Power Play in Protein: Meatable and TruMeat Launch Commercial Cultivated Meat Facility

Courtesy: Meatable

In a significant development for the cultivated meat industry, Dutch food tech company Meatable and Singapore-based contract manufacturer TruMeat have announced a strategic partnership to advance the global commercialisation of cultivated meat. The collaboration centres on building a state-of-the-art production facility in Singapore, which will be operated by TruMeat using Meatable’s proprietary technology.

This marks a key milestone in Meatable’s efforts to reduce the cost of cultivated meat and scale its production to meet market demands. The new facility will be the first in Singapore to manufacture cultivated meat at the volumes and price points necessary to support product development, testing, and commercial launch for industry partners. For Meatable, which has developed a patented approach to growing real meat from a single cell without harming animals, the move represents a clear step toward making cultivated pork a viable alternative for consumers and food companies alike.

Jeff Tripician, CEO of Meatable, described the partnership as “the next step in our journey to make cultivated meat accessible and affordable.” He added: “We have full trust in TruMeat’s expertise, and together, we are confident in our ability to optimise processes and scale efficiently.”

Singapore continues to emerge as one of the most progressive global environments for alternative protein development. Since becoming the first country in the world to approve the sale of cultivated meat in 2020, the city-state has positioned itself as a hub for food innovation. With its ambitious “30 by 30” strategy—aiming to produce 30% of its nutritional needs domestically by 2030—Singapore has created both the regulatory and investment ecosystem that companies need to move from pilot to commercial scale.

TruMeat Chair James Chui said the company had been watching the cultivated meat sector closely and was impressed by the potential of Meatable’s platform. “We recognise that Meatable is a clear leader in the cultivated meat space, and we have been waiting for a technology with this potential,” Chui said. “We are very confident that by combining our strengths, we can achieve the necessary cost reductions and the commercial scale to make cultivated meat a viable option for global markets.”

The partnership also signals a broader industry trend: a shift away from the early emphasis on scientific novelty toward a greater focus on cost engineering, manufacturing efficiency, and market integration. As cultivated meat companies move out of the lab and into pilot and commercial-scale facilities, collaboration with manufacturing partners like TruMeat becomes increasingly critical.

Singapore’s strategic importance in the cultivated meat sector has drawn several pioneering companies over the years, thanks to its supportive regulatory stance and ambitious food innovation targets. GOOD Meat a subsidiary of Eat Just, made global headlines when it became the first company to receive regulatory approval to sell cultivated meat in 2020 and has since launched pilot-scale production in the country. Australian startup Vow followed suit in 2024, receiving approval to sell its cultivated quail product, Forged Parfait, marking another step forward in diversifying the local cultivated meat landscape. These companies are part of a growing ecosystem supported by Singapore’s regulatory openness and investment incentives, which continue to attract startups and established players aiming to test, scale, and commercialise novel protein products in Asia and beyond.

Meatable, which previously raised just under $100 million in funding and demonstrated cultivated pork sausages and dumplings as proof-of-concept products, sees Singapore not only as a launchpad but also as a key test market. The region’s culinary diversity, openness to innovation, and strong food safety infrastructure provide ideal conditions for iteration and scale.

This latest collaboration with TruMeat is not Meatable’s first move toward strategic manufacturing partnerships. Earlier internal discussions referenced the need for companies in the cultivated meat space to team up with scale-up specialists who can navigate the complexity of bioprocessing and regulatory compliance across multiple markets. While the collaboration with TruMeat is the most concrete step to date, it reflects a broader vision: an industry where science, scale, and supply chains converge to deliver on the promise of meat without slaughter.

With the facility slated to open in the near future, all eyes will be on how quickly Meatable and TruMeat can demonstrate cost-effective production at scale. If successful, the project could serve as a blueprint for similar facilities in other regions, accelerating the timeline for cultivated meat to become a meaningful part of the global protein supply.