Cultured meat
Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat among other names, is a form of cellular agriculture wherein meat is produced by culturing animal cells in vitro. This production method involves the molecularly identical growth of animal flesh, outside of a living animal. Cultured meat is produced using tissue engineering techniques pioneered in regenerative medicine. It is known for its potential to mitigate the impact of meat production on the environment, as well as to address issues related to animal welfare, food security, and human health.
File:The Meat Revolution Mark Post.webm|upright=1.35|thumb|Mark Post of the University of Maastricht presents The Meat Revolution, a lecture about cultured meat, 2015
File:Lab Grown Meat explained by New Harvest.webm|thumb| Isha Datar of New Harvest on how a "post-animal bio-economy" can be brought about through cultured meat, eggs, and milk, 2017
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 non-profit organization dedicated to in vitro meat research. In 2013, Mark Post created a hamburger patty made from tissue grown outside of an animal; other cultured meat prototypes have gained media attention since. In 2020, SuperMeat opened a farm-to-fork restaurant in Tel Aviv called The Chicken, serving cultured chicken burgers in exchange for reviews to test consumer reaction rather than money; while the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat" occurred in December 2020 at Singapore restaurant 1880, where cultured chicken manufactured by United States firm Eat Just was sold.
Most efforts focus on common meats such as pork, beef, and chicken; species which constitute the bulk of conventional meat consumption in developed countries. Some companies have pursued various species of fish and other seafood, such as Avant Meats who brought cultured grouper to market in 2021. Other companies such as Orbillion Bio have focused on high-end or unusual meats including elk, lamb, bison, and Wagyu beef.
The production process of cultured meat is constantly evolving, driven by companies and research institutions. The applications for cultured meat have led to ethical, health, environmental, cultural, and economic discussions. Data published by The Good Food Institute found that in 2021 through 2023, cultured meat and seafood companies attracted over $2.5 billion in investment worldwide. However, cultured meat is not yet widely available.
A 2025 study demonstrated that cow cells can be produced safely and stably in a laboratory setting through natural means, without genetic modification or any abnormal transformation.
Nomenclature
Besides cultured meat, the terms cultivated meat, clean meat, in vitro meat, cell-based meat, synthetic meat, slaughter-free meat, craft meat, healthy meat, and schmeat have been used to describe the product. Although it has multiple meanings, artificial meat is occasionally used. The term lab-grown meat has been used in news media, but has been criticized on the basis that as production reaches market-scale, it won't be grown in laboratories but rather larger-output facilities which Bruce Friedrich compares to "meat breweries".Between 2016 and 2019, clean meat gained traction. The Good Food Institute coined the term in 2016, and in late 2018, the institute published research claiming that use of clean better reflected the production process and benefits. By 2018 it had surpassed cultured and in vitro in media mentions and Google searches. Some stakeholders in cultured meat production, seeking to work with conventional meat producers as allies, felt that the term clean meat unnecessarily tarnished the latter, and went on to prefer cell-based meat as a neutral alternative.
In September 2019, GFI announced new research which found that the term cultivated meat is sufficiently descriptive and differentiating, possesses a high degree of neutrality, and ranks highly for consumer appeal. A September 2021 poll indicated that the majority of industry CEOs have a preference for cultivated meat, with 75 percent of 44 companies preferring it.
History
Initial research
The theoretical possibility of growing meat in an industrial setting has long been of interest. In a 1931 essay published by various periodicals and later included in his work Thoughts and Adventures, British statesman Winston Churchill wrote: "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."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. He attended a university lecture discussing the prospects of preserved meat. The earlier discovery of cell lines provided the basis for the idea. In vitro cultivation of muscle fibers was first performed successfully in 1971 when pathologist Russell Ross cultured guinea pig aorta. However, In 1991, Jon F. Vein secured patent for the production of tissue-engineered meat for human consumption, wherein muscle and fat would be grown in an integrated fashion to create food products.
In 2001, dermatologist Wiete Westerhof along with van Eelen and businessperson Willem van Kooten announced that they had filed for a worldwide patent on a process to produce cultured meat. The process employed a matrix of collagen seeded with muscle cells bathed in a nutritious solution and induced to divide. That same year, 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 2003, Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr exhibited a few centimeters of "steak", grown from frog stem cells, which they cooked and ate. The goal was to start a conversation surrounding the ethics of cultured meat—"was it ever alive?", "was it ever killed?", "is it in any way disrespectful to an animal to throw it away?"
In the early 2000s, American public health student Jason Matheny traveled to India and visited a factory chicken farm. Appalled by the implications of this system, he later teamed up with three scientists involved in NASA's efforts. In 2004, Matheny founded New Harvest to encourage development by funding research. In 2005, the four published the first peer-reviewed literature on the subject.
In May 2008, PETA offered a $1 million prize to the first company to bring cultured chicken meat to consumers by 2012. The contestant was required to complete two tasks to earn the prize, namely to produce a cultured chicken meat product that was indistinguishable from real chicken and produce the product in large enough quantities to be competitively sold in at least 10 states. The contest was later extended until 4 March 2014. The deadline eventually expired without a winner.
The Dutch government has invested $4 million into experiments regarding cultured meat. The In Vitro Meat Consortium, a group formed by international researchers, held the first international conference hosted by the Norwegian Food Research Institute in April 2008. Time magazine declared cultured meat production to be one of the 50 breakthrough ideas of 2009. In November 2009, scientists from the Netherlands announced they had managed to grow meat using cells from a live pig.
First public trial
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 $325,000 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 in 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.Industry development
Between 2011 and 2017, many cultured meat startups were launched. Memphis Meats, now known as Upside Foods, launched a video in February 2016, showcasing its cultured beef meatball. In March 2017, it showcased chicken tenders and duck a l'orange, the first cultured poultry shown to the public. An Israeli company, SuperMeat,cultured chicken. Finless Foods, a San Francisco-based company working on cultured fish, was founded in June 2016. In March 2017 it commenced laboratory operations.In March 2018, Eat Just claimed to be able to offer a consumer product from cultured meat by the end of 2018. According to CEO Josh Tetrick the technology was already there. JUST had about 130 employees and a research department of 55 scientists, where cultured meat from poultry, pork and beef was researched. JUST has received investments from Chinese billionaire Li Ka-shing, Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and according to Tetrick also by Heineken International and others.
Dutch startup Meatable, consisting of Krijn de Nood, Daan Luining, Ruud Out, Roger Pederson, Mark Kotter and Gordana Apic among others, reported in September 2018 that it had succeeded in growing meat using pluripotent stem cells from animal umbilical cords. Although such cells are reportedly difficult to work with, Meatable claimed to be able to direct them to behave to become muscle or fat cells as needed. The major advantage is that this technique bypasses fetal bovine serum, meaning that no animal has to be killed to produce meat. That month, an estimated 30 cultured meat startups operated across the world. IntegriCulture is a Japan-based company working on their CulNet system. Competitors included England based Multus Media and Canadian Future Fields.
In August 2019, five American startups announced the formation of the Alliance for Meat, Poultry & Seafood Innovation, a coalition seeking to work with regulators to create a pathway to market for cultured meat and seafood. The founding members include Eat Just, Memphis Meats, Finless Foods, BlueNalu, and Fork & Goode. Similarly in December 2021, a group of 13 European and Israeli companies established Cellular Agriculture Europe, a Belgium-based association that sought to 'find common ground and speak with a shared voice for the good of the industry, consumers, and regulators'.
In October 2019, Aleph Farms collaborated with 3D Bioprinting Solutions to culture meat on the International Space Station. This was done by extruding meat cells onto a scaffold using a 3D printer. In January 2020, Quartz found around 30 cultured meat startups, and that Memphis Meats, Just Inc. and Future Meat Technologies were the most advanced because they were building pilot plants. According to New Scientist in May 2020, 60 start-ups were developing cultured meat. Some of these were technology suppliers. Growth media reportedly still cost "hundreds of dollars per litre, but for clean meat production to scale this needs to drop to around $1 a litre." In June 2020, Chinese government officials called for a national strategy to compete in cultured meat.
In December 2019, the Foieture project was launched in Belgium with the goal of developing cultured foie gras by a consortium of 3 companies and 3 non-profit institutes. Peace of Meat stated in December 2019 that it intended to complete its proof of concept in 2020, to produce its first prototype in 2022, and to go to market in 2023. That month, the Foieture project received a research grant of almost 3.6 million euros from the Innovation and Enterprise Agency of the Flemish Government. In May 2020, Peace of Meat's Austrian-born cofounder and scientific researcher Eva Sommer stated that the startup was then able to produce 20 grams of cultured fat at a cost of about 300 euros ; the goal was to reduce the price to 6 euros per kilogram by 2030. Piece of Meat built two laboratories in the Port of Antwerp. In late 2020, MeaTech acquired Peace of Meat for 15 million euros, and announced in May 2021 that it would build a new large-scale pilot plant in Antwerp by 2022.
In November 2020, Indian start-up Clear Meat claimed it had managed to cultivate chicken mince at the cost of only 800–850 Indian rupees, while a slaughtered processed chicken cost about 1,000 rupees. On 27 April 2022, the European Commission approved the request for the collection of signatures for the European Citizens' Initiative End The Slaughter Age to shift subsidies from animal husbandry to cellular agriculture.
According to a November 2023 report by Oghma Partners, 46.9% of all funds – over 2.6 billion British pounds – raised for cultivated meat start-ups between 2016 and 2023 went to a top five, comprising Upside Foods, Believer Meats, Wildtype, Aleph Farms, and Mosa Meat.