THE SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY PROJECT
NEW MEATS SOON FOR SALE
Would you eat a burger made in a lab?
The number of people consuming meat has risen over the past few decades and is expected to continue increasing [1,2]. But our current ways of producing meat aren't sustainable to keep up with this demand.
Scientists are looking to address this by creating alternative, more sustainable forms of meat or protein. This includes meat grown in a lab (cultured meat), to insect meat and plant-based imitations. Let’s have a look at how they’re made!
Meat made in a lab
Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat, clean meat or lab-grown meat, is made from meat cells grown in a lab. This is an alternative way of producing meat instead of meat from slaughtered animals [1,2,3].
In 2013, the first cultured meat burger was created and eaten on live television. This meat patty cost around €250,000 (that's around $400,000 AUD) to make[4]! However these days, while cultured meat is still not widely available yet, there are hundreds of meat-start ups hoping to bring cultured meat to the general public and supermarkets soon[1].
How cultured meat is made
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A small number of cells are taken from an animal, such as a cow, pig, chicken or fish. These cells are cultivated in a lab into stem cells, which are cells that can replicate and be grown into muscle cells to create meat [5,6].
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The cells are placed in a vat called a “bioreactor”, in a broth with serum and nutrients in it, adjusted to the right pH and temperature. The cells duplicate until there is enough for an edible meat product, which usually takes a few weeks.
white blood cells: aka immune cells, work together to fight infection in your body. This includes B cells, T cells, natural killer cells, macrophages, and many other immune cell types.
antibodies: made by B cells, that are an essential part of the immune system and vaccine response. They mark pathogens so that immune cells can find and fight them.
Other alternative proteins!
Plant-based "meat"
Plant based alternatives are not real meat, but are usually made of plant proteins such as soy, wheat, peas and legumes. Food scientists are using different technologies to try and make them look like real meat. For example, beet juice may be used to mimic the colour and reaction of blood [9].
Hover over each box to find out more!
Why eat alternative proteins?
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Improved animal welfare: This may be a more ethical way of eating meat, as cultured meat production doesn’t require killing animals, and only takes a small sample from the animal in the beginning. This could vastly reduce the number of animals being killed for meat and animal suffering [10,11].
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Environmental sustainability: Currently, traditional meat agriculture is one of the biggest producers of greenhouse gases, and takes up a significant amount of the world’s land, water and resources to feed livestock. Having alternative meat production could relieve the burden on traditional meat agriculture and reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly [1,2,10].
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Cleaner meat: Since the meat is produced in a controlled, sterile environment, there is less chance for contamination issues, reducing the chance of zoonotic (animal to human) diseases such as E. Coli. Furthermore, this could also reduce antibiotic use as they aren't needed in a sterile environment, helping reduce antibiotic resistance [10,11].
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Innovating food: This could create new dishes and new ways to eat food. There could also be a potential to bring less common meats or new varieties of meat products to the market, similar to current day cheesemakers, charcuterie producers and so on [3,6].
Myths and FAQs
“This isn’t real meat!”
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Cultured meat is made of the exact same animal cells that conventional meat from, and has the same nutrients and amino acids as real meat! Plant or algae based alternatives, however, aren't real meat, but may be made to mimic traditional meat [7].
“Is it made of cancer cells?”
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Since cultured meat is from cells that can self-replicate and grow quickly, there is a misconception that it contains cancer cells or was taken from tumours. However this is false. To be cancerous, cells need many other characteristics such being immune to cell death and being able to invade tissues to form tumours uncontrollably. Being able to self-replicate isn’t necessarily cancerous, it’s a function of many normal cells. The cells from cultured meat are under a precise, controlled environment with conditions that allow them to grow, but they wouldn’t be able to survive and keep replicating outside the bioreactors. Even then, it would also essentially be impossible for the eaten meat cells to integrate as a cancer in humans since it is from a different species [12].
“It’s already in all the food we eat!”
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There is a myth that cultured meat has already been sneakily introduced in food we currently eat. But in reality, cultured meat, just like any other novel food, would be highly regulated before entering the market. It also isn’t available in most of the world yet either, with only a few countries such as Singapore and the US recently approving lab-based chicken for consumption, in 2020 and 2023 respectively. Although there are plant-based alternatives in Australia, cell-based meat is currently not available according to Food Standards Australia & New Zealand [13].
“Cultured meat isn’t actually slaughter-free”
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This is actually partially true, and a challenge that is being addressed in the cultured meat industry. Cultured meat doesn’t require killing animals to make meat, however in earlier versions, the broth needed to grow cells required fetal bovine serum (FBS), from slaughtered pregnant cows. This was also extremely expensive. However, this is now changing, with companies being able to produce cultured meat with an alternative animal-free medium, which is lower cost and FBS free [14]. For fully non-meat alternatives, plant-based alternatives are an option.
Have more questions? Would you try any of these alternative meats? Comment below!
References:
1. Smetana S, Ristic D, Pleissner D, Tuomisto HL, Parniakov O, Heinz V. Meat substitutes: Resource demands and environmental footprints. Resources, Conservation and Recycling. 2023;190:106831. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106831
2. Hartmann C, Siegrist M. Consumer perception and behaviour regarding sustainable protein consumption: A systematic review. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 2017;61:11–25. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2016.12.006
3. Stephens N, Di Silvio L, Dunsford I, Ellis M, Glencross A, Sexton A. Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 2018;78:155–66. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2018.04.010
4. Szondy D. First public tasting of US$330,000 lab-grown burger [Internet]. New Atlas; 2015 [cited 2023 Sept 13]. Available from: https://newatlas.com/cultured-beef/28584/
5. Swartz E, Bomkamp C. The science of cultivated meat: GFI [Internet]. 2023 [cited 2023 Sept 9]. Available from: https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/
6. Siddiqui SA, Bahmid NA, Karim I, Mehany T, Gvozdenko AA, Blinov AV, et al. Cultured meat: Processing, packaging, shelf life, and Consumer Acceptance. LWT. 2022;172:114192. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2022.114192
7. Fatima N, Emambux MN, Olaimat AN, Stratakos AC, Nawaz A, Wahyono A, et al. Recent advances in microalgae, insects, and cultured meat as sustainable alternative protein sources. Food and Humanity. 2023;1:731–41. doi:10.1016/j.foohum.2023.07.009
8. Fu Y, Chen T, Chen SH, Liu B, Sun P, Sun H, et al. The potentials and challenges of using microalgae as an ingredient to produce meat analogues. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 2021;112:188–200. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2021.03.050
9. Liu X, Yang C, Qin J, Li J, Li J, Chen J. Challenges, process technologies, and potential synthetic biology opportunities for plant-based meat production. LWT. 2023;184:115109. doi:10.1016/j.lwt.2023.115109
10. Bryant C, Barnett J. Consumer acceptance of cultured meat: An updated review (2018–2020). Applied Sciences. 2020;10(15):5201. doi:10.3390/app10155201
11. Pakseresht A, Ahmadi Kaliji S, Canavari M. Review of factors affecting consumer acceptance of cultured meat. Appetite. 2022;170:105829. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2021.105829
12. Goldin M. Animal cells used to create lab-grown meat are not cancerous, experts say [Internet]. AP News; 2023 [cited 2023 Sept 13]. Available from: https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-lab-meat-cancer-animal-cells-449786524119
13. Food Standards Australia & New Zealand [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2023 Sept 9]. Available from: https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/generalissues/Pages/Cell-based-meat.aspx
14. Hadi J, Brightwell G. Safety of alternative proteins: Technological, environmental and regulatory aspects of cultured meat, plant-based meat, insect protein and single-cell protein. Foods. 2021;10(6):1226. doi:10.3390/foods10061226
