Manufacturers highlight the potential health benefits and sustainability aspects of alternative protein products, but these offerings are often more expensive than their traditional counterparts.

While taste is critical, price is a significant factor in consumer purchase decisions. The Good Food Institute (GFI) notes plant-based categories can sit “two -to-four-times the price of conventional products,” adding “altruistic” characteristics may not be the strongest purchase drivers. In research conducted on behalf of GFI by Morning Consult, 21% of surveyed consumers who had tried plant-based meat products once said it was too expensive to buy again.

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“Consumers only have so much money to spend on their food, and when meat is cheap, it's the default, despite the fact that it comes with other downsides such as health and environmental concerns from production,” says Christie Lagally, founder and CEO of plant-based chicken manufacturer Rebellyous Foods.

Reducing prices may help entice consumers, but it’s also important to consider your target, says Doug Grant, co-founder and CEO of cultivated seafood developer Atlantic Fish Co.

“If you can make a structured product, your cost parity gets a lot easier than if you’re trying to get cost parity with a fish stick, or a chicken nugget, a hamburger,” he says. “That’s what the plant-based folks have been trying to hit cost parity with. If you can have a more high-end product – think like foie gras – it lends itself to where cell ag can hit cost parity and win that market. What you’re going after matters when you talk about parity.”

Through enhancements in production technology and ingredient solutions, makers of alternative protein products seek methods to lower manufacturing costs, improve scale – and ultimately – approach price parity with traditional protein.

Plant-Based Manufacturing

Not unlike general food production, the main cost drivers for plant-based protein production are ingredients, freight and the manufacturing itself, Lagally says.

To optimize the manufacturing process, Rebellyous Foods recently introduced Mock 2, a fully continuous, automated and chilled dough substrate processing system that reduces manufacturing costs compared to conventional methods. It can produce a range of plant-based meat products at volumes of 2,500-5,000 lbs. per hour on a single processing line.

“Rebellyous' Mock 2 is the culmination of years of research to convert batch processing of plant-based meat ingredients into a continuous process and address the temperature control and specific processing steps that aren't typically done in a continuous process,” Lagally says. “Our globally patented technology brings together several subsystems that currently are only done in batch processing, so production can be streamlined, efficient and done at a lower cost while improving the quality of the product.”

Rebellyous Food installed the first Mock 2 system at RMS Foods’ facility in Hobson, New Mexico, where it produces Boca products. Lagally and her company plan to install other Mock 2 systems in locations that are close to the company’s ingredient sources.

“By creating an automated production system that could be installed almost anywhere, the Mock 2 can help address the need for regional production while lowering the costs of shipping ingredients,” Lagally says.

Meanwhile, combining ingredient solutions with manufacturing techniques can also reduce costs. Germany’s Planteneers developed the fiildMeat S 111404 system to manufacture of cold cut alternatives with pea and soy proteins and hydrocolloids.

“It’s all about the right shear in the cutter and the ideal processing temperature,” says Planteneer Product Manager Rebecca Bohlmann. “Our technologists and applications researchers at the Stern Technology Center simulate and test the production process on pilot plants. This let us develop a cost-optimized recipe for plant-based cold cuts that also meets consumer expectations in terms of flavor, color and texture.”

Cell-Cultivated Products

When it comes to cellular agriculture, one of the largest expenses is growth media, or a nutrient “broth” containing amino acids, enzymes and other compounds cells need to reproduce, Grant says.

Fetal bovine serum – obtained from slaughtered cows during pregnancy – is used as a growth media in pharma contexts, but it’s expensive and hasn’t been verified for human safety. For cultivated meat and seafood, companies need to develop a growth media with food-grade products that is also compatible with the protein they aim to create.

“You really have to get some media that’s tailored and designed for whatever you’re growing,” Grant says. “There isn’t a magic bullet growth media that can work for all species of animals and all kinds of cell types. This is a big piece of R&D for all the companies in our space – making a media that works for your cells, that is cheap, that is safe and checks all the boxes for a food product.”

Bioreactors also present a significant expense. The stainless-steel vessels can hold thousands of liters of growth media, and as Grant notes, companies are modeling systems with even larger capacities – up to one million liters. However, infrastructure around the tanks is also needed to manage input handling and downstream processing.

Late last year, Migros, Givaudan, and Bühler Group joined forces to help alleviate infrastructure pressures. The companies launched The Cultured Hub, a Switzerland-based joint venture designed to accelerate the development and market penetration of cellular agriculture products.

Featuring product development labs and cell culture and fermentation equipment, startups and other organizations can scale up their processes from small-scale laboratory experiments to 1,000-liter pilot operations without investing in expensive assets or diluting equity. This capability bridges the gap between research and commercial production, enabling companies to demonstrate and refine their processes.

"The launch of The Cultured Hub is a pivotal moment in the global push for sustainable food production," says Yannick Gaechter, CEO of The Cultured Hub. "The opening of this facility is not just an achievement for our team, but a landmark moment for the industry. We are excited to open a facility that will enable startups to scale up without heavy capital investment and contribute to global food system improvements.”

In September, Believer Meats announced plans to team up with GEA and co-develop technologies and processes to improve the unit economics and sustainability of cultivated meat production. Believer is constructing a cultivated meat production facility in Wilson, N.C., featuring an innovation center and tasting kitchen. Set to be operational this year, the facility will have the capacity to produce at least 12,000 metric tons (26 million lbs.) of cultivated chicken annually.

GEA will commission proprietary bioreactors for Believer’s cell-cultivation technology, designed to achieve high cell densities and yields. Critical to this collaboration is Believer’s centrifuge-based perfusion and cell media rejuvenation process for its cell lines, which the company says “optimizes cell performance while saving water, nutrients and resources. This process reduces production costs by removing byproducts and enabling media reuse.”

“Believer is on track to overcome the biggest obstacles to scalability,” says Believer Meats CEO Gustavo Burger. “By partnering with GEA — one of the world's foremost engineering and biotech equipment manufacturers — we are taking the next step in innovating state-of-the-art technology and process engineering capabilities needed to produce cultivated meat products at the right cost. The partnership with GEA will help maximize production yields efficiently and sustainably, which are top priorities for Believer. The cultivated meat industry is forging a new path that has never been traveled. We are thrilled to partner with GEA and are very optimistic about the future.”

What’s Next?

When it comes to adoption, Lagally says she’d like traditional protein processors to adopt plant-based technologies.

“Rebellyous' Mock 2 technology needs to be deployed in meat processing facilities so that such facilities can convert to high-quality, plant-based meat production without losing revenue,” Lagally says. “And time is of the essence since meat producers are dealing with a variety of issues with meat production. Plant-based meat production is an ideal way to serve the demand for protein.

While research and development are ongoing, cell-cultivated meat and seafood alternatives are still not available on the market in the U.S. Nonetheless, Grant says he’s encouraged by technology advancements, adding regulatory approval – followed by the opportunity to build an audience for cell-cultivated alternatives – should help reduce manufacturing costs.

“Once people start buying those things, then we can talk about lowering costs because you’ve got a market, you’ve got businesses out there selling stuff, and then you have access to other capital you wouldn’t have otherwise,” Grant says. “Regulatory will be the big unlock for a lot of money flowing in, which will in turn lower the cost of production.”