🥩 Cultivated Meat - What You Need To Know

A quick(ish) explainer including the culture process, its advantages, and the key challenges

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What is cultivated meat?

Cultivated meat (aka. cultured meat, cell-based meat, or lab-grown meat) is an alternative to traditional animal-raised meat. It is produced in a laboratory through a process called cell culture or tissue culture.

In this process, the cells of a healthy animal or poultry species are taken via a biopsy (a noninvasive process) or taken from an egg. These cells are then placed in a large tank called a cultivator, where they're fed a combination of nutrients, growth factor components, oxygen, and proteins. Depending on the type, this can take anywhere from 2-8 weeks, and the cells divide and grow, forming a whole meat piece from which specific food items are shaped. In the cell-culturing process, the producers only produce what is needed, leaving out other organs such as the kidneys or skin.

Tell me more about the Culture Process

The process begins with taking a biopsy (a small sample) of muscle tissue from a live animal. This tissue is cultured in a special medium containing nutrients, hormones and growth factors to stimulate the cells to divide. As they divide, they form tiny strands of muscle cells called myotubes.

These myotubes are multiplied and then attached to a small, nutrient-rich scaffold. This scaffold can stretch the muscle cells to increase their size and protein content. Throughout the process, the cells must be kept in a monitored environment replicating the temperature of a cow.

By doing this, it is possible to produce huge amounts of meat without killing a large number of animals. However, currently, the best medium contains Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS), which is harvested from bovine fetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. Therefore, until there is an alternative solution, the culture process still raises ethical concerns.

What are the advantages of cultivated meat?

1. Potentially more sustainable

One of the biggest issues with animal agriculture is deforestation. For example, Furthermore, agro-industrial clearing for pasture for beef production is by far the biggest driver of deforestation in the Amazon, accounting for 63% of the total loss area. Cultivating animal proteins could free up the land currently used for conventional livestock farming, and instead restore natural habitats as well as capture carbon emissions.

The main emissions from cultivated meats are CO2 due to energy usage to warm the cultivated cells. Research conducted by the Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit found that cultivating animal proteins could save “96% lower greenhouse gas emissions, 45% less energy, 99% lower land use, and 96% lower water use than conventional meat”.

Because cultivated meats can potentially be produced in many places around the world (using cell lines from different breeds of animals), we may no longer need to import, for example, Scottish salmon to the US. This not only reduces transportation costs and supply chain bottlenecks but also carbon footprints.

It should be noted that there is a lack of further studies to form a consensus about GHG emissions from cultivated meats at a large scale.

2. May minimise diseases

Unlike traditional animal products, cultivated meats are produced in controlled and hygienic laboratory environments, without the need for other organisms to be present. This means that they are not exposed to the same outbreak risks as animals that are raised in confined spaces. Moreover, cultivated meats are not susceptible to viruses that have the potential to transfer from animals to humans.

Cultivated meats are also free from antibiotics and growth hormones that farmed animals are given. This reduces the risk of antibiotic resistance and eliminates the need for costly vaccinations that are otherwise used to protect farmed animals from illnesses such as influenza.

Of course, it's possible that while we're cultivating the cells, some unexpected biological mechanisms may still occur. Moreover, depending on local regulations, not all labs may have the same high standard of control and sanitation.

3. May create better nutrition

Cultivated meats can have a very similar nutritional profile as real animal meats in offering “complete” proteins. Even better, scientists could even tweak the ratio between saturated versus polyunsaturated fatty acids. It is also possible to modify the proteins to remove allergens.

However, since the composition of the culture medium can affect how much of the micronutrients are absorbed, more research is needed to truly understand the nutritional benefits of this food.

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