Two leading French cultivated meat companies, Gourmey and Vital Meat, have merged in a move aimed at consolidating the country’s fast-growing alternative protein sector. The newly formed entity will operate under the name Parima.
Gourmey, known for its cultivated foie gras, has acquired Vital Meat, a start-up that specialises in cultivated chicken. The merger combines Gourmey’s full-stack production system — which manages every step of the production process — with Vital Meat’s advanced bioreactor infrastructure and avian cell line technology. Together, they bring a total of nine regulatory filings across different regions, including Europe, where Gourmey was the first cultivated meat firm to submit an approval application.
The merger also unites a strong intellectual property portfolio, with 15 patent families and over 70 applications between them. According to Gourmey co-founder and now Parima CEO Nicolas Morin-Forest, the union comes at a pivotal moment for the industry as it moves from experimentation to large-scale production.
“This is the right moment for consolidation and scale,” Morin-Forest said. “We’ve proven economic viability and are now expanding across species. By uniting two pioneering teams, we’re strengthening Europe’s ability to lead the global shift toward efficient and sustainable animal production through innovation, complementing existing methods and building more resilient value chains.”
By integrating Gourmey’s expertise in duck cell cultivation with Vital Meat’s progress in chicken meat production, Parima is now positioned as a leader in Europe’s cultivated meat landscape. The partnership aims to accelerate regulatory approvals, expand production capacity, and strengthen Europe’s competitiveness in the global alternative protein market.
