GOOD Meat and ADM to accelerate cultivated meat production

Eat Just, Inc., a company that applies cutting-edge science and technology on a mission to create healthier, more sustainable foods, announced today that its GOOD Meat division has entered into a joint development agreement with ADM, an international leader in nutrition that powers many of the world’s top food, beverage, health and wellness brands. This is ADM's first strategic partnership of its kind in the cultivated meat sector, which analysts predict could become a $25 billion global industry by 2030.*

GOOD Meat created the world’s first real, high-quality meat made directly from animal cells that has been approved for commercial sale, and the company is accelerating research and development and increasing production capacity to meet customer demand in Singapore and future markets. ADM’s unparalleled capabilities across every part of the global food chain, including human and animal nutrition, establishes an important pathway to large-scale commercialisation of GOOD Meat’s products.

As part of the agreement, ADM will build upon GOOD Meat’s foundational work to optimise the nutrients needed to enable the growth of the cells. In the same way a chicken or a cow absorbs amino acids, vitamins, and fat through consuming soy and corn, GOOD Meat’s cells require an optimal growth medium for quality, cost and volume. It’s a 21st-century extension of what ADM has done for decades in conventional animal agriculture by supplying the industry with superior livestock feed, supplements, and other ingredients for health and wellbeing.

The companies will also collaborate on product development projects for GOOD Meat’s pioneering cultivated meat products, starting with chicken. ADM’s breadth, depth, and insights in food formulation will be leveraged to advance the flavour, texture and other attributes of GOOD Meat’s pipeline of cultivated meat products.

"ADM has been making and innovating in food over 120 years. We are proud to partner with  their incredibly talented team of scientists and engineers to take cultivated meat from a few restaurants today to millions of consumers tomorrow,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Eat Just.

"ADM has long been a pioneer in the alternative protein industry, and our strategic focus right  now is on developing innovative new technology and solutions to continue expanding our capabilities to serve the fast-growing global demand for protein-based nutritional needs,” said Leticia Gonçalves, ADM’s president, Global Foods. “Cultivated meat solutions have an exciting role to play in this space, and we are eager to work together with GOOD Meat to bring great-tasting, innovative cultivated meat products to the Singapore market and beyond.”

Today’s announcement follows the release of ADM’s 2022 Alternative Protein Outlook, which revealed what’s next for protein alternatives. The report highlighted, among other advancements, the movement toward price parity of cultivated meat products with their  McKinsey & Company, "Cultivated meat: Out of the lab, into the frying pan,” June 2021* conventional counterparts. Partnerships between startups like GOOD Meat and established industry leaders like ADM can help expedite that process and bring more protein options to consumers faster. Since 2018, GOOD Meat has achieved a 90% reduction in total costs when operating in a built-for-purpose plant. GOOD Meat’s partnership with ADM ushers in an exciting growth period as the company builds upon its recent regulatory approval in Singapore to sell new types of cultivated chicken and curates new opportunities for consumers to enjoy those products in a variety of settings. The company continues to hire top scientific, engineering and manufacturing talent in the United States and Singapore as it works with its partners to design and manufacture the infrastructure necessary to enable significant increases in cultivated meat production capacity.

Guggenheim Securities served as the financial advisor to GOOD Meat for the ADM transaction.

*McKinsey & Company, "Cultivated meat: Out of the lab, into the frying pan,” June 2021