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Join us for AltProtein Asia 2026
Join researchers and innovators from across APAC at AltProtein Asia 2026 to discover where your research fits into the next 15 years of alternative protein innovation.
Why Singapore’s World-First Cultivated Beef and Duck Approvals Matter
In April, French startup Parima secured the world’s first-ever approval to sell cultivated duck. Then, earlier this month, the Singapore Food Agency granted Aleph Farms the first regulatory approval of cultivated beef. These latest green lights represent meaningful, necessary steps on the road to cultivated meat commercialisation. Here’s why.
Sabrina Faisal
Sabrina supports GFI APAC’s communications by creating compelling content for diverse audiences, delivered through digital channels and on-ground events. Through this work, she showcases GFI APAC’s research, initiatives, and impact, as well as news and insights from the wider alt protein sector. Collaborating closely with colleagues across the organisation, she helps ensure that our communications are impactful, accessible, and regionally relevant. She is based in Singapore.
China repurposing pharma mega-factories to make novel foods, GFI report reveals
A new report shows that the expansion of biopharmaceuticals capacity in China and increased competition from biosimilars has encouraged some major manufacturers to explore novel foods by leveraging their existing fermentation capacity to produce mycoprotein, yeast proteins, and precision fermented fats...
GFI APAC Scientist Hailed Among World’s “Top Agri-Food Pioneers”
To foster a climate that could drive future food-system revolutions, Dr. Norman Borlaug established the World Food Prize in 1986. Today, it is managed by a namesake foundation that honours scientists for advancing his legacy of abundance through innovation. Among this year’s esteemed awardees: GFI APAC Head of Science and Technology Wasamon Nutakul, PhD!
Swati Sangar Sharma
Swati leads People & Culture for Good Food Institute APAC, where she partners closely with leaders across the region to build thoughtful, people-first practices that support both the organisation’s mission and its growth. Her work spans people strategy, talent, employee experience, rewards, performance and regional compliance, with a focus on creating environments where teams can do their best work and scale sustainably across APAC. She is based in Singapore.
JUST IN: Major report unveils China’s protein playbook—a roadmap for other nations
Moments ago, Systemiq, the systems change company, published an important new report modelling exactly how China’s innovation-to-mass-adoption playbook could fundamentally reimagine global meat production over the coming decades.
Explore the 2026 State of the Industry reports
The State of the Industry report series is GFI's annual deep dive into the rapidly evolving alternative protein landscape, across the cultivated, plant-based, and fermentation sectors. The latest edition of this flagship series provides a global overview of industry progress, synthesising company landscapes and product trends, sales data, scientific advancements, and public investment and regulatory updates that are helping shape a more secure, sustainable, and just food system.
Korea overtakes Singapore as APAC’s cultivated meat startup epicentre + four other takeaways from GFI’s new reports
The moment you’ve been waiting for has arrived: the latest editions of GFI’s annual reports on the State of the Industry and Global Policy were just published!
Companies: share cultivated meat breakthroughs publicly—here is how
Cultivated meat could satisfy soaring global protein demand while dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the spread of zoonotic diseases such as avian flu. One challenge is that, instead of sharing relevant scientific discoveries, too many companies keep them under lock and key, which imperils the entire sector.
Vidya Vijy Nair
Vidya Nair leads operations for GFI APAC, ensuring the organisation has the systems, processes, and financial discipline needed to support its mission. She works closely with the CEO and leadership team to strengthen operational strategy across people & culture, finance, governance, and organisational planning. Her role focuses on building resilient internal systems that enable teams across the region to operate effectively, scale sustainably, and collaborate with GFI’s global network. She also supports regional planning, resource allocation, and cross-country alignment to help advance the development and adoption of alternative proteins across Asia Pacific. She is based in Gurugram, India.
China wants to dominate the future of food. And it might succeed.
In early February, I was invited to visit a discreet industrial building just outside Beijing’s historic city center. What I saw inside has the potential to radically restructure the global food system.
Victoria Law
Victoria Law leads the compliance and governance oversight across the Asia Pacific region at GFI APAC. Working closely with regional leadership, legal counsel, and programmatic teams, she helps ensure that GFI APAC’s operations meet applicable regulatory requirements and align with strong governance practices across multiple jurisdictions. She supports the organisation’s regional growth by coordinating compliance frameworks, risk management processes, and entity governance across APAC offices and teams. She is based in Atlanta, USA.
China’s big bet on ‘new proteins’ is a win for Singapore
Researchers in Singapore have warned that unless Asia diversifies its protein supply, the region cannot meet its carbon emissions goals. Recognising this, China has responded by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in “biomanufacturing” through its State Development & Investment Corp to become a sustainable protein supplier to the world.
An Exclusive Look Inside China’s “New Proteins” Sector
A team of GFI APAC staffers recently travelled across China to see with our own eyes what the country’s major biomanufacturing push means for Singapore and the future of Asia’s protein supply. What we saw only further solidified our confidence that China will play a decisive role in the long-term success of the future-food sector.
GFI APAC’s 2025 Report Card + 6 Things to Watch in 2026
A mere 12 months ago, our experts published a look ahead at 2025 and outlined five reasons to be hopeful about APAC’s alternative protein sector, based on changes we expected to see over the course of the year. So how’d we do?
Malaysia’s Islamic authority declares cultivated meat can be halal
The Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia, JAKIM), through its National Muzakarah Committee, released a fatwa stating that cultivated meat is permissible under Islamic law if certain conditions are met.
For sustainable foods, “finance really is the enabler,” says Singapore environmental minister
Just hours ago, a series of high-profile sessions focused on scaling up sustainable foods concluded at COP30—the United Nations Climate Change Conference—in Belém, Brazil, where negotiators from more than 190 countries are working through the night to forge consensus on which climate fixes to fund.
Grace Liu
Since 2019, Grace has been engaged in the alternative protein industry of multinational investment, regulatory alignment for novel food ingredients, and related efforts. In recent years, she has dedicated herself to business development and strategic growth of the alternative protein industry in China.
BREAKING: Meat enhanced with plant proteins outperforms conventional version in A*STAR study
To objectively measure whether or not the newest crop of products that combine animal meat and high-quality plant proteins were close to reaching taste parity with their conventional counterparts, GFI APAC partnered with NECTAR and commissioned A*STAR's SIFBI to conduct Asia’s first independent, large-scale blind taste test.
Enhancing Meat with Plant Proteins: A Sensory Analysis in APAC
Dive into highly anticipated results from Asia’s first sensory study of products that combine conventional animal proteins with high-quality plant proteins, and discover the strategic opportunity the category presents for the food industry.
Three APAC countries with the right ingredients to dominate biomanufacturing
Global alternative protein stakeholders would be wise to keep a close eye on the bioeconomies of Thailand, Vietnam, and Australia, where analysts say abundant raw materials, forward-thinking public policies, or a synergy of both, have the potential to supercharge fermentation-derived food production.
How scientists across Asia and beyond are shaping alternative protein nutrition
As the alternative protein sector matures, one question keeps coming up: are these products optimally nourishing us? Hear from leading scientists across Singapore, India, China, and Australia as they dive into their cutting-edge research on alternative protein nutrition, spanning topics such as biofortification, bioavailability, fermentation, and more.
Temasek-backed firm upgrades Singapore’s conventional meat with plant proteins
Later this month, Singaporean shoppers browsing the meat aisle will start to see new options that are neither fully plant- or animal-based, but rather, animal meat enhanced with plant proteins.
JUST IN: New public-private grant opportunity announced in Singapore
The Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein @NUS further expanded its influence by announcing a new grant opportunity jointly funded with Enterprise Singapore (ESG), which will offer startups a premier slot on stage at Singapore International Agri-Food Week (SIAW) and the opportunity to secure 150,000 SGD in cash.
Advancing Nutrition in Alternative Proteins: The Role of Food Technologies
This joint report by The Good Food Institute APAC and Altruistic Innovations explores the landscape of food technologies used in plant-based meat and mycoprotein-based products, with a focus on how innovative processing and formulation strategies can enhance nutritional outcomes. Using published research, product claims, and technical disclosures, the report utilises a scoring matrix to evaluate how each strategy improves digestibility, completeness, bioavailability, or functional nutrient delivery, and where further opportunities exist.
Global patent data reveals China’s years-long commitment to scaling up cultivated meat
Earlier this year, China reaffirmed protein diversification as a central tenet of its national food strategy. Now, analysis by GFI has shined the spotlight on another indicator of China’s long-term commitment to food security: its assertive pursuit of global cultivated meat patents.
Explore a career in alternative proteins
Whether you’re a scientist, engineer, policy professional, university student or recent graduate, the alt protein field offers a range of impactful career opportunities aligned with your background.
BREAKING: Regulators approve cultivated meat sales in Australia
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) officially announced Australia’s first-ever approval of a cultivated meat product, opening up a potentially lucrative new market for the cellular agriculture sector and setting an important precedent for global regulators.
Sam Lawrence
Sam leads strategy work across Asia to set innovative and ambitious targets that expand GFI’s impact and presence. Sam identifies opportunities across the APAC region, and within the global network to position alternative proteins within national priorities, and advance the growth of alternative proteins throughout Asia. Sam has also led GFI's expansion into new geographies, and works to embed a regionally effective strategic approach to alternative protein resourcing and prioritisation. Sam remains a global champion for alternative proteins within multialteral fora. Sam is based between Melbourne, Australia and Bangkok, Thailand. He travels and works widely across Asia.
Daphne Lee
Daphne focuses on optimising finance operations for GFI APAC, enabling our team to create greater impact. Previously, as Director of Finance at a leading think tank in Singapore, she led two restructurings, improving efficiency through automation. She was integral in its CRM system and PDPA policy implementation. Daphne's private sector experience includes standardising accounting frameworks and managing financial operations in Vietnam and Cambodia. She also served as an associate consultant for a non-profit’s strategic review. A Certified Management Accountant (CMA) with an MBA, Daphne is a thoughtful, detailed and practical problem-solver. Daphne is based in Singapore.
Explore the 2024 State of the Industry reports
Our State of the Industry reports are an annual deep dive into the global alt protein sector. The latest edition of the series compiles business developments, policy updates, and scientific breakthroughs from 2024 that are advancing the field and shaping a world where alternative proteins are no longer alternative.
Cultivated meat industry chases Federal Government support
“By driving more patient capital from the National Reconstruction Fund and other entities into alternative protein development, government leaders could further support domestic plant-based and cultivated meat startups, scale up local manufacturing capacity, and establish Australia as the premier exporter of high-quality, sustainable protein,” says GFI APAC Managing Director Mirte Gosker.
Rodrigo Bonilla
Rodrigo leads GFI APAC’s communications work, directly shaping how the world views and interacts with Asia’s fast-growing alternative protein sector. Drawing insights from GFI's subject matter experts, Rodrigo identifies high-impact opportunities to reach and engage both existing and potential science, policy, and industry stakeholders across communications touchpoints, using audience-centric, locally relevant narratives. Rodrigo is based in Singapore.
Scale-up series part 4: Profit-driven scaling
In part four of our series supporting startups, we explore how best to implement a scaling strategy that can maximise chances of delivering long-term profitability.
Students from around the world keen to participate in alternative protein development
Australian APP chapters have been making big waves on campus. At the University of New South Wales, students organised a barbecue event to introduce their peers to plant-based meat and toured Vow’s production facility to explore the latest advancements in cultivated meat technology. And at the University of Melbourne, they recently hosted a symposium titled “Alternative Proteins: Where Are We Going?”