About the Lab
The Alternative Meats (Alt.Meat) X-Lab at UC Berkeley helps entrepreneurs and researchers investigate the next generation of foods such as plant-based meats, dairy substitutes, and alternative sources of fat and protein.
Surprisingly, sustainable food tech is currently addressed by few companies, and there is a lack of fundamental research to allow rapid progress. The industry is still based on more art than science. At the Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology at the University of California, Berkeley, we are changing this by building an open and collaborative space, where aspiring entrepreneurs are developing novel solutions for food's current impact on the environment, health, and animal welfare.
Innovation Courses
The X-Lab offers several entrepreneurial courses at UC Berkeley to help students form new ventures, investigate customer needs, design and develop products, and learn about current science and research in the field.
Alt.Meat Research
The X-Lab conducts a broad range of experiments in areas such as novel protein structures, taste and flavor, microbiome, fermentation, customer needfinding, and consumer behavior.
Team Xceleration
Our Entrepreneurs in Residence conduct research, design products, and develop prototypes to bring to market.
People
Anne Fletcher
Instructor
Peter Cnudde
Advisor, SCET
A. Rose Bechtel
Industry Fellow
Kora Kukic
Industry Fellow
Michael Peters
Industry Fellow
Lucy Bennet
Student Researcher
Luiza Villela
Student Researcher
Jessica Schwabach
Resident Student Entreprenuer
Siwen Deng
Resident Student Entreprenuer
Featured Class:
Product Design & Customer Needfinding- Alternative Meat
Research why people might choose alternatives to meat and build a business concept around what you find. This class is a deep dive into ethnographic design research to uncover latent needs surrounding the consumption of meat and its alternatives. We will cover ethnographic interviewing and video creation, design-space modeling techniques, design thinking ideation tools, prototyping, idea validation, and business modeling.
Industry Sponsors:
