Fork & Good, Extracellular and Nutreco form strategic partnership to accelerate cultivated meat scale-up

Fork & Good, Extracellular and Nutreco have entered a new strategic partnership designed to speed the development of scalable, cost-effective cultivated meat production. The companies said the collaboration would focus on high-performance media formulations, improved biomanufacturing capabilities and supply-chain foundations needed to bring cultivated proteins to market at commercial volumes.

The partnership brought together three distinct areas of expertise at a moment when the cultivated meat sector is moving closer to regulatory acceptance and industrial deployment. Fork & Good has been developing production systems aimed at improving affordability and accessibility, while Extracellular has built contract development and manufacturing capabilities for bioprocess scale-up. Nutreco, a long-standing supplier of nutritional solutions, has been working on food-grade cell feed inputs that can support lower-cost media.

All three companies described the collaboration as aligned with a shared goal of making sustainable protein options more widely available. The agreement grew out of discussions within Nutreco’s Innovation Roadmap, which identified progress in cell nutrition as a priority for enabling meaningful industry growth.

According to the partners, the work will include dedicated technical streams focused on media ingredients, formulations and performance. It will also explore how a future supplier relationship for media manufacturing could support cost reductions and secure more resilient supply chains for cultivated meat producers.

Gabor Forgacs of Fork & Good said the partnership addressed a core challenge for the emerging industry. “This partnership is an excellent example of what the cultivated meat community needs, for it is just damn difficult to make cultured meat economically alone,” he said. “It has been exciting for all of us working together in cell line, media and equipment domains to build our partnership success. We at Fork & Good are proud to be a part of it.”

Extracellular founder Will Milligan emphasized the importance of combining expertise within a still-developing field. “Extracellular is proud to be working alongside two leaders in the field of cultivated meat, bringing together exceptional cells, media and bioprocess capabilities,” he said.

Nutreco’s Vincent Krudde described the collaboration as integral to the company’s broader commitments. “This collaboration underpins Nutreco’s continued commitment to Feeding the Future. We are very excited about the partnership and proud to work with our partners in the cultivated protein space.”

The partners said the industry was at a critical inflection point, with technical progress accelerating and regulatory approvals emerging across multiple regions. They argued that coordinated work on media, biomanufacturing and supply-chain readiness would help determine how quickly cultivated meat could reach commercial scale and contribute to food security, job creation and climate-aligned protein diversification.

The collaboration is expected to evolve through ongoing development programs, with the companies highlighting their intention to build a shared foundation for long-term industry growth.