Status quo ante – the origins of the concept of cultured meat
Status quo ante – the origins of the concept of cultured meat
While synthetic meat has only recently become viable, the idea is not entirely new. It was proposed as a theoretical concept in the 1930s, and serious research on the viability of synthetic meat production was inspired by advances in the cultivation of human cells for skin transplants. It is important to note that the technologies that are being optimized to produce cultured meat were conceived for medical purposes.
Historical timeline
One of the earliest advocates of the concept of in-vitro meat was the first Earl of Birkenhead, Britain’s Lord High Chancellor F.E. Smith, who stated in 1930 that at some point, “It will no longer be necessary to go to the extravagant length of rearing a bullock in order to eat its steak. From one 'parent' steak of choice tenderness it will be possible to grow as large and as juicy a steak as can be desired.” One year later, the idea was picked up by Smith’s close friend Winston Churchill. Inspired by one of his main scientific advisors, the physicist Frederick Lindemann, Churchill predicted:
However, it took 40 years from this prediction until a technical proof of concept was finally made. This happened in 1971, when muscle cells were first cultivated in a lab by US researcher Russell Ross. In his studies on atherosclerosis, he noted that “smooth muscle can form connective tissue proteins in vivo as well as in vitro” [1]. In doing so, he discovered that muscle fibers can be cultivated in a petri dish to form microfibrils, and this laid the bio-technological groundwork for the development of cultured meat.
One of the most ardent promoters of cultured meat was Dutch physician Willem van Eelen, known as the “Godfather of Cultured Meat”. Having experienced hunger as a prisoner in a Japanese POW camp in Southeast Asia during the Second World War, he made in-vitro food his life’s mission and filed several important patents. It is partly due to his pioneering work that the Netherlands has become a research hub for clean meat technologies.
First attempt at a ‘close to meat’ product
After nearly two decades’ worth of research, mostly at universities (including NASA-funded work at Touro College in 2000), a seminal breakthrough brought cell-based meat to the attention of a global audience in August 2013: Maastricht University researcher Mark Post presented a proof-of-concept hamburger patty, grown entirely in a lab from about 20,000 strips of cultured muscle tissue cultivated from cow stem cells. Food testers pronounced it to be “close to meat […] the consistency is perfect” and said that it tasted “like a conventional hamburger”, though slightly less juicy. However, with a price tag of €250,000, the world’s first lab burger was clearly not yet ready for the supermarket shelf. Soon after, Prof. Post founded the company Mosa Meat.
This proof of concept for a cultured burger set the stage for the cultivated meat industry as we know it and kicked off the second phase of in-vitro meat research, marked by a key shift towards a commercial start-up culture and thus the interest of venture capital companies in funding it [2]. As research in the second phase is often backed by commercial activities, the details usually remain undisclosed. However, information about some research programs and researchers based mainly in universities is available in open-source format. Below is a summary of what we consider the most important activities.
| Research area | Research project | Research group leader / institute |
|---|---|---|
| Cell lines | Creates a cell line repository for agriculturally relevant animals. Generates standard cellular materials | Dr. Gareth Sullivan Norwegian Stem Cell Centre University of Oslo |
| Cell lines: Seafood cell lines | Identifying species, developing methodology, and creating a cell line repository for optimal marine species | Dr. Kevan Main and Dr. Cathy Walsh Mote Marine Laboratory, US |
| Cell lines: Muscle cells | Direct lineage conversion of bovine and porcine fibroblasts into proliferative myogenic progenitor cells | Dr. Ori Bar-Nur ETH Zurich, Switzerland |
| Cell culture media: Engineering growth factors | Discovery and engineering of synthetic growth factors | Dr. Peter Stogios University of Toronto, Canada |
| Cell culture media: Optimizing media for chicken cells | Application of optimization tools to achieve low-cost cultivated meat production, including growth media and scaffold | Prof. David Block Department of Viticulture and Enology and Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, US |
| Cell culture media: Formulating media with macromolecular crowding | Using macromolecular crowding to enhance meat cultivation | Prof. Che Connon and Dr. Ricardo Gouveia Newcastle University, UK |
| Scaffolding and structuring: Marbled cultivated beef | Plant-based scaffolds for marbled clean beef | Dr. Amy Rowat University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
| Scaffolding and structuring: Cellular building blocks | Designing a clean meat platform based on scalable cellular building blocks and matching processing methodologies | Prof. Marcelle Machluf Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Israel |
| Scaffolding and structuring: 3-D printing bioinks | A 3-D bioprinted model for cell-based meat design | Dr. Sara Oliveira International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal |
| Scaffolding and structuring: Plant-based scaffolds | Bioengineered clean meat in plant-based tissue scaffolds | Dr. Masatoshi Suzuki University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA |
| Bioreactors and bioprocess: Integrating sensors into bioreactors | From lab on a chip to custom bioreactor | Dr. Vasa Radonic University of Novi Sad, Serbia |
| Bioreactors and bioprocess: Integrating sensors into bioreactors | Monitoring of cell culture parameters using sensors for biomass, nutrients, and metabolites in media: Lab-on-a-chip approach | Dr. Ivana Gadjanski University of Novi Sad, Serbia |
| Bioreactors and bioprocess: Co-culturing cells | Advancing the production of clean beef towards commercialization | Dr. Mariana Petronela Hanga Aston University, UK |
| Bioreactors and bioprocess: Designing cost-effective bioreactors | The cellular agriculture life-cycle pod for cultivated meat production | Dr. Marianne Ellis University of Bath, UK |
| Bioreactors and bioprocess: Computational modeling, Cultivated Meat Modeling Consortium | Multiscale whole-system modeling of bioreactors | Dr. Simon Kahan Cultivated Meat Modeling Consortium |
| Bioprocess: Meat process and quality control | Developed the first cultivated meat in China | Dr. Zhou Guanghong |
| Scaffolding and structuring: making 3D tissues | Muscle tissue engineering in fibrous gelatin and other materials | Dr. Luke MacQueen Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, US |
| Food quality: Food chemistry | Protein chemistry and functionality, non-enzymatic browning of food – caramelization and Maillard reaction and chemistry of muscle foods | Dr. Mirko Betti Agricultural Food and Nutritional Science at the University of Alberta |
| Food quality: Muscle biology | Research in biochemistry and functional genomics (mainly transcriptomics) to seek muscle biomarkers related to beef quality | Dr. Jean-François Hocquette French National Institute of Agricultural Research |
| Food security and hi-tech enabled farming | Food security, commercialization, and biosafety of crop biotechnology, agritechnology innovations and bio-entrepreneurship, and sustainable development | Dr. Paul Teng |
Status quo – meat today
Status quo – meat today
Meat consumption on a global level
Despite the rise of veganism and the frequent associations between (excessive) meat consumption and lifestyle diseases, the consumption of livestock products has increased tremendously in the past decades. In 2014, average global meat consumption per person was 43 kg, a two-fold increase compared to the early 1960s. In 2017, it ranged from 5 kg per person in India to over 140 kg in Australia and the US.
While the world population has been growing constantly (with 85-90 million people being born each year), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) states that the increase in meat consumption also grew per capita. There are three factors that can be attributed to this growth:
- Technological advancements (e.g., the possibility to transport and store perishable goods)
- Access to better infrastructure (new forms of distribution – supermarkets, restaurants)
- The increase of individual incomes (the highest increase in meat consumption can be observed in countries that underwent high economic growth – e.g., China and Brazil). Moreover, the World Bank shows that an increase in a country's GDP is usually associated with an increase in meat consumption.
Global seafood boom
The steep increase in consumption can also be observed with regard to fish and seafood. While the world population has doubled in the last 50 years, fish and seafood production has quadrupled [3].
| Million t | % of Total Production | |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | 143.71 | 42% |
| Europe | 63.85 | 19% |
| North America | 51.73 | 15% |
| South America | 46.12 | 14% |
| Central America | 8.89 | 3% |
| Africa | 20.17 | 6% |
| Oceania | 6.69 | 2% |
| Wild Catch | Aquaculture | Total | % of Total Production | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Asia and Pacific | 42.31 | 92.79 | 135.1 | 67% |
| South Asia | 7.94 | 8.14 | 16.08 | 8% |
| Europe and Central Asia | 14.72 | 3.26 | 17.98 | 9% |
| South America and the Caribbean | 10.49 | 2.72 | 13.21 | 7% |
| Middle East and North Africa | 3.38 | 1.89 | 5.27 | 3% |
| North America | 5.81 | 0.64 | 6.45 | 3% |
| Sub-Saharan Africa | 7.23 | 0.62 | 7.85 | 4% |
Asia, which accounts for 42 percent of the world’s meat production and over 70 percent of fish and seafood production, is the main player on the market, followed by the European meat industry.
Demand for meat in the future
The United Nations (UN) predicts in its central scenario that the global population will reach 11 billion by 2088. By 2030, the current emerging markets will be among the world’s largest economies by GDP, while India is expected to become the second-largest economy and the most populated country in the world [4].
In this respect, the World Health Organization (WHO) envisions an average meat consumption of 45 kg per person per year in 2030, ranging from 100 kg of meat per person per year consumed in industrialized countries to 13 kg per capita per year in Sub-Saharan Africa [5].
The demand for meat is expected to increase everywhere in the world, continuing the current upwards trend. The most evident increase is expected to be in South Asia (121 percent), followed by the Near East and North Africa (65 percent) and East Asia (55 percent).
Alternatives to meat
The demand for fish and seafood is expected to increase as well, growing from 20.3 kg per capita in 2016-2018 to 21.3 kg per capita in 2028. Asia is expected to account for 93 percent of the increase in demand and is projected to absorb 71 percent of the total fish for human consumption. As a leader in fish production, China will also account for 36 percent of the total fish consumption in 2028, with a per capita consumption of 44.3 kg. Despite the expected increase in population and income, fish consumption in Africa is expected to remain at the current level [6].
Nevertheless, this high projected increase in meat demand is accompanied by growing concerns regarding its impact on the environment and on animal welfare. This has laid the groundwork for the development of a countertrend, namely the meat substitute market. Until recently, this alternative protein market was limited to plant-based protein (e.g., soy, wheat, pea, etc.). More recently, it has incorporated insect-based protein, and since 2013, cultivated meat has also become a potential and attractive candidate for market share.
Status quo post ... and beyond
Status quo post ... and beyond
Today, in-vitro meat is an emerging technology that is increasingly coming to the attention of potential consumers as well as investors. Although a proof of concept has been presented and the fundamental viability of the idea is well documented, it has yet to gain regulatory approvals, and questions remain as to whether consumers will accept it as a substitute for butchered meat.
Both these factors will determine whether it can achieve a breakthrough. However, recent funding rounds by major in-vitro meat companies indicate that investors are confident the technology can go mainstream (although some investors might be motivated more by ideology than by profit potentials). Given the potential benefits that it offers in terms of environmental sustainability, food security and safety, animal ethics, and other advantages, cultivated meat could quickly develop from its current niche as a novelty product to challenge and possibly even largely displace the traditional meat industry in the long run.
This document will discuss some of the catalysts and obstacles that could make or break the nascent cultured meat industry, including government policies and cultural or religious factors, and will analyze the hurdles that must be overcome if consumers and regulators are to embrace the technology with full confidence. It also lists the technical issues that remain to be resolved in the process of scaling up from experimental settings to industrial manufacturing. The roadmap for this document will include a market and consumer analysis of cultured meat’s potential, the scientific process involved in creating cell-based meat, the benefits and challenges, and finally an outlook on the future of cultured meat.
Takeaways
Takeaways
Cultivated meat is muscle tissue grown in-vitro from animal stem cells. As such, it is distinct from other plant- or insect-based meat analogues. While the basic concept has been proposed since the 1930s, it was only in 2013 that the first major proof of concept was presented. Today, a growing number of companies and research institutes are working to commercialize the technology.
Although excessive meat consumption is increasingly seen as a health risk, it has doubled over the past 50 years, even outpacing the rapid growth of the world’s population. Concerns over animal welfare, land use, the industry’s carbon footprint, and more have spurred interest in developing an alternative source of meat that is more sustainable while still being able to provide a safe and secure source of nourishment for humanity.
References
[1] Ross, R. 1971. Growth of smooth muscle in culture and formation of elastic fibers. The Journal of Cell Biology 50:172-86.
[2] Stephens, N. et al. 2018. Bringing cultured meat to market: Technical, socio-political, and regulatory challenges in cellular agriculture. Trends in Food Science & Technology 78:155-66.
[3] Ritchie, H. and M. Roser 2019. Meat and Dairy Production. Our World in Data. Accessed: 24 March 2020. https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production#global-meat-production.
[4] Desjardins, J. 2019. The World’s Largest 10 Economies in 2030. Accessed: 24 March 2020. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/worlds-largest-10-economies-2030/.
[5] Ritchie, H. and M. Roser 2019. Meat and Dairy Production. Our World in Data. Accessed: 24 March 2020. https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production#global-meat-production
[6] OECD/FAO 2019. OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2019-2028. OECD Agriculture Statistics (database). Accessed: 22 March 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/agr-outl-data-en