Cell-cultivated meat set to outpace livestock on innovation, according to GetFocus tech forecast

Cell-cultivated meat is not just a scientific novelty – it's on track to outpace conventional livestock in performance, efficiency, and scalability, according to a new report by technology intelligence firm GetFocus.

The report, Lab-Grown Meat: The Revolution of Protein, maps the improvement rates of cell-cultivated meat technologies against those of traditional meat production, using patent analysis and AI-led forecasting. It finds that cell-cultivated meat has consistently improved faster than livestock over the past two decades, and that its rate of technological progress is accelerating once again.

“While still in its developmental phase, the pace of innovation in cultured meat now significantly outstrips that of conventional alternatives,” the report states. “It suggests we may be closer than expected to price-competitive, scalable production.”

The analysis is based on GetFocus’s proprietary forecasting model, which examines patent trends to calculate how quickly performance per dollar is improving in a given field. Using metrics like knowledge flow and cycle time – essentially how often meaningful innovation occurs – the model shows cell-cultivated meat improving at a far higher rate than livestock techniques. While livestock has seen only modest efficiency gains, cultured meat technologies have gone through sharper periods of innovation, particularly after 2013, and are currently trending upward again.

A central enabler of this progress is the bioreactor – the sterile, high-tech vessel where cells are grown into muscle tissue. According to the report, bioreactor capabilities are improving at an annual rate of 20%, meaning they are set to double in performance roughly every 3.6 years. This trend, if sustained, would allow cell-cultivated meat to reach cost and volume parity with animal meat faster than many in the industry have forecast.

Yet speed of innovation isn’t just about individual components – it also depends on how mature those technologies are. To measure that, GetFocus uses the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) framework, a nine-point scale originally developed by NASA and now widely used to assess how close a technology is to commercial deployment.

In the case of cell-cultivated meat, core systems like stirred-tank bioreactors are already at TRL 8 – meaning they are proven in an operational setting and close to being fully deployable at scale. Muscle tissue cultivation, the base for products like burgers and nuggets, is at TRL 7, while more complex innovations such as structured whole cuts and scaffold-integrated bioreactors remain earlier in development, typically around TRL 4.

That’s where many of the current bottlenecks lie. Cultivating structured meats with the look and texture of steaks, for instance, is still more expensive and harder to scale than ground meat. Likewise, the growth of fat cells – essential for replicating flavor and nutrition – remains cost-intensive and technically less optimized than muscle tissue lines.

But these limitations may not hold for long. As the report notes, improvement rates tend to follow a familiar curve: slow initial progress, followed by periods of rapid advancement as key hurdles are overcome and knowledge compounds. This has already been observed in cell-cultivated meat’s early development, and is now being seen again in bioreactor design and growth media innovation.

For investors and companies watching the space, GetFocus identifies near-term opportunities in technologies that are both maturing and scalable – notably stirred-tank bioreactors and ground meat formats. Whole cuts and perfusion bioreactors are still early-stage, but could offer strong differentiation as they mature.

While cost and consumer acceptance are still open questions, GetFocus argues that the rate of improvement is ultimately what matters most for future impact. And on that front, cell-cultivated meat is showing all the right signals.

Patent activity supports this trajectory. The USA and China are currently the most active geographies for cell-cultivated meat innovation, with companies like Upside Foods, Good Meat, and Vow leading patent filings. Four of the top five institutional patent holders are Chinese, pointing to strategic investment in the sector. Upside Foods, which received USDA and FDA approval for cultivated chicken in 2023, holds the most patents globally.

Meanwhile, the regulatory picture remains fragmented. Singapore, the USA, Israel (and as of 18 June 2025 Australia) have all approved cell-cultivated meat products for sale, while Europe remains more cautious. Italy, notably, banned the commercialization of cell-cultivated meat in 2023. Despite these variations, GetFocus sees regulation catching up in key markets as technologies mature and consumer interest stabilizes.

“From petri dish to dinner plate, the meat may not be real – but the data is,” the report concludes. “What we’re seeing is not just progress, but acceleration. And that makes all the difference when forecasting which food technologies are poised to win.”

If cell-cultivated meat can maintain or even increase its current pace of improvement, the path from novelty to norm could be shorter than expected.