‘Cultivated’ meat could be the most-consumer-friendly term for cell-cultured meat, suggests research
'Lab-grown’ is a food marketer’s nightmare. But ‘cultivated meat’ might just tick all the boxes when it comes to describing growing meat from animal cells, without slaughter, suggests new research.
ELAINE WATSON: ‘The term ‘clean meat’ is confusing (and carries the tacit implication that regular meat is ‘dirty’), while ‘cell-based meat’ – a more neutral term favored by some startups – doesn’t poll well with shoppers. ‘Lab-grown’ is a food marketer’s nightmare. But ‘cultivated meat’ might just tick all the boxes when it comes to describing growing meat from animal cells, without slaughter, suggests new research.
Regulators will ultimately decide how companies in the nascent cell-cultured meat industry must label their wares, but over the past couple of years, stakeholders have sought to get ahead of the debate (and the ‘lab-grown’ headlines) by trying to come up with terms that might satisfy regulators and consumers without alienating the conventional meat industry…
Earlier consumer research conducted by the GFI had already indicated that ‘cell-based meat’ did not perform well on appeal or purchase intent compared with other options (although it got high marks for descriptiveness and differentiation), said Stuckey, who said she had had a “strong hunch” from the beginning that this term would not give shoppers a warm and fuzzy feeling…
Dr Eric Schulze, VP of product and regulation at Memphis Meats, told FoodNavigator-USA that his company would continue to use the term ‘cell-based meat’ because the term is “factual, inclusive and neutral”… Speaking during a panel debate at the Good Food Conference, Niya Gupta, CEO of Fork & Goode, a startup cultivating animal proteins and fats, said she liked the term ‘cultivated,’ while JUST Inc founder Josh Tetrick said he also preferred it to cell-based meat and cultured meat… Ultimately, however, it will just be referred to as meat, he predicted. “No one says smartphone anymore. It’s just a phone”.’ SOURCE…
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