Meat of the Future

Could lab-grown meat soon be the solution to the world's food crisis?
Adeline Tan finds out.

umans rely on animals for meat and dairy products, which put an enormous strain on the planet’s over-stretched resources. Given that 70 percent of agricultural land is already used for meat production, this could precipitate a food crisis of unimaginable proportions. And that’s not even considering the looming environmental impact as more animals and less rainforest accelerate climate change.

With world population projected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that annual global meat production will need to double to 463 million tones to meet future demand. Globally, as developing countries and their people get wealthier, we see a corresponding increase in the amount of meat in their diet.

Global data analysis shows that most people are not keen on a substantial reduction of meat in their diet, so an alternative sustainable way of producing meat is required. A report by Global Industry Analysts released in September 2012 forecasts world meat consumption to cross 296 million tons by 2018, driven by increasing consumption in emerging markets such as Asia-Pacifi c, and Latin America.

Rising food prices, the growing population and environmental concerns are just a few issues that governments face in addition to how we will feed ourselves in the future. Meat will become more of a luxury item – the Netherlands, like many other countries are looking for new ways to fi ll the meat gap.

Investing in R&D

Because of changing consumer expectations, food manufacturers know that they have to constantly innovate to remain competitive. This is the reason why the industry keeps investing heavily in research and development to stay ahead of the game. New products are entering the market, while existing products are being reformulated and commercialized to meet scientifi cally-based recommendations and higher consumer demand for healthier products that also meet food safety, environmental and ethical standards.

The Netherlands has a lot to offer in this challenging research area of nutrition and sustainable living. The country is a hotbed of R&D in the area of food technology, thanks to its notable research institutes and strong links between the academia and industry that come together to facilitate an open exchange of vital information, new food technology and innovative solutions. Holland Food Valley, for example, is home to a cluster of agri-food companies and expert institutes where both multinationals and SMEs get to work with top-class research institutes on the world’s most advanced research into new, healthy products and agro-business concepts. Eight of the 25 largest Dutch companies are food corporations and many multinationals have an affi liation to the Netherlands. Prominent companies like Danone, Kraft, Coca Cola, Nestle, Asahi Breweries, Ajinomoto Co and Meiji Holdings make up a signifi cant portion of that number.

The Dutch food sector is constantly pushing the envelope to come up with innovative solutions. In fact, the Netherlands may already have some of the answers to the world’s future food challenges. One of these is the development of cultured meat that may pave the way towards solving the global food crisis facing a rapidly-growing population, with countries in expanding markets such as India and China, with limited land resources, nurturing an increasing taste for meat.

From lab to plate

New research could see meat grown in the laboratory being made into an edible burger by the end of this year. At fi rst glance, a sliver of muscle tissue sitting in a little petri dish and surrounded by a liquid growth medium may not look as appetizing as a juicy steak; but soon it will form a component of an edible burger.

The burger will be the culmination of a research project that began in 2004 to create edible meat from stem cells, otherwise known as in-vitro meat, led by Mark Post, Professor of Vascular Physiology and Tissue Engineering at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

So how is a hamburger made in a laboratory?

“There are several steps and the procedure starts when muscle stem cells are taken from animals in a biopsy,” Prof. Post says.

To create these solid muscle fi bres, the cultivated muscle cells are affi xed to a string of sugar molecules and left to grow between two anchor points. This process occurs largely spontaneously.

The cells are left to multiply and then develop into muscle cells in a nutritional substance – a “growth medium” – for example algae extract. The cultivated muscle cells bulk up into solid muscle fi bres and bundles. As the muscle cells grow in size, the tissue is continuously supplied with nutrients. For the small, newly formed muscle strands, this is achieved by regularly changing the growth medium.

The natural consistency of meat must then be recreated by achieving the correct composition of protein and fat tissue. The edible muscle tissue can be ground to create minced meat and, ultimately, a hamburger.

According to Prof. Post, cultured meat, also known as in vitro meat or lab-grown meat, draws on the science of stem cell technology used in medicine. Stem cells are extracted from a pig and converted to pig muscle cells. These muscle cells are then cultured on a scaffold with nutrients and essential vitamins and grown to desired quantities.

During the growth process, the muscle cells are also “exercised” using either mechanical stretchers or electric stimulation. The scaffold and the exercise provide the muscle cells with ideal structure, texture and strength, while the growth supplements bestow the cells with optimal nutrition. Ultimately, these cells can be shaped and seasoned into sausages, hamburgers, steaks or mince. All this would happen without any genetic manipulation.

Unlike genetically modifi ed food, the DNA in cultured meat would remain untouched and not suffer the genetic instabilities that affect cloned animals. The technology being developed in the lab would imitate nature and aims to replicate how meat normally develops without including the rest of the body.

Taste and texture

Growing outside the animal and without the benefi t of years of grazing, the texture is not nature-identical and would need to be subjected to established food technology methods to enhance taste and texture. Conventionally, taste is infl uenced by many factors such as the source of muscle cell, the fat content and the texture. Cultured meat's controlled production conditions allow for the addition, removal or changing of any feature of the meat product based on consumer preferences. In theory, the cultured meat technology can supply the entire world's meat demands for a year, using only one or few cells and to specifi c taste requirements.

To further improve meat-like qualities, researchers are working on cultivating fat tissue and enhancing the expression of the oxygenbinding muscle protein myoglobin.

Healthier option?

While plant sources of protein and meat replacements are more commonly available and better for our health, nutritionists also advocate the value of eating some meat. Meat is an important source of a number of nutrients in our diet, including high quality protein, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin D and some B vitamins.

Cultured meat is also believed to be healthier than conventional meat. The quantity and quality of fat can be controlled, so it is possible to produce cultured meat without any fat or with healthy fats.

For food manufacturers faced with growing food prices and the increasing global appetite for animal protein, meat grown in vitro could be fi ne-tuned to produce specifi c dietary benefi ts, including culturing the meat to be high in omega-3 fatty acids or fi ber.

Other benefi ts could include greatly reducing the incidence of foodborne pathogens, reducing animal to human transmission of emerging infectious diseases, and even reducing chronic disease associated with meat consumption. Manufacturers would be able to offer meats that are not only healthier, but also products that are acceptable to meat eaters and vegetarians alike in the future.

Environmentally friendly

Research from the University of Oxford and the University of Amsterdam published last year, estimated that lab-grown meat produces 78-96 percent lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally produced meat within the EU. It also had a 99 percent lower land use and an 82-96 percent lower water use.

The environmental benefi ts of cultured meat are even greater when the costs of land use are taken into account. Strategies for carbon sequestration could be used on the land freed from meat agriculture and would include growing new forests. There would also be an increase in biodiversity as more land could be used for wildlife conservation.

The researchers based their calculations on a process, using Cyanobacteria hydrolysate as a nutrient and energy source for growing muscle cells, that is being developed by co-author Dr. Joost Teixeira de Mattos at the University of Amsterdam. While tissueengineering technology is currently confi ned to the laboratory, the researchers estimated what the various costs would be for producing 1000 kg of cultured meat using a scaled-up version of the technology compared to the costs associated with livestock reared conventionally.

Cultured meat offers the potential of a more effi cient and environmentally-friendly way of putting meat on the table.

A promising future

How long before the meat is available in supermarkets depends on the investment in research and development. Even with all these apparent advantages, more work needs to be done to develop the cultured meat technology. The most optimistic estimates are that the fi rst commercial product could be available in about fi ve years. The fi rst product will be minced beef or a sausage; steaks may take a little longer.

In 2008, PETA offered a $1 million prize to the fi rst laboratory to produce the fi rst in vitro chicken meat and make the product commercially viable by 30 June 2012. The product must exhibit a taste and texture that is indistinguishable from real chicken fl esh to non-meat eaters and meat eaters. PETA has extended the contest deadline to 30 June 2013 as there had been no news yet of an in vitro chicken nugget on the horizon.