Cultivated meat manufacturing

Technology, trends, and challenges

authored by

Marline Kirsch, Jordi Morales-Dalmau, Antonina Lavrentieva

Abstract

The growing world population, public awareness of animal welfare, environmental impacts and changes in meat consumption leads to the search for novel approaches to food production. Novel foods include products with a new or specifically modified molecular structure, foods made from microorganisms, fungi, algae or insects, as well as from animal cell or tissue cultures. The latter approach is known by various names: “clean meat”, “in vitro meat” and “cell-cultured” or “(cell-)cultivated meat”. Here, cells isolated from agronomically important species are expanded ex vivo to produce cell biomass used in unstructured meat or to grow and differentiate cells on scaffolds to produce structured meat analogues. Despite the fast-growing field and high financial interest from investors and governments, cultivated meat production still faces challenges ranging from cell source choice, affordable expansion, use of cruelty-free and food-grade media, regulatory issues and consumer acceptance. This overview discusses the above challenges and possible solutions and strategies in the production of cultivated meat. The review integrates multifaceted historical, social, and technological insights of the field, and provides both an engaging comprehensive introduction for general interested and a robust perspective for experts.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Technical Chemistry

External Organisation(s)

Cultimate Foods UG

Type

Review article

Journal

Engineering in life sciences

Volume

23

No. of pages

14

ISSN

1618-0240

Publication date

10.12.2023

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Biotechnology, Bioengineering, Environmental Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 2 - Zero Hunger

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1002/elsc.202300227 (Access: Open)