Scientific, sustainability and regulatory challenges of cultured meat

Mark J. Post*, Shulamit Levenberg, David L. Kaplan, Nicholas Genovese, Jianan Fu, Christopher J. Bryant, Nicole Negowetti, Karin Verzijden, Panagiota Moutsatsou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal(Systematic) Review article peer-review

Abstract

Producing meat without the drawbacks of conventional animal agriculture would greatly contribute to future food and nutrition security. This Review Article covers biological, technological, regulatory and consumer acceptance challenges in this developing field of biotechnology.

Cellular agriculture is an emerging branch of biotechnology that aims to address issues associated with the environmental impact, animal welfare and sustainability challenges of conventional animal farming for meat production. Cultured meat can be produced by applying current cell culture practices and biomanufacturing methods and utilizing mammalian cell lines and cell and gene therapy products to generate tissue or nutritional proteins for human consumption. However, significant improvements and modifications are needed for the process to be cost efficient and robust enough to be brought to production at scale for food supply. Here, we review the scientific and social challenges in transforming cultured meat into a viable commercial option, covering aspects from cell selection and medium optimization to biomaterials, tissue engineering, regulation and consumer acceptance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)403-415
Number of pages13
JournalNature food
Volume1
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2020

Keywords

  • STEM-CELL EXPANSION
  • ENDOTHELIAL-CELLS
  • CHLORELLA-PROTOTHECOIDES
  • CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE
  • UNITED-STATES
  • MUSCLE
  • FOOD
  • DIFFERENTIATION
  • CULTIVATION
  • VASCULARIZATION

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