Cultivated meat: A new frontier for food innovation

Cultivated meat, also known as cell-based meat, lab-grown meat, or clean meat, is meat produced from animal cells. Cultivated meat has the potential to address some of the major challenges of conventional animal agriculture, such as environmental impact, animal welfare and food safety. It’s not a plant-based alternative, but a real meat product that has the same taste, texture, and nutritional value as conventional meat. 

A small sample of cells are taken from a living animal, such as a cow, chicken, or fish, and placed in a bioreactor, a device that mimics the conditions inside an animal's body. The cells are then fed with a nutrient-rich medium that allows them to grow and multiply, forming muscle and fat tissue. The process can take from a few weeks to a few months, depending on the type and amount of meat being produced. The final product can be harvested, processed, and cooked like conventional meat. 

Cultivated meat production involves several technologies, including cell culture, tissue engineering, bioprocessing, and food science. Key challenges facing the industry are scaling up the production, reducing the cost, and ensuring the quality and safety of the product. Technologies being developed or improved to address these challenges are: 

• Stem cell technology: Stem cells are cells that can change into various types of cells, such as muscle, fat, or blood cells. Stem cell technology enables the different kinds of meat to be produced from a single cell source, as well as creating novel meat products with customised properties.
• Biomimetic scaffolds: These are materials that provide structural support and guidance for the growth and organisation of cells into tissues. Biomimetic scaffolds can help create meat products with complex shapes, textures, and structures, like steaks, fillets, or nuggets.
• Bioreactor design: Bioreactors are devices that provide the optimal environment for the growth and maintenance of cells. Bioreactor design can influence the efficiency, quality, and scalability of cultivated meat production. Factors that need to be considered are the type, size, shape, and configuration of the bioreactor, as well as the parameters such as temperature, pH, oxygen, and nutrient supply.
• Cell culture media: Liquids that provide the nutrients, growth factors, and hormones for the cells to grow and function. Cell culture media can account for a significant portion of the cost and environmental impact of cultivated meat production. Some of the challenges that need to be addressed are developing animal-free, plant-based, or synthetic media, reducing media consumption and waste, and improving media composition and delivery. 

The cultivated meat industry is growing rapidly, with dozens of companies around the world developing and commercialising this novel food technology. Here are six of the most prominent and promising companies in this sector: 

• Magic Valley: Our population is expanding, and with it comes increased protein demands.  Magic Valley is developing healthy and delicious cultivated meat products by taking a biopsy from a live animal, culturing the cells in FBS-free media, reprogramming them into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) and then characterising and separating the cells into muscle and fat using bioreactors to create a real meat product.
• Mosa Meat: Mosa Meat is a Dutch company that created the world's first cultivated beef burger in 2013. The company aims to produce affordable and sustainable cultivated beef products that reduce the environmental and ethical issues of conventional beef production. Mosa Meat is backed by investors such as Merck, Bell Food Group, and PHW Group.
• Vow: The self-described ‘spaceship of the cultured meat industry,’ Australia’s Vow has become only the third company in the world to bring a cell-based meat product to market. Its cultured quail has received the green light from Singapore’s food regulator, whetting the appetite of the world’s culinary elite.
• Memphis Meats: Memphis Meats is a U.S. company producing cultivated meat products such as beef, chicken, and duck. Its vision is to create a new kind of meat industry that is better for animals, people, and the planet. Memphis Meats is supported by  Tyson Foods, Cargill, Bill Gates, and Richard Branson.
• Believer Meats: Believer Meats is an Israeli company developing a novel bioreactor technology that enables the cost-effective and scalable production of cultivated meat. Its technology can produce meat from any animal cell type. Future Meat Technologies is backed by investors including Tyson Foods, S2G Ventures, and Emerald Technology Ventures.
• Eat Just: Eat Just is a U.S. company known for its plant-based egg products, JUST Egg and JUST Mayo. The company also has a subsidiary called GOOD Meat, which is working on producing cultivated chicken products. Just Eat has recently received the world's first regulatory approval for the sale of cultivated meat in Singapore. Eat Just is financed by investors such as Temasek, Khosla Ventures, and Horizons Ventures.