Life cycle assessment of industrial-scale cultivated meat production: case study of real market entry via pet food application

This study presents a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of industrial-scale cultivated meat (CM) production (400–600 kg/day). Using a pet food ingredient as a case study for initial market entry, the study characterizes a scalable process designed for human consumption. The study quantifies environmental hotspots and compares the CM profile against conventional meats, filling a critical gap in industrial-scale data. The environmental performance was assessed using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) method. The functional unit was 1 kg of cultivated meat. The cradle-to-gate analysis utilized primary data for foreground processes, supplemented by the Ecoinvent and Agri-footprint databases for background processes. Multiple scenarios were analyzed to evaluate the influence of key parameters, such as the origin of soy protein isolate and future electricity mixes, on the final environmental impacts. The results demonstrate predominantly lower Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Single Score values for CM compared to conventional meats. A key scenario (US soy, 2024 Czech electricity mix) resulted in impacts of 4.7 kg CO₂ eq., 2.4 m²a Land Use, 0.16 m³ Water Demand, and 79.7 MJ Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) per kg of CM. Compared to previous CM LCAs, CED is significantly lower, while CO₂ eq. emissions are either considerably lower or similar to published decarbonization scenarios. Utilizing all identified reduction potentials improves the results to 3.3 kg CO₂ eq. and 61.5 MJ CED. This study provides the first comprehensive LCA of cultivated meat based on primary data from an industrial-scale process, moving beyond previous lab-scale and theoretical assessments. The findings demonstrate that cultivated meat, when produced at scale, can offer a comparable or lower environmental footprint than conventional chicken, particularly when key inputs and energy sources are optimized. This provides a robust benchmark for an emerging food technology.