To many, animal eating may not be appealing. Meat substitutes have attracted research. Can we produce meat in the lab? Yes, theoretically DNA of animals can be used and culture of cells can be cultivated. There are efforts to produce chicken meat and red meat. Animal stem cells can be used to create cultured meat.

Another idea is to create plant-based meat. Its texture and taste resembles real meat. Additives such as pea protein, beet root, soya can be used.

The third method is to create fermented meat. Alternative proteins are fermented using microorganisms.

Meat substitutes could capture the market, but require investment in research. There are problems of scalability and costs. Lab grown meat costs over Rs.1000 for a gram. A kg of meat would cost Rs.10 lac. As against this natural products are very available at very competitive rates. The process would be affordable if we could find substitutes for serum.

As the meat is produced in vitro, it can be made healthier by appropriate research. To illustrate, one can produce less fat, more protein variety of meat.

India has a large meat consuming population, say 70 per cent of 15 plus population consume meat. Per capita meat consumption in India is low, and thus it is a potential market.

Meat subsitutes are safer than the natural products.

This is a good area for start ups to flourish.

India has run meat marketing in antiquated traditional way since long. Its time to break new ground. Regulators like FSSAI will have to set standards for meat alternatives. As there is lack of standards, India does not allow the import of meat substitutes right now.