Lab-Grown Meats Will Change the Food Industry Forever

Lab grown meat is made by the controlled culture of animal cells. Scientists commonly grow cells in the lab, and this process is not too different. While the specifics behind how lab meat is grown in companies is proprietary, the basics behind it consists of keeping cells happy in a culture environment to promote their survival and continued growth.

Lab grown meat starts with animal cells, typically muscle or fat cells, or stem cells that are forced to differentiate into muscle cells. These cells are cultured using the appropriate growth medium that contains nutrients that promote its growth and survival. To aid in the growth of culture as it begins to expand, edible scaffolding is sometimes used. Finally, cells are allowed to divide and expand until ready to use, all the while being monitored consistently for harmful bacterial contamination.

This is a challenge because while individual cells can grow quickly, it can take some time for a larger tissue segment to form. In addition, if the cells aren’t forming together at the same density as traditionally sourced meat, the texture of the product won’t come out the same way.

Cells require proper growth medium rich in nutrients in order to survive and grow. Since lab grown meat is ultimately meant for human consumption, the high quality growth medium free of common allergens are necessary.

Blood vessels normally deliver blood to tissue to survive. In lab-grown tissues, blood vessels are not present, so scientists must think of new ways to deliver nutrients, taking the place of naturally occurring blood vessels.

Lab-grown meats are still only being produced on a fairly small scale, and though the cost to make them has drastically decreased from the $330,000+ it used to cost, lab meat is very expensive to produce at around $2400/pound of lab beef, according to Memphis Meats. If adopted by larger companies and produced on a large scale, the cost will be reduced significantly.

To motivate meat lovers to switch to lab-grown meat, the taste needs to be the same or very close to that of traditional meat. Many people would be quite put off if the taste leaves too much to be desired. More work is needed to ensure that the taste of cultured meat will please the foodies of the world.

To learn more, check out this article on the main difficulties of working with cultured meats.

Memphis Meats had the idea for cell-based meats and poultry products in 2005, and in 2015, they finally launched and began producing the meats. They created the world’s first cell-based meatball in 2016, with poultry following shortly after in 2017.

Under the vision and execution of CEO & founder Dr. Uma Valeti, Memphis Meats hopes to scale in such a way that less land, water, energy, and food inputs are consumed by the meat industry, and quality, healthy, and safe cell-based meats can reach grocery stores in coming years.

As their slogan states, Finless Foods offers you “sustainable seafood, without the catch.” They are bringing sustainable, cell-based seafood products to your table, starting with bluefin tuna. This achievement would help solve the environmental problem that commercial fishing is causing, and would improve the nutritional quality of the fish being consumed.

Meatable is creating hamburgers from single animal cells, in a much faster, cleaner, and more sustainable way than traditional livestock-sourced burgers. Their process claims to produce a hamburger in 3 weeks or less, which, when compared to the minimum 3 years traditional meat takes, is a significant improvement. You can check out their product creation cycle to learn more about the timeline of this process.

SuperMeat got started through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. They’re working to create animal-friendly meat products in partnership with PHW-Gruppe, one of Europe’s largest poultry producers.

Like all the other companies here, their product will help solve the environmental impact issues of the meat industry, but SuperMeat’s marketing and branding also focuses on the humanity of how this type of meat production will prevent the slaughter of animals.

Mosa Meat was the groundbreaking company responsible for the first lab-grown hamburger showcased in 2013. Since then, they’ve been hard at work to get their products ready for commercial production, and are aiming to make them available to consumers within the next few years.

Their main goal is to bring cultured meat (or “clean meat” as they call it) to the mass market to help satisfy the growing demand for meat, which they believe will hit a critical stage by 2050. They also claim that while the process is very expensive now, over time, they will be able to reduce the price to about the same as a typical beef hamburger in the supermarket.

Scientific American dives into the potential benefits of lab-grown meat, and the barriers the industry will have to overcome in order to become integrated into consumers’ daily lives.

Interesting Engineering details issues with our society’s rate of meat consumption and how cultured meats could help solve them.

ScienceLine answers some frequently asked questions about lab made meat.

“Do people want to eat lab grown meat?” The Guardian’s Jacy Reese discusses whether lab meat will be globally accepted.