October 3, 2022 – The idea has been in the works for nearly a hundred years. No one but Winston Churchill envisioned an alternative to traditional meat production when he was Written in 1931“We will escape from the absurdity of raising a whole chicken to eat its breast or its wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium.”
The example of Churchill’s poultry may be prophetic because the first restaurant to serve lab-grown meat selected chicken in three typical dishes. Served on a bun with spring onions and sesame, wrapped in black bean phyllo purée, or topped with a crunchy maple waffle with spices and hot sauce. Cooking for the first time In Singapore on Robertson Pier.
So far, Singapore stands alone in producing edible samples of what is now called cultured and cultured meat from animal cells. Developed by American startup Eat Just, typical dishes served at Club 1880 cost about $23.
Today, other countries are ready – albeit on a small scale – to join Singapore, pending regulatory approval. at least 24 countries have companies The development of cultured meat. In the United States, some factors are accelerating the inevitable emergence in restaurants of the search for healthier, more sustainable foods. One is that the US government has invested millions in research for a few select academic centers for meat cell culture. The cells hold the promise of replicating beef, chicken, pork, and seafood, as well as other consumer goods. Another is the growing demand for protein alternatives.
Consumers just need to look at the recent rise in plant-based meats that are widely found in grocery stores and restaurant menus to see the growing demand for traditional meat alternatives.
By July 31, 2021, plant protein Sales increased by 11%, Driven by a 43% rise in the number of households buying meat substitutes.
Grown meats differ from products such as vegan burgers or veggie pies, and links and steaks resemble real meat models.
Scientists like David Kaplan, Ph.D., chair of the department of biomedical engineering at Tufts University in Boston, which is among the leading U.S. centers in the field, say it’s real animal meat without slaughter.
From petri dish to dinner plate
Tufts earned $10 millionA 5-year grant from the US Department of Agriculture in 2021 to develop farmed meat.
Other major centers working on cultured meat include the University of California-Davis and the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kaplan explains that mass production takes a single cell from a single animal, extracted with a needle either from muscle or other tissues or harvested from an animal’s eggs, to start a cell line.
The meat is grown by feeding the cells with nutrients that normally come from the animal’s body – amino acids, glucose, vitamins, proteins and salts. A process called scaffolding could help cells grow into components that could one day produce a steak with bones, marbling fat and connective tissue, for example.
But what will this fabrication be called?
The word “agriculture” is unlikely to reach the market as part of the mouth-watering advertisements for the new option. Scientists have called it cultured meat or cell-based protein, but those terms likely wouldn’t entice people to eat it and would pose a marketing challenge for the industry.
Want to solve world hunger and good taste on a budget?
The ambitions of farmed meat are noble. Feeding the hungry and the malnourished is an important long-term goal with cultured meat, says Joan Salg Blake, a dietitian and educator at Boston University in Massachusetts.
“The issue is that we have to feed the world. This type of cultured protein is an interesting solution. We need to feed 10 billion people by 2050.”
But she says the success of growing meat and seafood with the American consumer will not be down to societal issues like sustainability and health, but to personal issues: Will it taste good and be affordable?
“The number one motive behind Americans choosing food or drink is taste,” says Salj Blake. ‘The second thing is the price.’ With the current rise in inflation, she expects continued pressure on family food budgets.
How does this new meat taste? We call it a work in progress. The first iteration of the meat, Kaplan says, will likely be cross-bred meat — cultured with plant-based meats to enhance flavor and texture and keep costs low.
Why does “real” meat need help, in terms of taste? Since cultured meat is grown from cells, potentially harmful fats may be eliminated at the cell level. Which is great from a health point of view, but not from a “flavor fat” point of view.
And, as with most foods, trade-offs in order to make something taste better or extend its shelf life may mean compromising those health benefits.
“I don’t think these alternative cultured proteins will beat traditional steaks and hamburgers,” says Salg Blake.
Questions about the eco-friendly part
David Block, PhD, leads a team of about 55 researchers at the University of California, Davis’s Grown Meat Consortium to develop new products with a grant from the National Science Foundation.
He says there’s reason to believe that farmed meat will help the environment and be sustainable, but so far, “nobody really knows.”
Give an example of beef. The cow eats food and grows but wastes. After slaughter, there are also parts of the cow that are not used and are discarded. Cows emit methane, which is warming the planet.
The idea is that if animal cells go directly to a fermenter or bioreactor to grow, there will be less waste and emissions.
“However, I don’t think it’s that simple,” Block says.
One question is what nutrients will help cells grow, he says. They are likely vegetable products or agricultural by-products, so if you use soybeans, for example, the question is can you grow more soybeans in the world and what does that do to the environment?
He points out that cows eat grass in places where nothing else grows. One unknown is whether there is enough arable land globally to produce the raw materials for the production of farmed meat.
The fermenters that grow the cultured meat must be sterile for food safety.
“To sterilize something, you probably need steam, which adds an energy component in addition to using energy and water to control the temperature,” he says.
What is certain is that more players are placing high-stakes bets that farmed meat is coming.
Lots of money behind this effort
Globally, the number of meat-grown start-ups jumped to 107 last year, up 24% from 2020.
This compares to “probably six companies 6 years ago,” Block says.
According to the Good Food Institute, farmed meat Companies raised $1.3 billion in 2021, This represents 71% of the total investment in this field.
Block says US companies are ready to begin production on a trial scale, pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
But “to build a large-scale facility that will make this more widely available would probably take 5 years. Conservatively, this could take 10 or 15 years before this becomes widely available,” he says.
Kaplan says changes are not expected any time soon in terms of the shift from traditional farming to meat farming, but progress is inevitable. World population growth over the next three decades and consumer demand will dictate this.
“We have no other choice,” Kaplan says. “We can’t use the same systems to feed 10 billion people on this planet. So we need efficient options.”
This means traditional meat, vegetable meat and farmed meat.
“We need everything,” he says.
Regardless of taste and cost concerns, many other factors will determine the ultimate demand for farmed meat.
Is it halal, vegan, or something else?
Talks have already begun about whether these new options will meet the laws of Jewish law and the restrictions of other religions that prohibit the consumption of certain meats.
What about vegetarians and vegans? If the ethical and moral issues of animal treatment were eliminated, would more people accept farmed or “safe” meat, if the new meat proved to be healthier?
Meanwhile, science is advancing as well as the creativity that will undoubtedly be required to entice people to try and embrace cultured meat.
Working with entirely new ingredients to create something delicious for the crowd is an exciting opportunity, according to Colin Buchan, the executive chef who created the new typical dishes at Club 1880. (Buchan was also the former private chef of former England football star David Beckham and his wife Victoria.)
in a permit At the time of historic catering, Nate Park, Director of Product Development at Eat Just, said, “Rarely does a professional chef get the opportunity to create an entirely new category of food and help design an interactive meal to bring this product, and the meaning behind it, to the world for the first time.”
We suspect Churchill would be too curious not to try it.
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