Livestock animals used for meat production significantly contribute to the degradation of the global environment, as these animals contribute to 14.5% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while also utilizing over 30% and 8% of global land area and water sources, respectively.1
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Introduction
Many consumers worldwide, particularly in Western nations, have become increasingly aware of the impact of their meat choices and have turned to plant-based products as meat alternatives. However, clear differences in the texture and taste of plant-based products compared to animal meat have prevented many consumers from consuming these products.
As the global population continues to rise, researchers anticipate that the demand for meat products may reach 70% by 2050, thus necessitating innovative approaches to meet global needs for efficient meat alternatives.
Synthetic Food: An Overview
The Science of Cultured Meat
What is Lab-Grown Meat?
The production of lab-grown meat, also known as cultured meat, begins with muscle stem cells harvested from a live animal biopsy. Importantly, this process does not harm the animal.
Thereafter, the muscle cells are placed in a culture containing fetal bovine serum to support their viability and proliferate. Using an edible or non-edible scaffold, the cells are then placed into a bioreactor that supports their ability to form a tissue in three to five weeks.2
Optimal culturing conditions are maintained throughout these processes, including appropriate ambient temperature and oxygen levels, as well as nutrients and growth factors supplemented in the growth media.2
Furthermore, various methods are utilized to quantify the levels of any potential chemical or microbial contaminants to protect consumer health.
Biological Challenges
Cell and tissue culture laboratories are highly controlled environments that require researchers and technicians to abide by strict practices to prevent the introduction of pathogens into cell cultures. Even when these measures are effectively implemented, antibiotics may also be incorporated into the culture media as an additional safeguard against potential bacterial contamination.
Importantly, antibiotics are often used at very low concentrations and almost exclusively at the early culturing stages. Furthermore, cells will be rinsed and purified to ensure that any traces of antibiotics are removed from the final product.
Despite these efforts, many have raised concerns about how the use of antibiotics in these culturing processes could contribute to drug resistance. To overcome this challenge, researchers have proposed the replacement of traditional antibiotics with natural or synthetic antimicrobial peptides, lysins, bacteriocins, hydrolyzed peptides, or bacterial extracts, all of which cannot lead to drug resistance.3
Nevertheless, additional research is needed to determine the efficacy of these natural alternatives and the optimal concentration and type that will not impact the health and safety of human consumers.
Technical Challenges
Significant breakthroughs have been made in the culturing of meat products for human consumption. Nevertheless, additional research and innovation are needed to support the large-scale production of these meat alternatives.
Currently, the production of cultured meat requires sophisticated bioreactor systems, optimized cell culture techniques, and nutrient-rich culture media. To produce cultured meat on a large scale using these technologies, researchers estimate that one kilogram of meat would cost about $63 USD, with 87% of this cost attributed to the aforementioned culture reagents, equipment, and personnel requirements.3
Even if these costs can be reduced by creating industrial-scale cell culturing systems, the risk of potential microbial contamination in these facilities would rise exponentially.
The Meat of the Future: How Lab-Grown Meat Is Made
Applications and Benefits
In the production of cultured meat, there is no need to breed, keep, and slaughter a large number of animals, which significantly reduces the material costs of production, burden on the land, and the consumption of agricultural crops used as animal feed.”1
By reducing the demand for livestock animals, lab-grown meat has the potential to significantly reduce the release of numerous GHGs, including methane, ammonia, and carbon dioxide. Furthermore, culturing has the potential to increase the content of various nutrients in final meat products, some of which include trace elements, vitamins, amino acids, and unsaturated fatty acids.1
Antibiotics are frequently overused in the maintenance of livestock for meat production purposes. In fact, current estimates indicate that up to 70% of all antibiotics in the world are used in animal agriculture to promote animal growth and prevent their susceptibility to bacterial infection4.
The widespread use of antibiotics in livestock animals is a major source of both antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic-resistant genes (ARGs), both of which are a significant threat to global public health.
Although concerns have been raised regarding the use of antibiotics during the initial stages of culturing meat cells, the amount and nature of the antibiotics used in lab-grown meat are likely to be significantly less than those used for livestock animals.
Thus, lab-grown meat has the potential to prevent the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens that could lead to global pandemics.
Investigating the Intersection between Agriculture and Biotechnology
Commercial Relevance
Despite the challenges that persist in the development of lab-grown meat, various companies have already successfully produced meat products that humans have consumed.
Upside Foods, for example, has successfully applied its proprietary technology to create a chicken product that originated from a fertilized heritage-breed chicken egg that is currently being used in various restaurants throughout the United States.5
Likewise, Mosa Meat has created a beef product grown from a 0.5-gram sample obtained from a steer under anesthesia, which is sufficient to produce up to 80,000 burgers.6
Globally, the cultured meat market size is expected to reach $229 billion USD by 2050 and grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30.8% during this period7.
Despite this trajectory, it is crucial to consider consumer perceptions of cultured meat and how companies can address appropriate concerns while also promoting their products.
In a recent study, researchers reported that meat quality risks were identified as strong repulsions to cultured meat, followed by ethical risks. Furthermore, the perceived economic risks and benefits of consuming cultured meat were not found to deter nor promote cultured meat consumption among those surveyed significantly.
Conclusion
The development of lab-grown meat presents an innovative solution to the environmental, ethical, and public health challenges associated with traditional livestock farming. By significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, and antibiotic reliance, cultured meat offers a sustainable and potentially safer alternative to conventional meat production.
However, technical and biological challenges remain, particularly in ensuring cost-effective large-scale production and mitigating risks such as microbial contamination and public skepticism. Advances in bioreactor technology, cell culture optimization, and the exploration of alternative antimicrobial strategies are critical to overcoming these hurdles.
The environmental and nutritional benefits of cultured meat, combined with its potential to address antibiotic resistance and global food security, underscore its transformative potential in the food industry. As companies continue to innovate and address consumer concerns, lab-grown meat is poised to become a commercially viable and sustainable option, helping to meet the growing demand for meat while safeguarding the planet for future generations.
References
- Siddiqui, S. A., Bahmid, N. A., Karim, K., et al. (2022). Cultured meat: Processing, packaging, shelf lie, and consumer acceptance. LWT – Food, Science, and Technology 172. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2022.114192.
- Soleymani, S., Naghib, S. M., & Mozafari, M. R. (2024). An overview of cultured meat and stem cell bioprinting: How to make it, challenges and prosects, environmental effects, society’s culture and the influence of religion. Journal of Agriculture and Food Research 18. doi:10.1016/j.jafr.2024.101307.
- Lanzoni, D., Rebucci, R., Formici, G., et al. (2024). Cultured meat in the European Union: Legislative context and food safety issues. Current Research in Food Science. doi:10.1016/j.crfs.2024.100722.
- Xu, C., Kong, L., Gao, H., et al. (2024). A Review of Current Bacterial Resistance to Antibiotics in Food Animals. Frontiers in Microbiology 13. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2022.822689.
- “Innovation” [Online]. Available from: https://upsidefoods.com/innovation.
- “Growing Beef” [Online] Available from: https://mosameat.com/growing-beef.
- “Cultured Meat Market Trends 2020-2023, 2024 Estimates and Long-term Forecasts to 2035 and 2050: Growing Interest is Evident from the Rise in Partnership and Collaboration Activity” [Online]. Available from: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/11/05/2974675/28124/en/Cultured-Meat-Market-Trends-2020-2023-2024-Estimates-and-Long-term-Forecasts-to-2035-and-2050-Growing-Interest-is-Evident-from-the-Rise-in-Partnership-and-Collaboration-Activity.html#:~:text=The%20global%20cultured%20meat%20market,the%20forecast%20period%2C%20till%202050.
- Tsvakirai, C. Z. (2024). The valency of consumers’ perceptions toward cultured meat: A review. Heliyon 10(6). doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27649.
Further Reading