Vow has been approved to sell its cultivated Japanese Quail in Singapore, making the Australian start-up the the fourth company approved globally to sell a cultivated-meat product.
Launched under the new ‘Forged’ brand label, Vow’s cultivated quail parfait will be the only cultivated meat product currently available to the public anywhere in the world when it launches at Singapore’s Mandala Club on April 12.
Singapore became the first country to approve cultivated meat – or meat produced by scientifically replicating the biological process of cell growth that occurs within the source animal – in 2020, followed by the US in 2023 and Israel earlier this year. The country is known for its innovation in novel protein technologies such as cultivated meat and precision fermentation, with think tank Food Frontier report ranking Singapore as the second most favourable market for alternative proteins in Asia.
US and Israel along with European markets like the Netherlands and the UK have also invested heavily in cultivated meat. Vow made news recently by hosting Europe’s very first cultivated meat tasting in Iceland this past February, an event attended by the country’s prime minister.
“We are the third company in the world to sell cultured meat — a huge feat given this is the goal of more than 150 companies in our industry,” Vow Founder and CEO George Peppou said on Medium. “We’ve achieved this in less than five years with funding of $56 million; that’s around half the time taken and with less than 10% of the capital raised by our competitors that have reached the market.”
Vow’s pivot to a luxury cultivated meat brand
Vow said its pivot to producing cultivated meat first as a luxury product rather than a large-scale meat alternative was based on consumer behaviour.
“Externalities like sustainability or animal ethics are not enough for us to change our behaviours for very long, despite what we’d like to believe,” Peppou said on Medium. “By only changing the process of production, rather than the food itself, you are asking consumers to change their behaviour for the benefit of the planet or animals alone.
“We believe the adoption of cultured meat should mirror electric vehicles; starting as a premium commodity, and moving down market as the technology matures.”
In an interview with AgFunderNews, Peppou said Vow plans to launch two other SKUs using Japanese quail cells under the Forged brand in Singapore later this year and hoped to be selling at least three products in three geographies – including Australia – by the end of 2024.
“Throughout 2024, we intend to roll Forged out across several markets with several products of increasing novelty and distinctiveness,” Peppou said on Medium. “We know Forged is a brand that will likely only ever be in top restaurants and hotels and only ever featured in meals for special occasions.”
Impact of Vow’s approval on Australia
There are currently four companies in Australia and New Zealand working in the cultivated meat ecosystem. Food Frontier described Vow’s approval to sell into another market as a significant development for the sector that should signal confidence to other companies wanting to do the same.
Food Frontier CEO, Dr Simon Eassom, praised Vow’s approach, saying: “Vow has differentiated itself from other start-ups in the cultivated meat sector by deliberately not trying to replicate meat products and formats already available to consumers. It has firmly set its sights on meat eaters looking for new and unique culinary experiences, not just as a business strategy but also as a way of bringing attention to the capacity of cultivated meat technology to completely transform how we think about food.”
Eassom added that Vow’s unique positioning of its ‘Quailia’ as a fictitious new species was likely to attract more interest to the industry as well as to Australia’s R&D capability and skills.
“Although other companies have received regulatory approval to sell their products, for various reasons cultivated meat is not on menus anywhere,” Eassom noted. “This means Vow is the only company currently selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world. That’s an incredible achievement for an Australian company.”
Australian regulator Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) closed its first round of public consultation for Vow’s cultured quail food ingredient in January after concluding it was safe to eat. A second round is expected to open in the coming months, paving the way for Forged Parfait to be available to Australian consumers.
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