Cultured meat facts for kids

Presentation of the world's first cultured hamburger being fried at a news conference in London on 5 August 2013

Cultured meat (also known by other names) is meat produced by culturing animal cells in vitro. It is a form of cellular agriculture.

Cultured meat is produced using tissue engineering techniques pioneered in regenerative medicine. Jason Matheny popularized the concept in the early 2000s after he co-authored a paper on cultured meat production and created New Harvest, the world's first nonprofit organization dedicated to in-vitro meat research.

Cultured meat has the potential to address the environmental impact of meat production, animal welfare, food security and human health, in addition to its potential mitigation of climate change.

In 2013, Mark Post created a hamburger patty made from tissue grown outside of an animal. Since then, other cultured meat prototypes have gained media attention: SuperMeat opened a farm-to-fork restaurant called "The Chicken" in Tel Aviv to test consumer reaction to its "Chicken" burger, while the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat" occurred in December 2020 at Singapore restaurant 1880, where cultured meat manufactured by US firm Eat Just was sold.

The production process is constantly evolving, driven by companies and research institutions. The applications for cultured meat led to ethical, health, environmental, cultural, and economic discussions. Data published by the non-governmental organization Good Food Institute found that in 2021 cultivated meat companies attracted $140 million in Europe.

First public trial
Interesting facts about cultured meat
Process
Companies working on cultured meat
Differences from conventional meat
Religious aspect
Images for kids
See also

First public trial

Hanni Rützler tastes the world's first cultured hamburger, 5 August 2013.

The first cultured beef burger patty was created by Mark Post at Maastricht University in 2013. It was made from over 20,000 thin strands of muscle tissue, cost over $300,000 and needed 2 years to produce.

The burger was tested on live television in London on 5 August 2013. It was cooked by chef Richard McGeown of Couch's Great House Restaurant, Polperro, Cornwall, and tasted by critics Hanni Rützler, a food researcher from the Future Food Studio, and Josh Schonwald. Rützler stated, "There is really a bite to it, there is quite some flavour with the browning. I know there is no fat in it so I didn't really know how juicy it would be, but there is quite some intense taste; it's close to meat, it's not that juicy, but the consistency is perfect. This is meat to me... It's really something to bite on and I think the look is quite similar." Rützler added that even in a blind trial she would have taken the product for meat rather than a soya copy.

Interesting facts about cultured meat

In the 1950s, Dutch researcher Willem van Eelen independently came up with the idea for cultured meat. As a prisoner of war during the Second World War, Van Eelen suffered from starvation, leaving him passionate about food production and food security.
In 2001, NASA began conducting cultured meat experiments, with the intent of allowing astronauts to grow meat instead of transporting it. In partnership with Morris Benjaminson, they cultivated goldfish and turkey.
In 2008, PETA offered a $1 million prize to the first company to bring cultured chicken meat to consumers by 2012. The contest was later extended until 4 March 2014. The deadline eventually expired without a winner.
Cultured meat is mass-produced in Israel.
The first restaurant to serve cultured meat opened in Singapore in 2021.
As of 2023, Singapour and the USA are the only countires that have approved of selling cultivated meat to the public.

Process

Potential bioreactor configuration for cultured meat

Cell source:

The process of making cultured meat begins with the extraction of cells from the muscle and skin tissue of a living animal. Stem cells are typically extracted because they are capable of self-renewal and differentiation into further types of cells

Cell culture media:

The extracted cells are then placed in a nutrient-rich liquid feed that contains energy, vitamins and minerals, proteins, and growth stimuli. The feed promotes growth to form muscle fibers

Bioreactor:

Scaffolds are placed inside bioreactors. Bioreactors are large machines similar to brewery tanks which expose the cells to a large variety of environmental factors and conditions so that cell can grow into muscle tissue. In the case of mammalian cells, this requires heating to 37 °C (99 °F). Most bioreactors are maintained at 5% carbon dioxide.

Scaffold:

A scaffold is used to provide a structure for the cells to grow on. The scaffold can be made from a variety of materials, including plant-based materials, and is used to create a three-dimensional structure for the cells to grow on.

Harvesting:

After the meat in the bioreactor has grown to the desired size and characteristics, the meat is harvested. The meat then undergoes food processing, packaging, and finally, is sold.

Companies working on cultured meat

Note: dates in italics refer to projected dates of achievement in the future; they may shift.

Name	Founded	Area	Focus	Recent costs	Proof of concept	Pilot plant	Market entry
Aleph Farms	2017	Israel	Beef	Over $3,000/kg (Nov 2019 claim)	Dec 2018	Feb 2022	End 2022 (Feb 2022 claim)
Ants Innovate	2020	Singapore	Pork
Appleton Meats	2016	Canada	Beef
Artemys Foods	2019	United States	Meat		Fall 2020
Avant Meats	2018	Hong Kong	Fish protein		November 2019	2022 (Aug 2020 claim)
Balletic Foods		United States
Because Animals	2018	United States	Pet food		May 2019		2022 (Aug 2021 claim)
Biftek	2018	Turkey	Culture media
BioBQ	2018	United States	Scaffolding		2022
BlueNalu	2018	United States	Seafood		Fall 2019
BioTech Foods (acquired by JBS)	2017	Spain	Pork	€100/kg (July 2019 claim)		2020	mid-2024 (Dec 2021 claim)
Cell Ag Tech	2018	Canada	Meat
Cell Farm Food Tech	2018	Argentina	Meat
CellX	2020	China	Pork		2021		(by 2025) aiming for cost-parity with conventionally sourced pork
Clear Meat	2019	India	Poultry	c. 825 rupees/chicken (Nov 2020 claim)			2022 (May 2019 claim)
Cubiq Foods	2018	Spain	Fat		Sep 2019
Cultured Food Innovation Hub	2021	Switzerland	Meat			2022 (Sept 2021 claim)
Eat Just	2011	United States	Meat	C. €50/nugget (Jan 2020 claim)	Dec 2017	Constructing (Jan 2020)	December 2020: restaurants By Jan 2023: hawker centres and foodservices
Finless Foods	2016	United States	Tuna	$7,000/lb (Feb 2018 claim)	Sep 2017	Constructing (Oct 2021)	May 2022 (restaurants and foodservices)
Fork & Goode	2018	United States	Meat
Future Fields	2017	Canada	Culture media
Future Meat Technologies	2018	Israel	Meat	$10/lb (Feb 2020 goal by 2022)	2019	June 2021	2022 (Oct 2019 claim)
Gaia Foods	2019	Singapore	Red meat
Gourmey	2019	France	Foie gras
Heuros	2017	Australia	Pet food
Higher Steaks	2017	United Kingdom	Pork	£'Thousands'/kg (July 2020 claim)	July 2020
Hoxton Farms	2020	United Kingdom	Fat
IntegriCulture, Inc.	2015	Japan	Foie gras	¥20,000/kg (July 2019 claim)	2021	2021 (July 2020 claim)
Matrix Meats	2019	United States	Scaffolding		2020
Meatable	2018	Netherlands	Pork		End 2020	Preparing (Sept 2021)	2023 (Apr 2021 claim)
Meatleo	2021	Canada	Beef
MeaTech (subsidiary: Peace of Meat)	2019	Israel Belgium	Foie gras	€15,000/kg (May 2020 claim)	4 March 2020	Constructing; 2022 (May 2021 claim)	2023 (Dec 2019 claim)
Mewery	2020	Czech Republic	Pork		mid 2022		2025
Mirai Foods	2020	Switzerland	Beef	'Small car'/kg (June 2020 claim)	June 2020
Mission Barns	2018	United States	Pork
Mosa Meat / Maastricht University	2015	Netherlands	Beef	€60/kg (Feb 2017 goal by 2020) '88x cheaper' (July 2020 claim)	Aug 2013 (UM)	Installing (May 2020)	2022 (Feb 2020 claim)
Motif FoodWorks	2019	United States	Beef		End 2020 (Aug 2020 claim)		Q4 2021 (beef flavouring) (Oct 2020 claim)
Multus Media	2019	United Kingdom	Culture media		October 2019
New Age Meats	2018	United States	Pork		Sep 2018	Constructing (Oct 2021)	2022
Primeval Foods	2022	United Kingdom United States	Bushmeat
SavorEat	2016	Israel	Beef				Mid-2021 (restaurants) (May 2020 claim)
Shiok Meats	2018	Singapore	Shrimp	$3,500/kg (Oct 2020 claim)	2019		2021 (March 2020 claim)
Shojinmeat Project		Japan
SuperMeat	2015	Israel	Poultry	$35/burger (Dec 2020 claim)	2018	November 2020	By 2022 (May 2020 claim) Test restaurant Nov 2020
Upside Foods (formerly Memphis Meats)	2015	United States	Poultry	$1,700/lb (Feb 2018 claim)	Feb 2016	4 November 2021	Around 2020 (Feb 2017 claim)
Vow	2019	Australia	Kangaroo	US$1350/kg (Aug 2019 claim)	Aug 2019	Oct 2022	2022 (restaurants) (Oct 2019 claim)
Wildtype Foods	2016	United States	Salmon		June 2019	24 June 2021

In addition to these companies, non-profit organisations such as New Harvest, the Good Food Institute, ProVeg International and the Cellular Agriculture Society advocate for, fund and research cultured meat.

Differences from conventional meat

As cultured meat is grown in a sterile environment, there is no need for antibiotics. Today, the widespread use of antibiotics in conventional agriculture is the main driver of antibiotic resistance in humans. Cultured meat could provide an effective solution to help mitigate this major risk to human health.

Animal production for food is a major cause of air/water pollution and carbon emissions. The environmental impacts of cultured meat are expected to be significantly lower than from growing animals.

Cultured meat is more environmentally friendly than conventional meat, as it requires less land, water, and energy to produce.

Cultured meat does not require the raising or killing of animals, making it a more ethical and sustainable alternative to conventional meat.

Cultured meat is still a relatively new product, and there are concerns about its safety, taste, and nutritional value compared to conventional meat.

Religious aspect

Jewish rabbinical authorities disagree whether cultured meat is kosher, meaning acceptable under Jewish law and practice. Most authorities agree that if the original cells were taken from a religiously slaughtered animal then the meat cultured from it will be kosher. Depending on the nature of the cells, it may be determined to be kosher even when taken from a live animal, and some have argued that it would be kosher even if coming from non-kosher animals such as pigs.

Islamic dietary practices must also be considered. As long as the cells are not from pigs, dogs, and other haram animals, the meat would be considered vegetative and "similar to yogurt and fermented pickles."

Hinduism typically excludes the consumption of beef, such as steak and burgers. Chandra Kaushik, president of the Hindu Mahasabha, said about cultured beef that he would "not accept it being traded in a marketplace in any form or being used for a commercial purpose."

Catholicism, which excludes eating meat in certain days along the year (Lent, Holy Week), has not pronounced on whether cultivated meat is banned (as it happens with meat) or not (as with any other food as vegetables or fish).

Images for kids

Presentation of the world's first cultured hamburger being fried at a news conference in London on 5 August 2013
Pasta dish with strips of Good Meat's cultivated chicken meat, served to the public in a restaurant in Singapore.
Stem cells can differentiate into a range of specialized cells.
Myoblasts are one precursor to muscle cells, and their fibers are shown in yellow and nuclei shown in blue.
Muscle tissue is developed from the growth medium and organized in a three-dimensional structure by the scaffold for end product.
Bioprinting that assembles cell fibers could be used to produce a variety of steak-like cultured meat.
The Impossible Burger was made with fermented heme proteins.