In-Vitro Meat

 Scaffold-based Technique 

 

This is the current gold standard for producing in-vitro meat.

Although it might not produce meat that actually tastes like natural

meat, this has been the most successful method developed, and

will likely continue to be used in mass production.

 

Here are the steps to produce in-vitro meat using

this technique:

​

1. Take muscle biopsy from livestock animal

2. Extract myosatellite cells (muscle stem cell) from biopsy

3. Place cells in nutrient-rich culture medium/growth serum to divide and multiply

4. Proliferated cells placed on scaffolding structure. (A scaffold is a collagen meshwork that provides some structure to proliferating muscle tissue. Researchers are attempting to develop edible scaffolds so that they do not have to be removed from the produced meat.)

5. Place cells with scaffold and culture medium into bioreactor (A bioreactor is a device with an enclosed and large surface area that mimics the in vivo environment, allowing muscle tissue to culture and proliferate.)

6. Inside bioreactor, cells are regularly contracted to achieve texture of natural muscle

7. Remove from bioreactor, thin layers of muscle tissue are harvested

8. Tissue is processed into ground meat

​

(Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015)

​

Pros

​This technique has been the most successful method of production, as it is simple, quick, and relatively cheap. Since many cells can be extracted from a single animal muscle biopsy, a large amount of biopsies are not constantly required to continue producing in-vitro meat (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Researchers can also easily manipulate meat composition and additives through the culture medium (Bhat, Kumar, & Bhat, 2015).

 

Cons

​While this method is recognized as the gold standard for cultured meat production, there are still many downfalls. This technique does not allow for production of highly structured meats, such as steak, since the scaffold does not provide enough structure for the cells to proliferate into defined muscle tissue (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Since only muscle cells are extracted, there is no fat included in the tissue. Therefore, the produced meat does not have same component proportions and does not taste the same as natural meat (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Also, since a viable edible scaffold has not been developed yet, scientists must go through the difficult process of removing the scaffold from the muscle tissue once proliferation is complete (Bhat, Kumar, & Bhat, 2015).

​

​

 

 Self-organizing Technique 

 

This is the desired method of production for in-vitro meat production.

However, many obstacles still need to be overcome before this

method can produce viable meat.

 

Here are the steps to produce in-vitro meat using

this technique:

 

1. Take skeletal muscle explant from livestock animal

2. Mince and centrifuge explant to form pellets

3. Place pellets in culture medium

4. Allow explant pellets to grow into tissue

​

(Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015)

​

Pros

​This technique will allow for production of meat tissue that most closely resembles natural meat, and will therefore taste most similar to natural meat. Since it is grown from an explant, it will contain familiar proportions of muscle cells, fat, and other cells as present in natural meat (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Producing in-vitro meat directly from the animal biopsy, rather than using a scaffold, allows for production of more highly structured meat, such as steak (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). This method is also less tedious as there are less steps required to produce complete meat tissue.

 

Cons

​​The problem of lack of blood circulation still holds back the long term success of this method. Since the animal biopsy requires constant blood supply in order to stay alive, cells often die quickly when they are separated from the medium, even for a short period of time (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Some research teams are working towards overcoming this hurdle. However, proliferation potential will still be limited, as the amount of muscle tissue produced will be based on the biopsy used (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Also, new biopsies must be taken from donor animals on a regular basis (Sharma, Thind, & Kaur, 2015). Using this technique makes it more difficult to manipulate meat composition, such as changing fat proportions or adding vitamins, since composition is based on the natural composition of the biopsy (Bhat, Kumar, & Bhat, 2015).