Industrialisation: What Startups Still Don’t Know About Manufacturing

Many alternative protein startups excel at scientific innovation but underestimate the realities of industrial manufacturing. Pilot success does not automatically translate into reliable, cost-effective commercial production, and many of the sector’s biggest challenges now sit far beyond the laboratory. This panel will explore the operational, engineering, and commercial pressures that emerge during scale-up — from equipment selection and process integration to supply chains, regulatory requirements, and manufacturing economics.

What you will take away:

• The manufacturing challenges that often emerge only during industrial scale-up

• Why pilot-scale success rarely guarantees commercial production readiness

• What startups still underestimate about equipment, infrastructure, and process design

• Lessons from manufacturers and scale-up partners working across alternative proteins

• How companies can reduce operational risk while improving manufacturing efficiency

• Why industrial execution is increasingly becoming the sector’s real competitive advantage