Starch-Based Scaffolds for Cultivated Meat Production: Challenges and Perspectives

The advancement of cultured meat depends on the development of structures that combine biological compatibility, edibility, sensory acceptance, and large-scale feasibility. In this context, starch emerges as an abundant, low-cost, and food-grade biopolymer, uniquely positioned for applications in food systems. Although widely studied in biomedical contexts, its specific role in cultured meat remains underexplored, despite advantages such as regulatory acceptance, consumer familiarity, and global availability. Unlike reviews focused on biomaterials for medical applications, this work centers on starch-based structures applied to food biofabrication, considering not only the physicochemical, rheological, and structural aspects of native and modified forms, but also their performance in relation to requirements specific to the food industry. The main commercial starch sources, corn, cassava, potato, wheat, and rice, are discussed according to their relevance in global production and the availability of experimental data. The review further emphasizes processing routes such as extrusion, freeze-drying, and 3D bioprinting, highlighting how these methods define the architecture, mechanical properties, and biofunctionality of starch matrices. The analysis balances benefits, including cost-effectiveness, safety, and edibility, with limitations, particularly the low capacity of starch alone to promote cell adhesion. Moreover, it distinguishes results obtained from strictly biomedical studies from those that effectively contribute to food-grade applications. Finally, industrial perspectives are discussed, including scalability, bioreactor integration, and technoeconomic aspects, positioning starch not merely as an alternative but as a strategic foundation for the design of edible scaffolds in the emerging field of food biofabrication.