Alt protein innovation in the UK: Overview
- China invested early in alternative protein infrastructure and is now seeing the benefits
- UK startups can struggle to scale due to a lack of pilot facilities, sometimes forcing them to look abroad
- NAPIC CEO Imran Afzal says the UK can lead with more investment, better infrastructure and stronger support for food innovation
As the demand for protein shows no signs of slowing, alternative proteins are going to increasingly need to step in to meet demand.
But when it comes to investment, innovation and infrastructure, China is positioning itself to take a leadership position, says Imran Afzal, CEO of National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (NAPIC).
China was early to back alternative proteins, setting out its ambitions in national agricultural planning.
“What China did was remarkable,” says Afzal, speaking at Future Food-Tech London. “They were investing in the infrastructure long before there was any consumer demand. They were consistent in their investment and they created momentum.”
Now they’re reaping the benefits of that as consumer demand increases – and there are lessons here for the UK’s alternative protein sector.
“The UK has a real opportunity to secure a leadership position, but we need to act quickly,” says Afzal. “We have amazing universities, with world-class research and academics. There’s no reason we can’t be world leaders. We need to be bold and invest in this space, with the right infrastructure and the right support for startups. We can win.”
What is holding the UK back?
Bottlenecks and barriers are holding back innovation in the UK, mainly due to lack of infrastructure.
“The UK is really good at creating food tech companies, but the issue is that after they’ve been created, they’ve done the experiments in the lab and it’s all worked, it doesn’t really mean anything unless you can prove it at a bigger scale,” says Afzal. “There are limitations around access to scale-up infrastructure in the UK and companies sometimes need to look abroad, to places such as China or elsewhere in Europe, to do it. It’s not cheap and it can be a long wait to access the facilities. If you’re a start-up, that means you’re burning through money.”
It’s vital that the UK catches up.
“We’re eating more and more animal protein every year and that’s not going to change, despite what the forecasts say,” says Afzal. “To satisfy this need for protein, we’re going to have to meet those needs in a different way. That’s why NAPIC was set up, an innovation ecosystem to ensure that we can make alternative proteins.”
It funds projects from inception, including frontier research to solve fundamental problems in the space and translational projects, as well as helping companies access the necessary infrastructure. Through its Collaborative Programme Funding, NAPIC is already backing projects that bring together UK universities with partners including the Food Standards Agency, Nestlé and The Good Pulse Company – from fermentation-enhanced vegan cheese to recovering protein from Scotch whisky by-products
What needs to happen?
“For a start, we need to have food explicitly included in the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy,” says Afzal. “It includes ‘advanced manufacturing’ but doesn’t specifically single out food.”
The Modern Industrial Strategy is a 10-year economic plan launched by the government in 2025 to boost business investment and increase productivity in eight high-growth sectors, such as clean energy, life sciences and defence. It aims to do this with strategies such as investment support and boosting infrastructures. Given the scale of the opportunity, food innovation’s absence from the priority sectors is notable.
Milestone-based funding is a useful tool
Afzal highlights milestone-based funding – where investors release further funding as a company hits agreed targets – as a useful tool that allows startups to focus their efforts on growing and scaling.
“As long as you’re making progress, you get more money, probably from the same people,” says Afzal. “Rather than going around, cap in hand, to raise the next stage of funding, it allows founders to spend time growing their business. It would unlock a lot of value.”
Milestone-based funding isn’t more common because many investors’ timelines don’t match the realities of food innovation, he says. “They’re very short-term, they want their money out in a few years, but you can’t do that with food. It can take nine or ten years.”
This is a trend in food tech. “Exits have been harder to come by in recent years, which tells you a lot about the current investment climate in food tech,” he says.
Consumer acceptance will come
Consumer acceptance is another barrier to overcome but Afzal believes it will happen.
“It will build over time,” he says. “And we don’t believe in a singular protein economy, we believe in a hybrid protein economy – meat-derived proteins have their place.”
Alternative proteins will gain their place as more innovation, investment and research perfects it. “Consumers buy for convenience, price and taste,” says Afzal. “When we get those things right, people will buy them. It will take time and won’t happen overnight.”
NAPIC’s view is that the UK’s strengths in research and innovation give it everything it needs to lead. Closing the gaps in infrastructure, investment and translation will turn that research into commercial impact.
