 and most recently raised $105 million in a 2021 Series B funding round co-led by L Catterton’s Growth Fund and Disrupt AD.

The company’s other backers include Cargill, Thai Union, BRF, CPT Capital and Leonardo DiCaprio, among others.

Eat Just became the first cultivated meat company to receive regulatory approval in 2020 when its chicken product was approved in Singapore.

Under its GOOD Meat brand, Eat Just also received regulatory approval in the US in June this year alongside Upside Foods, both of which were for chicken products.

Investors into Upside Foods include Temasek, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund, Cargill, SoftBank, Tyson Foods and Bill Gates, among others.

GOOD Meat is backed by investors such as UBS Asset Management subsidiary UBS O’Connor, Graphene Ventures, K3 Ventures and Resilience Reserve, among others.