Get Smart On Cellular Agriculture

If you know me personally, one thing you very quickly learned was my love of cellular agriculture and cultivated meat. Or perhaps you’ve recently opened the news to see headlines of “lab grown meat” coming up in your feed. But what is this mysterious cell grown meat? I am here to help answer your questions and understand the basics of cellular agriculture and cultivated meat and share with you “how the sausage is made”. 

For background, I began pursuing research in cellular agriculture in my freshman year at Tufts University in the Tufts Center for Cellular Agriculture where I have worked since pursuing research on cell line development, sensory analysis, serum-free media, consumer acceptance and economic analysis. Additionally I have worked at a variety of alt-protein and cultivated meat companies including UPSIDE Foods, The TUCCA Commercialization Lab and Asentia Foods. I have also taken coursework on the topic at Tufts University. All this to say is that I am a huge nerd of cellular agriculture and how to share some of my learnings from these sources with you! Before reading further, please understand this blog is not associated with any of my organizations and cellular agriculture is an evolving novel field with new research constantly being published. 

With that said, let’s dive into the “meat” of cultivated meat! In short, cell-cultivated meat (the FDA approved definition) is meat grown directly from animal cells without the need to raise and slaughter animals. Cellular agriculture is the term for the scientific field/pursuit of creating cultivated products. Factory farming poses several environmental and ethical concerns, raising the need for an alternative production method for agricultural commodities. Factory farming is associated with issues of animal cruelty, the outbreak of zoonotic disease (such as Avian Influenza, COVID-19 and many other epidemics we have seen), antibiotic resistance, mercury poisoning (for fish specifically) and high greenhouse gas emissions. Eliminating the need to raise and slaughter animals and producing meat in a factory controlled environment addresses these externalities in a more ethical and sustainable manner, which is the goal of cellular agriculture. 

But how is this possible? How can we make meat from just a few animal cells and what are the inputs into this process? I will explain the cultivated meat production process in 5 steps, cited from McKinsey and Company’s Article Cultivated meat: Out of the lab, into the frying pan written by Tom Brennan, Joshua Katz, Yossi Quint, and Boyd Spencer.  

1. Cell lines are developed for commercial use: In this stage of the process, cells are obtained of desired animal stem cell tissue, usually through a simple biopsy. Both muscle and fat cells are obtained and turned into “cell lines”. Cell lines are cultures of animal cells that can be propagated repeatedly and sometimes indefinitely.  Typically for cellular agriculture, researchers project cell lines to last 20-30 years, reducing the need for repeated biopsies and animal stock drastically. 

2. Cells are grown in nutrient rich media in seed train bioreactors until they reach desired density: Once a cell line is established, we are then able to grow up these cells and multiply them to eventually reach high enough densities to produce full cuts of meat. This is done by utilizing seed train bioreactors. During this process, as cell densities increase, they are moved to larger and larger bioreactors until they can be grown in main full sized tanks (up to 2000 L tanks). During this process, cells are “fed” a nutrient rich medium called cell culture medium which contains the necessary nutrients and compounds to grow such as amino acids, sugars, carbohydrates and growth factors. 

3. Cells are harvested and centrifuged: Once cells reach desired densities, they are then harvested and centrifuged to remove them from the culture media and obtain a pure cell solution. Centrifugation is the process of spinning cells at a high speed to remove and separate liquid from cellular components of a culture. Once cells are centrifuged they can be harvested free of cell culture media and ready for preparation. 

4. Harvested cells are prepared for distribution and end product: Finally, harvested cells can be prepared to become their end products. Cells can be blended with other components such as soy or scaffolding to achieve desired texture and profile. 

These steps outline the basic process of the cultivated meat production process. Now that we understand the basics of how cultivated meat is produced, let's talk about the industry and its progress and status. The industry first gained public recognition when Mark Post, researcher at Maastricht University created the first cultivated meatball and the first cell-cultured hamburger was cooked and tasted live on air in London, England in August 2013. The first cultivated meat company, UPSIDE Foods, was founded by Uma Valeti in 2015. Since then, the industry has experienced extreme growth with over 200 startups in the space. Additionally, several companies have received regulatory approval from the FDA and USDA to sell their product including GOOD Meat, UPSIDE Foods and Mission Barns and international companies Aleph Farms, Vow and Meatable have gained regulatory approval abroad. GOOD Meat and UPSIDE Foods were the first companies to sell their products in restaurants in the United States in 2023 and Mission Barns is anticipated to be the first company whose products will be available at grocers, available at Sprouts Farmers Market stores in the coming months. The field continues to make headway and research on new developments and products.

However, the field of cellular agriculture is not all sunshine and rainbows. There are several roadblocks to the industry’s ability to gain traction. Some of the key roadblocks the industry faces are as follows: 

• Scale and Cost: One of the biggest challenges of the cellular agriculture industry is growing to industrial-scale production. There is uncertainty about the current technological capacity of scale and the current high  production costs.

• Consumer Acceptance: Consumer acceptance is a critical challenge in the field of novel food technology. Many consumers are skeptical of the safety of cultivated meat products and exhibit food technology neophobia.

• Regulation: Due to the regulatory hurdles, few companies have received regulatory approval and cultivated meat has been banned in several states and countries. Improvements must be made to address the current regulatory landscape for cultivated meat.

Additionally, we must consider the nuances of moving towards a new means of food production such as job destruction and replacement due to this new technology, food technology neophobia and consumer acceptance and affordability are all complex questions that come along with the cellular agriculture industry. We must remember that the shift towards cultivated meat will happen gradually and to be thoughtful and considerate of the nuances of the agricultural industry while strive to move towards a more sustainable and ethical food system. 

For more research, check out the The Good Food Institute  and The Tufts Center for Cellular Agriculture Publications Page for reliable peer reviewed research.