3 important insights into the future of cultured meat

Fans of cultured meat say the product is a more sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture. Separate the hype from reality by learning more about the future of the alternative meat.

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KarinaKnyspel | iStockPhoto.com
KarinaKnyspel | iStockPhoto.com

Fans of cultured meat say the product is a more sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture. Separate the hype from reality by learning more about the future of the alternative meat.

At the American Meat Science Association’s recently held 66th International Congress of Meat Science and Technology and 73rd Reciprocal Meat Conference, Gabor Forgacs, Ph.D., the Scientific Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Forke & Goode, Inc., spoke about the future potential of cultured meat.

“It started out in 2011 when it was essentially practiced in academia,” he explained. “Today, the process is mostly carried out by corporations. At present, there are more than 50 companies in this space. I believe there will be a convergence of the cultured and the conventional industrial meat production spaces. I think we need to support each other. Cultured meat is coming,”

What’s in a name?

Cultured meat is known by many names. Confused? It’s not just you. The cultured meat industry is still deciding on a name themselves.

“There are several terms here in the field, such as cultured, cultivated, cell-based, in vitro, clean and lab-made and there is still a little confusion about what the right term should be in the future,” Forgacs said.

How is it made?

Cultured meat uses real animal cells that are grown in a stainless-steel tank known as a bioreactor. The process can be used to produce a product that resembles chicken, beef, pork and other meats.

“The process starts with the isolation of relevant cells that are found in muscle tissue, such as muscle itself, connective tissue cells, epithelial cells, fat cells,” Forgacs said.

Once you source the cells, how do you grow them? When we started, everything was grown in petri dishes in two dimensions, which is a very inefficient way of growing cells. Today, there is a convergence towards three-dimensional bio-reactors because there is a recognition that only there can we reach the densities that will be required to be reasonable economically.”

Barriers to production

The two biggest barriers to mass production of cultured meat is cost and consumer acceptance.

“Cost is the most important challenge. The cultured meat industry is still well behind the traditional meat industry in this respect,” Forgacs explained.

“Consumers are still a little confused about cultured meat. This isn’t surprising, because nobody can eat it yet except for a few lucky people who have tasted prototypes.”

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