Patent data shows innovation in the plant-based meat remains historically high

Innovation in plant-based meat remains historically high despite a recent dip in numbers, according to the latest patent data reported by Appleyard Lees.

However, cultivated meat technology investment and associated patent activity has recently slowed significantly.

The fourth annual edition of the Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report from the leading intellectual property firm reveals a slight fall (c.7%) in patent filings for plant-based meat technology in 2022, though still reaching the second highest-ever level after 2021 (264 versus 283). This fall in innovation investment comes as sales in the plant-based meat industry declined by 26% in the two years to 2023.

Meanwhile, an almost four-fold increase in patent filings for cultivated meat from 2019-2020, and a further increase of more than a fifth to 2021, has shrunk to a three per cent uplift in 2022, the latest available data.

Appleyard Lees’ Chris Mason, partner, noted that plant-based meats offer a potentially more environmentally sustainable alternative to ‘real’ meat but reducing the cost of producing and retailing plant-based meats combined with improving the nutritional profile may be required to reinvigorate the industry.

“And global investment in cultivated meat and seafood companies fell from $922.3m in 2022 to $225.9m in 2023,” Mason added. “The top five cell-based meat manufacturers accounted for 46.9% of all funds raised and this has created a challenging environment for any new start-up firms entering the industry.”

Appleyard Lees recognised that in plant-based meat, pea and soy innovation is growing in parallel.

A significant fall in recent sales for plant-based meat may be driven by consumer concerns with processed foods, poor eating experience compared with conventional meats and the 77% price premium by weight. This, along with possible Covid-19 pandemic impact, could be blamed for the blip in patent filings after unbroken growth since 2014.

That said, 2022’s second-highest level of innovation for plant-based technologies has seen patent filings for pea protein and soy jointly leading the pack, with wheat in third place and tofu and tempeh showing the only increase in patent applications in the latest data. In terms of the innovation focus, patents aimed at food texture are overtaking those for flavour.

Country-wise, South Korea has held the lead for innovation ahead of the USA, potentially due to the growing popularity of veganism and flexitarianism. Notable companies in the field include Nestle – focusing on protein binders, connective tissue analogues and texture improvements – and Roquette Freres, concentrating on patents for both texture and flavour of pea protein.

Appleyard Lees observed that cultivated meat is a “sector with challenges but an ongoing appetite”,

In the field of cultivated meat technologies, stalled innovation activity may be the result of companies focusing on scaling up production to commercialise their inventions. However, the latest patent filings are seeking to protect applications including equipment and methods to reduce production costs and increase capacity, such as bioreactors and suspension cell culture. These innovations are accompanied by other activity in culture media with additional nutritional components and ingredients, plus ways to mimic actual meat texture, smell and taste in cultured meat.

In this area of alternative meat innovation, the USA leads the field by some distance, followed by Europe and South Korea. The US company leading the sector for patent filings, Upside Foods, gained the first regulatory approval for any cultivated meat product in the US in 2022 for cultivated chicken. Patent filings in the UK, which constitute more than 10% of the global total, are coming mainly from Oxford University spin-out, Ivy Farm Technologies.

Alice Smart, associate at Appleyard Lees, added: “There was still significant funding in the plant-based meats industry in 2022, with over $1bn of investment and a similar amount in governmental research funding announced through 2022 and 2023. This shows that improving plant-based meats is still a topic that both investors and governments see as a potential solution to the problems of environmentally sustainable food production.

“In the cultivated meat sector, scaling up is clearly the current focus and the biggest technological obstacle to further development faced by the more established companies in this sector. The desire to create an affordable and sustainable product is driving innovations in high volume methods, accelerated production and ways to make the culturing process more efficient. This push to scale up will need to move in parallel with progressive regulatory and funding environments to see this industry of high potential move to the next level.”

The Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report – Fourth Edition’s focus on alternative meat technologies was chosen because of its prominence in the global green innovation conversation, as referenced in the OECD’s and United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Green Innovation Database, a global innovation catalogue that connects needs for solving environmental or climate change problems with sustainable solutions.

*Appleyard Lees’ Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report – Fourth Edition is available to read here.

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