Vegan Scots rejoice! Prototype haggis expected by Burns Night

In Scotland, cultivated meat startup Roslin Technologies is targeting haggis—a dish comprised of minced sheep organs baked in the animal’s stomach—as its first product. 

The startup hopes to develop a prototype of Scotland’s most famous dish by next Burns Night. Celebrated on January 25, Burns Night honors late Scottish poet Robert Burns. 

The company has already developed a new method to remove variations in generating pluripotent stem cells. The innovation, achieved in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and the Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, cuts the cost of cell culture media by more than half. 

“The proof of concept has shown that costs can be reduced, batch-to-batch variation reduced, and now in partnership with cultivated meat producers we can take the findings forward to larger bioreactors and begin the process of scaling up to industry standards,” said Dr. Karen Fairlie-Clarke, innovation and engagement manager at Roslin Technologies. “While there is still further to go to meet parity with the economics of livestock products, we are taking steps to get there by addressing the production challenges facing the cultivated meat sector.”

According to vegconomist, Roslin Technologies is a spin-out of University of Edinburgh and is affiliated with the company that created Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned animal, in 1996.