Authored By: Nusrat Hassan (Managing Partner) and Tanvi Pande (Principal Associate)


Imagine yourself eating an incredibly delicious chickeny Chicken from the Chicken that is sitting next to you and that too ALIVE!! Wouldn’t that be interesting? So, is the topic.

A lab grown meat also called as ‘Cultivated Meat’ or a ‘Cell Based Meat’ is an alternative source of meat, grown and cultured in the lab by taking out the cells of a living or a dead animal through biopsy and thereafter culturing the cells in growth ingredients like growth factors amino acids, sugar, vitamins and other minerals amongst others, in a bioreactor. The end product being chicken or beef or pork or seafood that resembles similar to a meat in texture, taste, flavour, composition of nutrients (may be even better).

This technology of cell-based food also purports to potentially reduce carbon emissions claiming to be more climate friendly at a time when the world is fast approaching the Paris agreement’s limits.

Regulations in India

There is no specific law for the regulating cultivated meat in India. In a recent Global Food Regulators Summit 2024, the heath minister has emphasized the need to have regulatory framework for novel food including cultivated meat. Currently, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) which is a food regulator in India classifies cultivated meat as a “Novel Food” under the Food Safety and Standards (Health Supplements, Nutraceuticals, Food for Special Dietary Use, Food for Special Medical Purpose, Functional Food, and Novel Food) Regulations, 2016 (herein referred as “Novel Food Regulations”).

As per the Novel Food Regulations, Novel Food is a (i) food that may not have a history of human consumption; or

(ii) may have any ingredient used in it which or the source from which it is derived, may not have a history of human consumption; or

(iii) a food or ingredient obtained by new technology with innovative engineering process, where the process may give rise to significant change in the composition or structure or size of the food or food ingredients which may alter the nutritional value, metabolism or level of undesirable substances.

Any manufacture, sale, import, export of the novel food for commercial purpose require approval from the FSSAI. As there being no regulations in place, there are no approvals from the FSSAI for sale of cultivated meat and India still remains at the research and development phase. Singapore is the very first country in the world to receive approval by the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) in 2020 for the Chicken nugget, followed by the United States, 2022 for the Chicken meat. Also, this year an Israeli company Aleph Farms has received approval for sale of cultivated beef and the United Kingdom recently in the month of July received approval for sale of cell-based meat in the petfood segment.

Though, the procedure for applying pre-market approval for novel food is specified under the Food Safety and Standards (Approval for Non-Specified Food and Ingredients) 2017, however, it would really help in the development of cultivated meat in India if the government clarifies that it would also be available and applicable to cultivated meat.

India at the special spot for cultivated meat market

India is the third largest producer of greenhouse gases (GHGs) globally after the US and China. A single cow emits 200-500 pound of methane gas per year which is one of the GHGs and a single cow consumes 12-15 gallons (1 gallon approx. 3.7 liters) of water every day. Considering India’s high cattle population and India being one of the lead exporters of beef in the world, extensive use of natural resources in rearing these animals has led to environmental degradation, deforestation and other environmental concerns in the country.

Further, India is witnessing massive population pressure which has already surpassed the population of China to become world most populus country with 2050 projection to reach approx. 1.7 billion. Balancing food security issues with the growing population and growing demand for alternative proteins will be a pressing priority for the government in the coming years.  

Cultivated meat technology claims to potentially reduce carbon emissions, less dependency on natural resources which will significantly benefit the environment and reduce other health issues from the conventional livestock farming. However, at the same time the alleged benefits would be questionable, as the innovations and technology is still in its infancy and the benefits of this technology will be seen only when the companies in this sector will be able to produce cultivated meat in large scale and be able to sell within affordable price.

Further, India’s strong pharmaceutical sector may prove pivotal in boosting the capability of the companies in this sector in the production of cultivated meat by supplying critical growth medium ingredients at competitive prices.

Some key considerations that may be required to be considered by the Indian regulators

  1. Nomenclature Issue: What are we calling this product- “invitro meat”, “slaughter free meat”, “cell-based meat”, “cultivated meat” or “clean meat” would help companies understand the regulatory specifications at an early stage. Clear and accurate labelling is crucial to inform the consumers about the nature of the product which differentiate it from plant based or traditional meat. Studies have been conducted where “Cell-based” “Cultivated or “Cultured” creates the greatest differentiation, differentiating between a regular or a plant-based meat.
  2. Labelling and Consumer acceptance Issue: How specific the labelling requirements are with respect to disclosing the necessary information about the production process, potential health and environmental benefits, nutritional value, carbon emissions and how transparent the companies are in disclosing it to the consumers would help in easy consumer acceptance. Clear and transparent labelling will help the companies stay out of any potential health, environment claims. Regulators would have to consider how to label cultured meat products.
  3. Patent Considerations: Understanding and navigating complex IP landscape is crucial. Patent scope should be clear: (i) process patent; (ii) product patent; (iii) compositional patents; (iv) equipment patents; (v) brand and logos. Developing comprehensive IP strategy early in the R&D process will help the companies in navigating IP landscape. Further, as this sector demands heavy investments, investors would want to protect their investment by pushing the companies to file patent application with the regulators.

In India, FSSAI has formed a working group committee to study the possible regulatory pathways to introduce cultivated meat in India. There are no premarket approvals yet for its commercialisation, but we may end up soon seeing cultivated meat in the menu of Michelin Star like restaurants. Whilst there is much anticipation and excitement with regards to cultivated meat development, it is yet to be seen how differently regulators draft the regulations in tandem with the rapid technological advancements to provide impetus in the development of cultivated meat.