Lab Grown Meat: A Promising solution for carbon-neutral future food
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Bharti
Assistant Professor, Department of Livestock Product Technology, College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, U.P. Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyay Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidhyalaya evam Go Anusandhan Sansthan, Mathura – 281 001 (U.P.)
Introduction
Lab grown/ In vitro/cultured / synthetic/ slaughter-free/ cell-based/ hydroponic/ test-tube meat is the meat produced by culturing stem cells by invite cultivation, instead of slaughtering food animals. Culturing involves food biotechnology comprising the field of tissue engineering and cellular agriculture where the extraction of cells from the farm animal and transferring them into a suitable medium that contains nutrients, energy sources, growth factors, etc., is required for the growth and differentiation of the stem cells into mature muscle cells within a bioreactor. Cell/ tissue engineering may be executed for the production of edible animal muscle, better known as lab meat that requires the creation of a small amount of muscle cells to a large muscle cell mass.
History behind In vitro meat
Rene Barjavel, a French science fiction author described In vitro production and selling of meat in the restaurants in his novel ‘Ravage’ published in 1943. Dutch researcher, Willem Van Eelen suggested the notion for the generation of lab meat in the early 1950s. Willem Van Eelen has the credit of pioneering cultured meat and is the Godfather of In vitro meat production. The world’s aboriginal In vitro meat-based burger was prepared and recognized by a sensory panel in Riverside Studios in London in year 2013. The concept of the cultured meet watch was popularized by Jason Matheny in the early 2000s.
Ingredients required to produce In vitro meat
- Cell source: Embryonic myoblast aka Satellite cells (Most practical cell source), Myosatellite cells (precursor to skeletal muscle cell)
- Culture media: Contain the necessary nutritional components present in a form freely available to the myoblast, necessary to provide an array of growth factors
- Bioreactor: Solid surface for culturing of stem cells and skeletal muscle cell
- Scaffold: E.g. Chitosan, Collagen, Alginate
Processes of In vitro meat production system
- Tissue is taken from the animal.
- Stem cells are extracted from the tissues.
- Stem cells grown into muscle fibers in a bioreactor.
- Muscle fibers are then transferred into food products such as burgers and patties.
Techniques of producing In Vitro meat
Copious multidisciplinary methodologies are prevailing for the production of in-vitro meat. Some of these processes and techniques are at the research and development level and producing in-vitro meat at a laboratory scale. In contrast, certain established protocols are being developed to produce in-vitro meat at the commercial level. There are several methods by which in-vitro meat is produced
- Scaffolding technique
- Self-organizing approach
- Organ printing
- Biophotonics
- Nanotechnology
The most common methods are scaffolding (growing and differentiating myoblasts in the scaffold in growth media prominent to unstructured and soft tissue) and self-organizing (use of explants harvested from animals to yield structured meat as self-organizing builds). In scaffold-based procedure, the embryonic myoblast or stem cells collected from live animals are reproduced and fixed to a substrate or scaffold to structure collagen or micro-carrier blobs in growth media within the bioreactor. In the self-organizing method, explant collected from donor animals is multiplied in culture media leading to the development of tissues resembling conventional meat in structure, composition, and sensorial attributes due to manifestation of additional adipose tissue, circulatory system, etc. in developed muscle tissue.
Advantages of in vitro meat production
- Low land, water and carbon footprint.
- Animal welfare/ Victimless meat i.e. a single farm animal may serve bulk meat supply.
- Reduces chances of contamination and meat-borne diseases e.g. E. coli, Salmonella, BSE and Bird flu etc.
- Reduction of Nutrition-related diseases, antibiotic-resistant pathogen strains, use of resources and farm animals, and environmental repercussions of raising livestock, including pollution from their excrement and massive emissions of methane contributing to global warming.
- Quick and efficient production (takes weeks instead of months).
- Functional/ Designer meat- meat composition can be modified e.g. Reducing saturated fats with healthier omega-3 (PUFA).
- Efficient nutrient and energy conversion.
- This system is believed to supply the global demand for meat.
In vitro meat production is one of the ideas that are being proposed to mitigate these ill effects associated with current meat production systems. The production of cultured meat may offer health and environmental benefits by plummeting environmental pollution and water and land use supplementary with existing meat production systems.
Detriments of In vitro meat production
- Product color and appearance are not appreciable compared to conventional meat
- High cost of production
- Leads to economic disturbances e.g. Employment, export, etc.
- Ethical concern and social acceptance
- Estrangement to nature
- Religious constraints
- Sensorial characteristics
- Unknown risks
Prospect and prediction of In vitro meat market
The food commodity market is driven by the source, end use and majority area of consumption. The United States (with companies like Memphis Meat, Hampton Creek/ Just, and Finless Foods), Netherlands (Mosa Meat) and Israel (Supermeat & The Kitchen Foodtech Hub) are the leading countries in lab grown meat’s research and development. Japan is prospering as a further hotspot of Research and development with the open-source Shojinmeat Project. Singapore is the overriding country to approve the sale of lab grown meat. An Indian cell-based meat company “Clear Meat” is suing to yield affordable lab meat over conventional meat.
Conclusion
Cultured meat production is undergoing auxiliary processes to mark it as better affordable, accessible, reliable, and sustainable as conventional meat production necessitates a relatively high proportion of land, energy, and water besides subsidizing the emission of greenhouse gases. Additionally, the meat can be functionalized and could be better controlled without performing actual slaughter. In-vitro using scaffold technology appears to be technically feasible. However, challenges for instance economics of production, lower sensory scores, and ethical social and religious constraints still need to be addressed. Moreover, lab-grown meat remains not globally accepted by people, measures are taken to enlighten people and to improve on available and future verities to aid acceptability. Lab-grown meat production has the technical potential to overcome the global meat demand, therefore the sector needs positive publicity, nomenclature, and distinct information to increase awareness and acceptance of unnatural food feeling.
