LAB MEAT - SCI & TECH
News: Explained
| What is lab-grown meat and what did the U.S. recently approve?
What's in the news?
● Two
California-based companies were cleared to make and sell cell-cultivated
chicken in the country in what is being hailed by stakeholders in the concept
as a major step forward for reducing the carbon emissions associated with the
food industry worldwide.
Key takeaways:
● “Cell-cultivated chicken”
– that’s the official name of chicken meat that is grown in a laboratory for
human consumption.
● A
2021 report estimated that there were 107 companies in 24 countries – including
two from India – developing lab-grown meat.
Lab-grown Meat:
● Lab-grown
meat, which can also be referred to as cultivated
or cultured meat, is real meat that’s grown directly from animal cells.
● This
meat is made without the need to raise
and slaughter animals.
Process of lab grown meat:
● Lab-grown
meat is made by using the more-than-100-year-old technique of in vitro muscle tissue growth.
● The
process starts by taking a few cells from high-quality livestock animals, like
a cow or chicken, and then figuring out which of those cells have the ability
to multiply and form delicious meat food products.
● From
there, we put the cells in a clean-and-controlled
environment and provide them with the essential nutrients they need to
naturally replicate and mature.
● In
essence, we can recreate the conditions that naturally exist inside an animal’s
body so that the cells can continue growing.
● Once
the meat is ready, we harvest it, process it like conventional meat products,
and then package, cook or otherwise prepare it for consumption.
Comparison of Animal meat and Lab grown meat:
● With
the exception that directly from animals, cultured or cultivated meat is identical to regular meat in terms of
cellular structure.
● In
comparison to conventional cattle, raised beef may reduce land use by more than 95%, greenhouse gas emissions by 74–87%,
and nutrient pollution by 94%.
● Because
it is grown in sanitary facilities,
the possibility of cultured beef being contaminated by pathogens like
salmonella and E coli is considerably reduced.
● Unlike
animals raised for meat, it doesn’t
require antibiotics, which lessens the risk that developing antibiotic
resistance poses to the general public health.
Significance:
Its
proponents have advanced the following arguments in favour of developing
lab-grown meat such as
● Reduced emissions
- global livestock is responsible for 14.5% of all anthropogenic greenhouse-gas
emissions.
● Lesser land use
- lab-cultivated meat would use 63% less land in the case of chicken and 72% in
the case of pork.
● Prevention
of animal slaughter
● Reduce
the risk of zoonotic diseases
● Reduced
antibiotic usage
● Food
security
● Customization
Challenges:
1. Consumer acceptance:
● Perfectly
substituting animal meat with alternative meat requires the latter to match the
former’s taste, texture, and appearance, and cost.
2. Cost:
● The
cost of cell-cultivated meat is expected to remain high in the near future.
● One
2020 analysis even concluded that it may never be cost-competitive, while
reports have also expressed concerns about the costs imposed by quality
control, especially at scale.
3. Resources:
● For
the cellular cultivation process, researchers require high quality cells to begin with (plus information about
how different cell types contribute to the ‘meat’), a suitable growth-medium in
which the cells can be cultured, plus other resources required to maintain the
quality of the final product.
4. Environmental impact is not completely eliminated:
● If
cell cultivation requires a “highly
refined growth medium”, akin to that used in in the pharmaceutical
industry, then the “environmental impact of near-term [cell-cultivated meat]
production is likely to be orders of magnitude higher than median beef
production.”