New Sources of Animal Proteins: Cultured Meat

Cultured meat is a technology with the potential—but not yet proven—ability to solve major upcoming problems with food security and environment when meat demand will increase according to FAO expectations. The technology is available as shown by a proof of concept. Turning cultured meat into a first commercial product available on the plate of consumers still requires different additional technical efforts to improve and complement the product, to scale-up production, to reproduce meat aging and to attain regulatory approval, and this will require time. These developments will be paralleled by replacing animal-derived materials by sustainable ones and by adding new components to the meat including fat tissue. Around the potential market introduction of the first product, consumer acceptance will be an important issue. If cultured meat enters the market, it will compete with conventional meat produced by more environmental friendly livestock practices, meat substitutes made from plant proteins, mycoproteins and insect proteins. Each type of meat substitute will have its own benefits and weaknesses. Apart from improved production of livestock meat, cultured meat is the only alternative that is based on muscle tissue from staple domesticated animals although muscle aging still needs to be investigated.