EU awards Adamo Foods €10M to scale fungal whole-cut steaks
What's the deal? London-based Adamo Foods has secured a €10M grant from the EU's Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE JU) to bring its mycelium-based whole-cut meat alternatives to industrial production. The three-year project, called MycoStruct, is funded under the EU's Horizon EuropeDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → programme.
The grant backs a 12-member consortium that includes Bidfood Group, equipment manufacturer Bühler, TU Delft, Estonia-based food research centre TFTAK, and Bio Base Europe. Together, they'll help Adamo scale its triple-patented fungal fermentation process, which replicates the fibrous structure of animal muscle tissue using five natural ingredients.
"We're not just creating another meat alternative; we're building a scalable, circular bio-economy that proves delicious, whole-cut steaks can be produced without the animal and affordably," said founder Pierre Dupuis.
Why now? Founded in 2021, Adamo says its mycelium steak already produces 93% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional beef. The project has also received a STEP Seal from the European Commission — a distinction the Commission says it grants to only a small number of biotech projects for high-quality innovation aligned with EU economic and environmental goals.
Beyond scaling existing products, MycoStruct will convert food industry sidestreams into protein inputs, embedding circular economy principles into the production process.
What could go wrong? Whole-cut alternatives have long been the white whale of the alt-protein industry — far harder to nail than minced or processed formats. Scaling fermentation from lab to factory introduces engineering challenges that have tripped up other startups. Consumer acceptance at commercial price points remains unproven.
The signal: CBE JU, classified by Dealroom as a government and non-profit investor, is one of the EU's primary vehicles for channelling public capital into bio-based innovation — making this grant a deliberate institutional bet on fermentation as a pillar of Europe's circular bioeconomy. The involvement of Bühler, a mature industrial equipment giant, suggests the consortium is oriented squarely at solving the engineering bottleneck that has stalled other whole-cut startups at pilot stage.
Read more: vegconomist.com
