More governments are investing in research into new food technologies. Norway joins the list with the Research Council of Norway funding research into cultivated meat and precision fermentation. The project has been dubbed ARRIVAL, short for Arrival of Cellular Agriculture-Enabling Biotechnology for Future Food Production. Glad they shortened that title!
“Other participants include contract research organisation SINTEF Industry, Oslo Metropolitan University, the Norwegian Institute for Rural Research (Ruralis), the Norwegian Board of Technology, agricultural cooperative Nortura AS and its subsidiary Norilia AS, and Norwegian dairy giant, TINE AS.” Interesting to see a conventional dairy company involved.
What will they be investigating?
They’ll primarily be investigating production of milk, egg and meat proteins. Unsurprisingly one of their priorities will be developing low cost, sustainable media. More surprisingly they’re looking at using “residual biomass from chicken, slaughter blood, eggshell membranes, and egg white”? Certainly a unique take on media ingredients!
Norwegian consumer reactions
As in most countries Norwegian consumers are divided in their opinions on alternative protein products. Again younger consumers are more open to changing their diet and accepting new technologies.
The upside?
It’s heartening to see more and more governments involving themselves in new food technologies like cellular agriculture and precision fermentation. Confidence in the safety of new technologies and consumer familiarity with them, at least conceptually at first, will be key to their future acceptance. Governments can do their part by assuring consumers of the safety of new technologies and their products.
As Gen Z and Gen alpha rise to the fore in 2030 and 2040 it’ll be interesting to see the shape of the food landscape, particularly for protein.
