Almost half of Generation Z Brits believe they would eat cultivated meat, Ipsos poll reveals

Almost half (47%) of Generation Z Brits think they would consume cultured, or lab grown, meat products, according to recent Ipsos data from the UK.

Although only one in five (21%) Baby Boomers believe they would personally eat grown meat, younger generations are far more likely to do so than older generations.

With a limited understanding of lab grown meat products (58% say they either know nothing or have never heard about cultivated meat), there is a “genuine potential growth market for cultivated meat in Britain.

The key findings from the data are:

• Younger generations are more open to eating cultivated meat: Nearly half (47%) of Generation Z Brits say they would eat cultured – otherwise known as ‘lab grown’ meat products – compared to 39% of Millennials, 22% of Gen X and 21% of Baby Boomers.
• Limited understanding of cultivated meat among wider public: More than half of British adults (58%) say they know nothing about cultivated meat, with 33% saying they had never heard of it, with opportunities for producers to “shape perceptions”.
• Main benefit of cultivated meat seen as not involving slaughtering animals: One third (33%) choose not killing animals as main perceived benefit, followed by more environmentally friendly (21%), reducing risk of diseases from animals to humans (20%), requires less land (19%) and emits fewer greenhouse gases compared to conventional livestock farming (19%).
• But consumers do see some significant downsides: Long-term health impacts of consumption being unclear (48%) and cultivated meat being an unnatural food source (42%) are biggest perceived downsides, followed by it being expensive to produce currently (25%).

Peter Cooper, director Global Omnibus Services at Ipsos, says the Ipsos Observer UK research suggests there is a genuine potential growth market for cultivated meat in Britain, in particular among younger people.

“With limited knowledge about cultivated, or ‘lab grown’ meat, there is a chance for producers to shape perceptions before it’s done for them,” Cooper notes. “That being said, consumers do still have some concerns, in particular around the unclear long-term health impacts of cultivated meat. This will need to be addressed for perceived environmental upsides to be realised.”

Related content