Cultured Meat: The Challenge of Perfecting a New Food Source
As the world becomes more aware of sustainability issues, many are looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact. One way that has been gaining attention lately is cultivated meat.
Cultivated meat is produced from the cultivation of animal cells and offers many of the same physical properties as conventional meat, such as color, flavor, aroma, texture, and palatability. However, it has the potential to address many of the issues arising from the traditional production of meat, such as climate change, antibiotic resistance, and the spread of zoonotic diseases.
“Cultured meat will allow us to have our cake and eat it too — we can have the delicious taste of meat without the negative environmental and health impacts.”
— Dr. Patrick Brown, CEO and founder of Impossible Foods
Cultured meat is a type of meat that is produced in a lab from animal cells. It is also sometimes called clean meat, in vitro meat, or synthetic meat. Cultured meat is made by taking a small sample of animal cells and growing them in a nutrient-rich environment. This process is similar to how other types of cell cultures are made.
The first cultured meat was produced in 2013 by a team of scientists from Maastricht University in the Netherlands. They used chicken cells to create a small amount of edible muscle tissue. Since then, other groups have successfully produced cultured beef, pork, and duck.
The production of cultured meat has the potential to solve many of the problems associated with traditional livestock farming. A recent study conducted by CE Delft found that cultivated meat could cut the climate impact of meat production by up to 92%, reduce air pollution by up to 93%, and use up to 95% less land and 78% less water compared with farming animals. With the growing demand for meat, cultivated meat could be a huge opportunity to provide a more sustainable and environmentally friendly option.
The global cultured meat market was valued at $1.64 million in 2021 and is expected to reach $206.6 million and $2788.1 million by 2025 and 2030, respectively, with a compound annual growth rate of 95.8% from 2022 to 2030.
However, there are significant restraints to the growth of this market. Outside of the high cost of cultured meat and the lack of regulatory approvals, many technical hurdles need to be overcome and will be described below.
Limitations in bioreactor capacity
One key barrier to the success of cultured meat products is bioreactor capacity. Successful accounts of cultured meat products were all grown in multiple small bioreactors, which is an expensive and labor-intensive method.
Mammalian cells require a stable and homogenous environment which is challenging to achieve in large-scale industrial culture. Currently, the bioreactor size for cell culture does not exceed 1–2 m³. Comparatively, large-scale industrial microbial bioreactors average 50–250 m³ in working volume.
Finding optimal cell line and culture conditions
One of the biggest challenges is finding the right cell line. This is necessary to amplify the stem cells to the desired amount and to differentiate them into the targeted tissues. Currently, popular choices for stem cells include embryonic, muscle, and mesenchymal stem cells. However, these have a limited capacity to divide and differentiate when cultured in vitro. Another option is multipotent embryonic stem cells, which provide an unlimited supply source. Still, this cell line is difficult to access, and there is uncertainty regarding their directed differentiation into muscle cells.
Genetically modifying seed cells is a potential solution to the challenges of cultured meat production. In 2018, Meatable claimed to have solved the issues of directionally-differentiated multipotent stem cells, and Future Meat declared that its technology was based on the rapid natural proliferation of connective tissue cells without the need for expensive stem cells. This could make cultured meat more affordable and accessible to consumers. However, the manufacturing process is currently opaque, affecting consumer acceptance.
Furthermore, current standard cell culture mediums are derived from adult, newborn, or fetal cattle. The amount of serum required for the mass production of cultured meat is vast and unaffordable. Using animal-derived serums also raises religious, dietary, and ethical concerns. Some startups have successfully developed a serum-free medium for cell-cultured meat production. Unfortunately, the practical application of these mediums is limited by low versatility and increased sensitivity to environmental changes in the cells.
Without a serum-free medium, it will be difficult to mass produce cultured meat products affordably, and the environmental and ethical benefits promised by cultured meat will be difficult to realize.
Complex scaffold systems
Another critical challenge of cultured meat production is that cells need to grow in a 3D environment. Scaffolds are structural tools that facilitate the growth of cells in a 3D environment. However, a significant challenge is that when the thickness of conventionally cultured muscle cells reaches 200 μm, the cells begin to die because of the poor diffusion of oxygen and nutrients into the inner cells. This thickness is insufficient for the processing of meat products. The scaffold system for the cultured meat industry remains in its infancy, and a scaffold system suitable for large-scale cell cultivation is still subject to multiple technical limitations.
Reduced quality of cultured meat products
Food texture, flavor, and nutrition affect consumers’ purchase decisions. Cell-cultured meat produced in the laboratory often has a loose and amorphous structure, poor chewiness, and inadequate taste. Current culture techniques cannot ensure a premium texture, such as marbling and 3D structural features similar to traditional cuts.
Slaughtered meat contains bioactive substances, such as growth factors and immunoglobulins, that cultured meat cannot fully mimic. Cultured muscle tissue obtained from bioreactors is supplemented with various food additives to provide sensory and nutritional qualities. However, the excessive use of food additives can cause consumers to question the safety of cultured meat products.
High comparative cost of production
The high cost of cultured meat is a significant barrier to its widespread adoption. The first burger with cultured meat was developed by a team at Maastricht University and cost a whopping $330,000. Since then, the team has reduced the cost to $11.36 in 2015. While impressive, this still cost significantly more than a burger made from conventional meat.
In June 2017, the cost of cultured meat produced by Upside Foods was down to $2,400 per pound and was expected to be reduced to an affordable price range by 2021. The startup Future Meat Technologies claimed it would cut production costs of cultured meat to about $2.30 to $4.50 per pound by 2020, but this has yet to be achieved (Peters, 2018).
The input cost determines the market price of products and directly affects consumers’ purchase decisions. Cultured meat has yet to reach market maturity. This is a significant problem that needs to be addressed if we want to see cultured meat become more widely available.
Ultimately, cultured meat products have the potential to be a sustainable and humane alternative to traditional meat products, but these technical challenges that need to be addressed before they can be commercially available. Although progress has been made in recent years, there is still more work to be done before cultured meat products can readily replace conventional meat sources.
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This article summarizes the findings of Ye. et al (2022) in their paper “Commercialization of cultured meat products: Current status, challenges, and strategic prospects”. To read the full paper, click here.