Cultured meat as an option?

ADVOCATES have only to bring out the stats to convince people that lab-grown meat could be the answer to the global food crisis. By 2018, world meat consumption is forecast to cross 296 million tonnes, according to a report by Global Industry Analysts. It will be driven by increasing consumption in emerging markets such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

Creating a burger from stem cells is the initial goal of a Maastricht University research started in 2004

 
With global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that the annual global meat production will need to double to 463 million tonnes to meet future demand. Given that 70% of agricultural land is already used for meatproduction, this could result in a global food crisis. Expanding markets like India and China with limited land resources have to cope with a rapidly growing population that is nurturing an increasing taste for meat.

“Rising meat prices are anticipated to have a huge impact on our diets. Some in the food industry estimate they could double in the next five to seven years, making meat a luxury item,” says Adeline Tan, senior project manager of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency – a firm that assists foreign companies planning to establish, diversify or expand their operations in the Netherlands, the European Union and the Middle East.

Alternatives to meat products

For years, the food industry has been offering a wide range of vegetable proteins as replacers for meat protein such as soy and wheat, Ms Tan notes. However, in addition to replacing meat with alternative protein sources, there is mounting pressure on governments to ensure responsible and sustainable meat production.

The Netherlands is a hotbed of R&D in the area of food technology. An innovation that continues to make waves is the development of cultured meat, which many believe could pave the way for solving the global food crisis.

Ongoing research at the Maastricht University could see meat grown in the laboratory being made into a burger. At first 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 – 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.

“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 fibres, the cultivated muscle cells are affixed 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” – like algae extract. The cultivated muscle cells bulk up into solid muscle fibres 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 scaffolAdidas Fotballsko