Amazon of Synbio? This E-Shop Wants to Sell Cultivated Meat Across Europe

Cultivated meat isn’t approved for sale in Europe yet – but that hasn’t stopped this entrepreneur from setting up an online shop for these proteins.

Forget Michelin-starred restaurants and famed butcheries. What if you could get cultivated meat delivered to your doorstep at the click of a button?

David Bell has taken that idea and run with it. An e-commerce and digital marketing expert by day, he has established an online store for cultivated meat in 18 European countries, even though regulatory approval for these novel foods is at least a year away in the EU.

“Everything starts before it’s ready. Waiting until products are on the shelf means playing catch-up,” Bell explains when asked why he decided to set up the e-store now.

“Launching now gives us time to build awareness and visibility, educate the public, earn search presence and digital momentum, and position ourselves as the natural home for cultivated products,” he adds. “This space is moving fast. We’re creating the infrastructure before it’s urgently needed.”

The website is CultivatedMeat.co.uk, and Bell aims to list a vast range of cultivated meat products (some, like crocodile, aren’t in development commercially, though Australian startup Vow has previously said it is working with the animal’s cells), as well as offering educational guides and a blog with science and industry news. “We’ve built a site that makes cultivated meat visible and tangible, even in concept,” he says.

He’s based in the UK, where cultivated meat briefly appeared on shelves earlier this year – albeit for pet food. “We’ve secured the cultivated meat domains in 18 other European countries, so local versions will roll out imminently,” Bell notes. “Each of these will be localised as approvals come through.”

Will an online shop work for cultivated meat?

Bell has been vegan for 13 years, primarily for ethical reasons – the health benefits were a bonus. “Even so, I’ve always missed the taste and cultural aspects of meat. I just never thought there’d be an alternative that made sense to me,” he says. “Cultivated meat makes it possible to eat real meat again without causing suffering.”

The website has sections for a variety of species, from beef, chicken and pork to duck, seafood, and even kangaroo meat, each of which is displayed next to an image of the living animal. Aside from the shop, it has guides and blogs describing how cultivated meat is made, its environmental benefits, and how you can cook it at home.

So far, the few cultivated meat products that have made it to market have been launched into either high-end restaurants or premium butcher shops. In the US, Mission Barns’s cultivated pork products will be the first to debut in a supermarket when they roll out at Sprouts Farmers Market later this year.

“That’s normal at the start – small batches, tight control. But long-term, consumer access will be the game-changer,” says Bell, explaining the rationale behind an e-store.

“Early adopters will be looking online first. That’s always how new categories start,” he suggests, outlining the Internet’s capability to build “clustered interest, niche education, and targeted communities”.

“Even as cultivated meat moves into the mainstream, physical retailers won’t carry every product, but we will. This site becomes the long-tail destination for the full range of cultivated meat options,” he says. “An online store also allows controlled launches per country, direct-to-consumer storytelling, data feedback for producers, and a single point of discovery for all cultivated meat.”

Is ‘cultivated meat’ the best term to attract consumers? “Yes. It’s the most widely accepted term across media, policy, and industry. It avoids the baggage of ‘lab-grown’ while clearly describing what it is,” he contends. “Personally, as a long-time vegan, I see cultivated meat as a reconciliation of ethics, science, and taste. The word reflects that balance.”

As he waits for cultivated meat to be approved for human food in Europe, his platform is focused on building its email waitlist, publishing educational content, and developing partnerships. “It’s not just a shop – it’s a public front door for the cultivated meat movement from a consumer perspective,” he notes.

Cultivated meat startups in talks with online store

Speaking of partnerships, Bell is already in talks with several cultivated meat firms, both in Europe and beyond. “We’re shaping what launch partnerships might look like,” he says.

He says he is in contact with several organisations across the ecosystem. “We bring the consumer front-end. That makes us a useful partner for groups focused on research, policy, or production,” he explains.

CultivatedMeat’s business model is flexible, both in terms of revenue and logistics. The platform will handle distribution in some cases, and pass it on to producers or third-party firms in others.

“We already have access to specialist cold chain partners for frozen and chilled delivery for when this is ready,” he notes. “Most early product rollouts will be closely managed, so logistics will be smaller-scale and controllable to begin with.”

As for the revenue stream, some partnerships might follow a classic buy-sell model, and others might be based on a margin, affiliate, or distribution partnership. “Longer term, revenue will come from retail markups or commissions, exclusive product collaborations, brand placement and launch support, sponsored content, and media visibility,” outlines Bell.

So far, only two cultivated meat companies have publicly filed for novel food approval in the EU: France’s Gourmey (for foie gras) and Dutch startup Mosa Meat (for beef fat). The process can take around 18 months, and Gourmey has indicated its plans to sell its product via restaurants by 2026.

Both these firms have applied in Switzerland and the UK, as has Israeli cultivated beef producer Aleph Farms. The latter country is a frontrunner in Europe – it has already approved Meatly’s chicken for pet food applications, and is assessing human-focused applications from Vital Meat and Ivy Farm Technologies too.

Bell is leveraging his online expertise to be ready for when these regulators eventually greenlight the products for sale. “As someone who’s worked in digital commerce for years, launching this platform felt like the most natural and meaningful thing I could do,” he says. “I’m just combining what I know about online ecosystems and ethical consumerism to help move this space forward.”