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Journal ArticleDOI

Challenges and possibilities for bio-manufacturing cultured meat

Guoqiang Zhang1, Xinrui Zhao1, Xueliang Li1, Guocheng Du1, Jingwen Zhou1, Jian Chen1 
01 Mar 2020-Trends in Food Science and Technology (Elsevier)-Vol. 97, pp 443-450
TL;DR: This review focused on the characteristics of cultured meat and summarized the current technological challenges and their possible solutions based on tissue and bioreactor engineering, food science, and material science for preparing stem cells, optimizing culture conditions, and developing cost-effective culture media,Bioreactor designs, and food processing systems.
Abstract: Background Cultured meat has emerged as a breakthrough technology for the global food industry, which was considered as a potential solution to mitigate serious environmental, sustainability, global public health, and animal welfare concerns in the near future. Although there is promise that cultured meat can supplement or even replace conventional meat, many challenges still need to be resolved in the early stages. Scope and approach In this review, we focused on the characteristics of cultured meat and summarized the current technological challenges and their possible solutions based on tissue and bioreactor engineering, food science, and material science for preparing stem cells, optimizing culture conditions, and developing cost-effective culture media, bioreactor designs, and food processing systems. Key findings and conclusions With rapid progress in tissue and bioreactor engineering, new technologies for culturing meat have been developed and significant progress has been made in recent years. However, as research on cultured meat is intrinsically complex, it is necessary to encourage the integration of multidisciplinary research in this field in the future. We propose some innovative approaches, such as the applications of synthetic biology and bioreactor engineering. These strategies will be helpful to scale-up cultured meat in future applications.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a comparative study between muscle and legume proteins was made to elucidate disparities in macroscopic aggregation properties that may be greatly diminished through fabrication and ingredient innovation.
Abstract: Background Plant-based meat alternatives are developed to address consumer demands and sustainability of future food supply, and the market has grown exponentially in recent years. Although progresses have been made to construct plant protein-based fibers organoleptically comparable to a whole-muscle cut, it remains challenging to reproduce the hierarchical organization of muscle tissue known to contribute to the overall sensory profile. For now, the market strategies are largely focused on restructured or formed meat mimeticks. Scope and approaches Literature search and supermarket surveys are conducted to identify processing technologies, product formulations, and the chemistry and functionality of various additives applied in meat alternatives production. Comparisons are made between muscle and legume proteins to elucidate disparities in macroscopic aggregation properties that may be greatly diminished through fabrication and ingredient innovation. Due to the highly formulated and processed nature, the nutrition, health, and safety of plant-based meat alternatives are analyzed. Key findings and conclusion Thermoextrusion is found to be the principal reconstructuring technique for meat-like fiber synthesis from plant proteins. Soy and pea proteins, gluten, and polysaccharides are the major building blocks. Through physicochemical interactions, plant proteins are able to aggregate into particles and anisotropic fibrils to impart meat-like texture and mouthfeel. Vegetable oil blends and spices are used to modify the texture and flavor; pigments are added to impart color; vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and antimicrobials are incorporated to boost nutrition and improve shelf-life. Opportunities exist to overcome technology obstacles and nutrition and safety challenges in further developing the alternatives market.

295 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
31 Aug 2020
TL;DR: A review of key public health, environmental, animal welfare, economic, and policy implications related to the production and consumption of plant-based meat substitutes and cell-based meats and how they compare to those associated with farmed meat production revealed a number of research gaps that merit further exploration.
Abstract: Over the past decade, there has been growing interest in the development and production of plant-based and cell-based alternatives to farmed meat. Although promoted for their capacity to avoid or reduce the environmental, animal welfare, and, in some cases, public health problems associated with farmed meat production and consumption, little research has critically evaluated the broader potential public health and food systems implications associated with meat alternatives. This review explores key public health, environmental, animal welfare, economic, and policy implications related to the production and consumption of plant-based meat substitutes and cell-based meats, and how they compare to those associated with farmed meat production. Based on the limited evidence to date, it is unknown whether replacing farmed meats with plant-based substitutes would offer comparable nutritional or chronic disease reduction benefits as replacing meats with whole legumes. Production of plant-based substitutes, however, may involve smaller environmental impacts compared to the production of farmed meats, though the relative impacts differ significantly depending on the type of products under comparison. Research to date suggests that many of the purported environmental and health benefits of cell-based meat are largely speculative. Demand for both plant-based substitutes and cell-based meats may significantly reduce dependence on livestock to be raised and slaughtered for meat production, although cell-based meats will require further technological developments to completely remove animal-based inputs. The broader socioeconomic and political implications of replacing farmed meat with meat alternatives merit further research. An additional factor to consider is that much of the existing research on plant-based substitutes and cell-based meats has been funded or commissioned by companies developing these products, or by other organizations promoting these products. This review has revealed a number of research gaps that merit further exploration, ideally with independently funded peer-reviewed studies, to further inform the conversation around the development and commercialization of plant-based substitutes and cell-based meats.

122 citations


Cites background from "Challenges and possibilities for bi..."

  • ...Serum-free growth media do exist and extensive research is dedicated to advance the field (van der Valk et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2020)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Technological difficulties, especially in mass production and cost, remain before cultured meat can be commercialized, Nevertheless, these meat alternatives can be a part of the authors' future protein sources while maintaining a complementary relationship with traditional meat.
Abstract: Plant-based meat analogues, edible insects, and cultured meat are promising major meat alternatives that can be used as protein sources in the future. It is also believed that the importance of meat alternatives will continue to increase because of concerns on limited sustainability of the traditional meat production system. The meat alternatives are expected to have different roles based on their different benefits and limitations. Plant-based meat analogues and edible insects can replace traditional meat as a good protein source from the perspective of nutritional value. Furthermore, plant-based meat can be made available to a wide range of consumers (e.g., as vegetarian or halal food products). However, despite ongoing technical developments, their palatability, including appearance, flavor, and texture, is still different from the consumers' standard established from livestock-based traditional meat. Meanwhile, cultured meat is the only method to produce actual animal muscle-based meat; therefore, the final product is more meat-like compared to other meat analogues. However, technical difficulties, especially in mass production and cost, remain before it can be commercialized. Nevertheless, these meat alternatives can be a part of our future protein sources while maintaining a complementary relationship with traditional meat.

96 citations


Cites background or result from "Challenges and possibilities for bi..."

  • ...Therefore, it is possible to produce safer products devoid of hazards such as contamination, antibiotic abuse, infectious diseases, and food poisoning [68]....

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  • ...Cell-attached scaffolds are suspended in a bioreactor with culture media, producing cultured meat on a large-scale [64,68]....

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  • ...Besides, according to Zhang et al [68], during the production of cultured meat, a single cell can proliferate several times; therefore, fewer numbers of animals are needed than in livestock farming....

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  • ...Once cultured meat is produced with a similar quality to that of traditional meat, it may play an important role in increasing meat supplies because it will be the only actual meat that has animal protein [67,68]....

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  • ...Benefits as meat alternatives The biggest merits of cultured meat are its similarities to traditional meat, as it is derived from farm animals, and may be environmentally sustainable [67,68]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, tendon-gel integrated bioprinting was used to construct tendon-like gels for the fabrication of steak-like cultured meats, including muscle, fat, and vessel.
Abstract: With the current interest in cultured meat, mammalian cell-based meat has mostly been unstructured. There is thus still a high demand for artificial steak-like meat. We demonstrate in vitro construction of engineered steak-like tissue assembled of three types of bovine cell fibers (muscle, fat, and vessel). Because actual meat is an aligned assembly of the fibers connected to the tendon for the actions of contraction and relaxation, tendon-gel integrated bioprinting was developed to construct tendon-like gels. In this study, a total of 72 fibers comprising 42 muscles, 28 adipose tissues, and 2 blood capillaries were constructed by tendon-gel integrated bioprinting and manually assembled to fabricate steak-like meat with a diameter of 5 mm and a length of 10 mm inspired by a meat cut. The developed tendon-gel integrated bioprinting here could be a promising technology for the fabrication of the desired types of steak-like cultured meats. Mammalian cell-based cultured meat has mostly been unstructured, leaving a demand for artificial steak-like meat. Here the authors present an assembled steak-like tissue of bovine skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and blood capillary tissue fabricated by tendon-gel integrated printing technology.

92 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The product focus, the geographical spread of companies, and the funding landscape along with the critical challenges facing plant-based meat alternatives are highlighted.

64 citations

References
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
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Abstract: Presentation de l'editeur : This report aims to assess the full impact of the livestock sector on environmental problems, along with potential technical and policy approaches to mitigation. The assessment takes into account direct impacts, along with the impacts of feed crop agriculture required for livestock production. The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is on a massive scale and its potential contribution to their solution is equally large. The impact is so significant that it needs to be addressed with urgency. Major reductions in impact could be achieved at reasonable cost

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the course of an electron microscopic study of the peripheral region of the skeletal muscle fiber of the frog, the presence of certain cells, intimately associated with the muscle fiber, have been observed which the authors have chosen to call satellite cells.
Abstract: In the course of an electron microscopic study of the peripheral region of the skeletal muscle fiber of the frog, the presence of certain cells, intimately associated with the muscle fiber, have been observed which we have chosen to call satellite cells. Since these cells have not been reported previously and indeed might be of interest to students of muscle histology and furthermore, as we shall suggest, might be pertinent to the vexing problem of skeletal muscle regeneration, a brief communication describing this finding is warranted prior to a more detailed study. The observations reported here have been made on bundles of fibers dissected from the tibialis anticus muscle of the frog. The material has been fixed by the conventional method with osmium tetroxide, and the embedding has been carried out with methacrylate and with epoxy (epon) resin. In sections that were \"stained,\" the lead hydroxide solution of Watson (1) was used. As seen in the attached electron micrograph of the satellite cell, the striking paucity of cytoplasm relative to its nucleus results in the cell assuming the shape of the nucleus. In fact, it is virtually impossible to discern the cellular nature of this entity in the light microscope, as it appears to be indistinguishable from a peripheral muscle nucleus proper. In electron micrographs the cell is seen \"wedged\" between the plasma membrane of the muscle fiber and the basement membrane, which invests the fiber throughout its length in close association with the plasma membrane. The intimacy of this satellite cell with respect to the multinucleate muscle cell is further revealed in the fact that, in general, the surface of the muscle fiber is not distorted outward but instead the satellite cell protrudes inward pushing the myofibrils of the muscle cell aside. On the inner surface, the plasma membrane of the satellite cell is in appositon with the plasma membrane of the muscle cell. Unfortunately, because of the limited observations and the difficulty in acquiring sufficient data readily with electron micrographic techniques, it is not possible at present to estimate the frequency of occurrence of these cells in a typical muscle fiber in our preparation of tibialis anticus muscle. The only generalization warranted at this time is that the peripheral muscle nuclei proper occur much more frequently than the satellite cells. It is interesting that upon alerting other investigators to these findings, similar cells have been found in electron micrographs of two other muscles of the frog, namely sartorius (2) and ileofibularis (3), and of the sartorius and tongue muscle of the white rat (4). (Though the direct evidence is restricted to these two vertebrates, it seems reasonable to hazard a guess that skeletal muscle fibers of vertebrates in general contain satellite cells.) It is tempting to speculate about the origin and the role of the satellite cells. Before stating the several possible hypotheses that have figured in our interpretations, it is pertinent to recall a most striking characteristic of regenerating muscle fibers in the least ambiguous case where the sarcolemma-tube remains intact, the myoplasm having undergone hyaline formation and retraction as a result of trauma. Within 48 hours a marked presence of \"free cells\" is noted in the empty tube, the cells appearing both as \"round\" and \" f u s i f o r m \" types (5). Moreover, in tissue culture studies of mature skeletal muscle explants, fi'ee cells are also seen emanating from the explant. The central question must be asked: what is the origin of these cells? Most cytologists lean toward the interpretation that surviving nuclei in the damaged multinucleate muscle cell give rise to single cells by \"gathering up\" cytoplasm from the sarcoplasm of the muscle cell--an unusual mechanism, however, for vertebrate systems. If this point of view is taken, the first and immediate hypothesis suggests itself, namely, that in the resting state some cells are being produced at a slow rate by the above mechanism and reside just outside the plasma membrane of the muscle cell, and that upon being stimulated by trauma, e.g. ischemia, mechanical compression, toxic agents, etc., the rate of production of such cells is increased. The second hypothesis, more in keeping with conventional notions of cytology, is that the satellite cells are remnants from the embryonic development of the multinucleate muscle cell which results from the process of fusion of individual myoblasts. Thus the satellite cells are

3,364 citations

Book
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a unique global assessment of the magnitude, the sources and pathways of emissions from different livestock production systems and supply chains and also provide estimates of the sector's mitigation potential and identifies concrete options to reduce emissions.
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1,786 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The clonal derivation of two human ES cell lines, H9.1 and H.2, demonstrates the pluripotency of single human ES cells, the maintenance of pluripOTency during an extended period of culture, and the long-term self-renewing properties of cultured human ES Cells.

1,680 citations