GOURMEY hits €7/kg cultivated meat milestone with Arthur D. Little backing

GOURMEY, the Paris-based cultivated meat company, has achieved a major industry milestone with third-party validation confirming that its production platform can reach costs as low as €7 per kilogram (US$3.43 per pound) at commercial scale.

The independent review, conducted by global consultancy Arthur D. Little, confirms that GOURMEY’s modular, continuous biomanufacturing model is both technically and economically viable – and significantly more efficient than traditional batch-based approaches still common in the cultivated meat sector.

“GOURMEY just had its production model independently reviewed by Arthur D. Little, and their analysis confirms something we’ve been quietly working toward for a long time: a real, credible path to making cultivated meat scalable and viable,” said Nicolas Morin-Forest, CEO & Co-founder of GOURMEY.

“Arthur D. Little’s review validates that GOURMEY’s technology can hit production costs as low as €7/kg at commercial scale, all without relying on unproven tech or futuristic mega-factories,” he continued. “Our goal in sharing this milestone is simple: to help fuel a rational, science-based conversation about what it actually takes to make cultivated meat production work, beyond the hype.”

Unlike first-generation cultivated meat systems, which typically involve expensive growth factors, cell differentiation, and complex bioreactor designs, GOURMEY’s platform strips away these elements. The company cultivates undifferentiated stem cells in suspension using a continuous perfusion process, removing the need for scaffolds, microcarriers, and other scale-up hurdles.

“Instead of going bigger and bigger with bioreactors, our 5,000L setup works – no giga-reactors needed,” Morin-Forest said. “We’ve stripped out most of the industry scale-up bottlenecks and focused on a system that’s modular, asset-light, and built for continuous biomanufacturing.”

The review, part of Arthur D. Little’s Cultivated Meat: A Sustainable & Profitable Protein Revolution? report, identifies GOURMEY’s process as one of the most credible routes to cost parity. Current first-generation systems can cost between €250 and €300/kg (US$279-$335/kg), while GOURMEY’s model – using food-grade media costing as little as €0.2/liter – targets production costs below €10/kg under real industrial conditions.

GOURMEY’s Paris-based pilot facility uses six 5,000-liter bioreactors to achieve around 90% of the scale benefits of larger setups, without the complexity, capital intensity, or contamination risk associated with giga-scale operations. The company’s estimated €35 million (US$39 million) setup reflects a capital-efficient model built for replication and fast iteration.

The Arthur D. Little report highlights five key factors influencing cultivated meat cost: media cost, cell line performance, processing method, product formulation, and production design. GOURMEY’s platform directly addresses all five through smart engineering, biological efficiency, and a commercially grounded strategy.

To generate revenue while proving its model, GOURMEY is initially targeting high-value applications such as cultivated foie gras – a product category with strong culinary demand and significant ethical, regulatory, and supply constraints. The approach gives the company a viable route to early market entry while building capacity for broader applications.

“We still see the immediate future of cultivated meat focused on premium products,” Morin-Forest said. “But this opens the door for genuinely low-carbon, nutritious proteins to become much more accessible.”

Arthur D. Little also emphasizes that technical progress alone won’t guarantee success. Navigating regulatory approvals, managing capital expenditures, and building consumer trust remain critical challenges for the sector. Companies must also engage with policymakers to harmonize standards and communicate transparently about cultivated meat’s benefits.

As the global protein market grows – with demand forecast to increase by 50% by 2050 – the role of sustainable alternatives like cultivated meat is becoming more urgent. According to the report, the sector could represent a €510 billion (US$570 billion) market by mid-century, but only if it moves beyond pilot-scale science into scalable, cost-effective production.

“Let’s keep the science-based conversation going,” Morin-Forest concluded. “Onward!”