What type of meat will we be eating in 2040?
The world’s population is constantly growing, and it is expected that there will be protein deficiency in the future. A key question is: How to produce sustainable food for all these people? Can cultured meat contribute to the production of animal protein for food and thus be part of the solution to solve protein demand of the future?
Scientists at Nofima envision that cultured meat could be a future supplement to regular meat.
Cultured meat is produced through processes at cellular level, thus bypassing traditional animal production. This technology could potentially reduce greenhouse gas emission, enhance food security, reduce need for animals in captivity, need less land area and potentially be more healthy than traditional meat production.
First and foremost, they envision cultured meat as an ingredient in sausages, hamburgers or a type of beverage, but the long-term goal is to produce complex meat tissues.
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A key question is: How to produce sustainable food for all people on Earth?
Is farmed meat part of the solution?
One of the technical challenges to achieve efficient bio-production of edible animal proteins is the formulation of a sustainable, serum-free cell growth media. The culture media should be affordable, contain only food-grade ingredients, be efficient to promote cell growth and available in massive quantities.
By-products from the food industry is an excellent source of amino acids, peptides, carbohydrates, vitamins and many other potential factors that can sustain cell growth, and the scientists at Nofima are exploring how such food-grade by-product materials can be used as inexpensive alternatives to serum in primary bovine skeletal muscle cell culture.
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Labgrown meat