Cultivating Collaboration: FEASTS Showcases Sustainable Food Innovation Cultured meat and seafood refer to a diverse range of new food products made possible by innovative production methods that use animal cells grown in cell culture conditions. The resulting products range from cultured ingredients for hybrid products, such as cultivated fat added in a plant-based burger to enhance the taste, to fully cultured products like burgers. This technology has the potential to reduce environmental impact and increase animal welfare, while improving food security. However, important questions arise: How can cultured meat be scaled to compete with conventional products? How can cultured ingredients best enhance existing foods? How can we ensure that health and safety standards are met? What are the key regulatory and consumer acceptance challenges? In February 2025, the General Assembly of our EU-funded project FEASTS held in Amsterdam, Netherlands brought together key stakeholders to discuss aspects related to innovation, policy, and social acceptance. FEASTS, a groundbreaking, collaborative research programme aims to deliver a comprehensive, unbiased knowledge base about cultured meat and seafood, and their place in the food system. At the assembly, the first project results were presented, showcasing significant progress. Our technical partners demonstrated exciting advancements in media and cell culture research, marking a key milestone in our collective effort. Additionally, hearing stakeholder perspectives on cultured meat—especially regarding ethics and societal implications—revealed diverse insights and opinions, reinforcing the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach. As part of our work on multi-stakeholder engagement, the CSCP has mapped stakeholders across the cultured meat and seafood lifecycle (see infographic below) and are currently developing persona profiles on selected groups to further support their engagement throughout the project. Image: The stakeholder map across the cultivated meat/fish lifecycle. Image credit: CSCP Advancements on the socio-economic aspects were showcased by the University of Bologna team, which presented their mapping of value chains to verify them with start-ups, while findings on ethical considerations of this new technology were shared by Innovethic. On consumers, Aarhus University presented the findings of their survey on consumer perceptions and acceptance of cultured meat and seafood, while RespectFarms and S2Aqua provided key insights on the readiness of farmers and aquafarmers for the transition. These insights will feed into the Living Labs organised in Denmark (Aarhus University), France (Shakeup Factory), and Germany (CSCP). Image: (from left to right) Charis Hoffmann (CSCP), Daan Luining (Meatable), Eugenia Sagué (Cultimate), Frederico Ferreira (IST-ID), at the Meatable office. Photo Credit: Meatable We also had the opportunity to visit the Meatable office in Leiden, Netherlands where we received a tour of the lab. This visit provided an exciting glimpse into the cutting-edge advancements being made in the field. FEASTS is coordinated by IST-ID and New Harvest and is funded under the Horizon Europe scheme. For further questions, please contact Charis Hoffmann.