Future of Foods Interviews - Alt Proteins, Cell Agriculture, an End to Factory Farming.

How do you move cultivated meat beyond burgers, nuggets and mince and start producing something that resembles a steak or fillet?

In this episode of Future of Foods Interviews, Alex Crisp speaks to Dr Risto Martin, CEO and co-founder of UK biotech company KalvoTech, about one of the biggest technical challenges facing the cultivated meat industry: producing structured meat at scale.

KalvoTech has developed Prokitein™, a protein-based material used to create edible hollow fibres. These fibres are designed to mimic some of the functions of blood vessels, delivering nutrients and oxygen to cells while also providing a structure on which tissue can grow. Crucially, the fibres themselves are edible, allowing the tissue and its supporting structure to become part of the final product.

Risto explains why technology borrowed from the pharmaceutical industry may not necessarily be the best solution for producing meat, and how purpose-built bioreactors could help reduce processing steps, improve texture and ultimately bring down costs.

We also discuss scale-up, commercialisation and where KalvoTech and the UK fit into, what some in the field might call a struggling cultivated meat industry.

Can campaigning against factory farming reach people who have largely switched off from traditional animal-rights messages?

In this episode of Future of Foods Interviews, Alex Crisp speaks to Naomi Hallum, co-founder and CEO of Project Slingshot, about a new approach to changing public attitudes towards industrial animal agriculture.

You may already have seen the campaign on the London Underground. Featuring familiar faces including Diane Morgan and Sir Mark Rylance, its striking adverts highlight practices used in intensive farming and takes the message directly to millions of commuters.

Naomi explains why she believes this kind of campaigning can succeed where others have struggled. Rather than telling people what they should or shouldn't eat, the organisation focuses attention on specific farming practices and asks whether the public is comfortable with them.

Drawing on more than a decade of campaigning experience, Naomi talks about the thinking behind the language, imagery and humour used by Slingshot, the importance of reaching people outside the traditional animal-advocacy audience, and how celebrity involvement can amplify a campaign.

Alex and Naomi also discuss what success actually looks like – and where Project Slingshot goes next.

In this episode of Future of Foods Interviews, Alex Crisp speaks to Christian Poppe, Senior Director, Global Public Affairs & Communicationsof German food-tech company Formo, about reinventing cheese without the animal.

Formo is using precision fermentation technologies to create cheese products without conventional dairy farming. But producing the proteins is only part of the challenge. To succeed, the company has to turn biotechnology into food that tastes good, performs like cheese, can be produced economically and, crucially, that consumers actually want to buy.

Christian discusses Formo's journey from the laboratory to commercial products, including the decisions the company has made about technology, ingredients and product development. The conversation explores the realities facing today's alternative-protein sector: scaling production, bringing down costs, navigating novel-food regulation and the road to profitability in a tough commercial environment.

If fermentation can deliver the taste, functionality and experience of conventional cheese, will consumers care whether a cow was involved at all?

What happens when the daughter of the man who first imagined cultivated meat decides to bring that vision back to the farm?

In this conversation, Ira van Eelen, co-founder of RespectFarms and daughter of cultivated meat pioneer Willem van Eelen, shares the story behind one of the most ambitious projects in food innovation today: the world’s first cultivated meat farm. Built in collaboration with the farmer, the project integrates cultivated meat production directly into a working farm, creating a new model that keeps farmers at the centre of the protein transition.

We explore the legacy of Willem van Eelen’s groundbreaking work, the challenges of turning a decades-old vision into reality, and why Ira believes the future of food should be farmer-led rather than factory-driven. The discussion also covers the opening of the RespectFarms Experience Centre, designed to bring together farmers, scientists, policymakers, and the public to explore what food production could look like in the decades ahead.

This is a conversation about reimagining agriculture, and building the future of meat from the farm up.

On this episode of Future of Foods Interviews, I speak to Thomas Van Duijn, from Cellulaire Agricultuur Nederland, about how the Netherlands is building one of the most ambitious cellular agriculture ecosystems in the world.

Backed by €60 million from the Dutch National Growth Fund, this national programme brings together researchers, startups, and industry leaders to accelerate the development of cultivated meat and other cell-based food technologies. The goal: to move breakthroughs out of the lab and into scalable, real-world production.

Thomas shares how this funding is being put to work—supporting collaboration across the ecosystem, investing in research and infrastructure, and tackling key challenges such as cost reduction and scale-up. We also explore what it takes to turn cellular agriculture into a viable part of the global food system, and why the Netherlands is uniquely positioned to lead in this space.

In this Future of Foods interview, Reed McCord, founder of First Bite, reflects on the realities of scaling food brands in the complex foodservice ecosystem. McCord explains how First Bite was built to solve a critical gap he experienced at Impossible Foods—a lack of visibility into customers and purchasing behavior once products move through distributors. Today, First Bite provides manufacturers with data, CRM tools, and digital rebate systems to identify restaurant partners, track performance, and build direct relationships with operators.

The conversation centers on the importance of staying close to customers despite these structural barriers. McCord argues that the most successful food companies are those that actively seek feedback, understand where and why their products are used, and iterate quickly. Drawing from his experience, he offers a clear takeaway: growth in food isn’t just about distribution—it’s about maintaining genuine, data-informed connections with the people actually serving your product.

Jasmijn de Boo is Global CEO of ProVeg International. Drawing on more than two decades at the forefront of animal advocacy and food system transformation, she shares how her career has evolved into a pragmatic, globally focused mission to shift diets at scale.

From navigating criticism of plant-based claims to unpacking the recent slowdown in alternative protein sales, de Boo brings clarity, realism, and optimism. She explains why this moment represents not a setback, but a turning point and where the biggest opportunities now lie for industry, policymakers, and institutions.

The discussion spans everything from UK school meals and NHS procurement to global momentum across Europe, China, and Africa, highlighting how change is already happening in unexpected places. De Boo also tackles the cultural tensions around meat reduction, offering a thoughtful perspective on how to engage rather than divide.

Jasmijn is a billboard for showing how working together can achieve real change.

In this episode of Future of Foods Interviews, Alex discovers how cultivated pork fat could transform the future of sausages. Dr. Bianca Lê, is Head of Special Projects and External Affairs at Mission Barns. Mission Barns is developing cultivated pork fat grown directly from animal cells, designed to be combined with plant proteins to recreate the flavour, aroma, and cooking performance of conventional meat.

Fat is a critical component of meat’s taste and texture, and Mission Barns believes that producing real animal fat through cellular agriculture could unlock a new generation of realistic alternative meat products.

We discuss how cultivated fat is made, why fat plays such an important role in meat, and the challenges of scaling this technology for commercial production. Bianca also shares insights into the evolving regulatory landscape and the broader promise of cellular agriculture to reshape how we produce and consume meat.

Giuseppe Scionti, the bioengineer and founder of Novameat, disusses with Future of Foods Interviews the future of meat - and why the next wave may be hybrid. Trained in tissue engineering, Scionti has developed patented technology that restructures plant proteins to recreate the fibrous texture of real meat, enabling products like whole-cut steaks and shredded beef made from ingredients such as pea and rice protein.

But rather than replacing meat entirely, Novameat is now exploring a more pragmatic path: working with traditional meat processors to create hybrid products that combine meat with plant-based structures. These blends can reduce the environmental footprint of meat while maintaining the taste and experience consumers expect. In the conversation, Scionti discusses the technology behind Novameat’s “microforce” texturisation process, why whole-cut alternatives are the hardest challenge in alt-protein, and how partnerships with the meat industry could accelerate the protein transition.

Arjen van der Wijk is the CEO of Cibus Nexum, a company that operates in one of the most challenging parts of the food industry: scaling. It’s the phase after the excitement of product development, when a brand has traction and ambition — but now needs to produce consistently, at volume, without losing quality or control.

Through Cibus Nexum, Arjen works with both fast-growing food startups and established global players, helping them navigate outsourcing, co-manufacturing, and supply chain decisions. His focus isn’t on hype or trends. It’s on execution. Finding the right production partner. Structuring agreements properly. Anticipating the risks that can derail growth.

At its core, Cibus Nexum is about bringing the right people together - aligning brands, manufacturers, and technical experts so that innovation can survive real-world manufacturing.

Because in food, a great idea is only the beginning. The real test is whether it can be made reliably, profitably, and at scale.