Is the development of low-cost media one of the greatest challenges to produce cultivated meat on an industrial scale?

Abstract

Cultivated meat (CM) has emerged as an “ethical” alternative for the consumption of meat, avoiding animal slaughter and safeguarding animal care. The idea behind animal cell cultivation, differentiation and proliferation is old, but the investments, technological developments and first efforts to produce CM on industrial scale are very recent. There are many challenges and bottlenecks within this new market, including social, environmental, technological, regulatory and logistic aspects; however, the emphasis of this article is the composition of the culture media for animal cells development, which is strongly attached to economy (component costs) and ethics (components of animal origin). Traditional basal media (such as Eagle´s Minimum Essential Medium and Ham´s F-12) comprise energy and carbon sources, vitamins, amino acids and trace elements; but the requirements for development and differentiation of skeletal muscle cells demand other components of animal origin, such as fetal bovine serum and/or other growth factors, hormones and inducers. Recent articles and patents have reported the substitution of these components, including the use of recombinant albumin, postbiotics, and microalgal extracts. Despite these efforts, the current market of CM is still in its “first childhood” with 107 enterprises around the world, and just a few of them are authorized to commercialize CM; the current price to the final consumer is, in the best case, 7.5 times higher when compared to traditional meat. Therefore, from our point of view, there is still a long way to go in developing this new product and establishing a new global market.