Cultured meat flexes its muscles
Rebecca Trager examines an emerging industry that is growing ‘meat’ outside of animals using cell lines cultivated in bioreactors
About nine years have passed since the world’s first burger made with cells grown outside of a cow was cooked and eaten at a news conference in London. The delicacy was presented by Mark Post, cofounder of Mosa Meat in the Netherlands, and was bankrolled by Google co-founder Sergey Brin to the tune of about £250,000. Back in 2013, Post acknowledged that it would likely be another decade before such products would be available to consumers. Indeed, only one company – US-based Eat Just – is currently selling cultured chicken, albeit on a relatively small scale and just in Singapore.
Such products aren’t approved for sale in any other country, but scientists, investors and regulatory experts reckon that cultivated meat will hit the market in other nations like the US as soon as this year. Unlike plant-based meat alternatives, which use various additives mixed with plant protein to mimic the taste and texture of real meat, cell-cultured meat is produced using animal-derived cells, almost entirely decoupling meat from livestock.
There is no question that demand for meat worldwide will increase, and current production methods cannot satisfy that demand, so innovation in food technology is crucial. Mounting concerns about animal welfare and the need to mitigate climate change by decreasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are adding fuel to the fire.