With Beijing salivating over enormous potential for innovation and growth in China’s food science industry, authorities are now developing the country’s first national standard for artificial meat, domestic news outlet Securities Times reported Monday.

Wang Shouwei, director of the China Meat Research Center, announced the news at an industry forum Monday, calling artificial meat a “signature product” and a “food of the future” that would benefit from national regulation, both in terms of food safety and investment potential. Monday’s forum was hosted by the China Institute of Food Science and Technology, an affiliated institution of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

Artificial meat — a term that includes both cultured meat and plant-based meat substitutes — became a phenomenon in China almost overnight following Beyond Meat’s Nasdaq listing in May. Now, as Beyond and its U.S. rival Impossible Foods prepare to enter the Chinese market, domestic artificial meat producers are ramping up their own research and development efforts in order to win the battle for China’s meatless future.

In a 2019 report, American management consulting firm A.T. Kearney predicted that, by 2040, “conventional meat” will account for just 40% of all meat consumed worldwide. (Image: Sixth Tone)