What is Lab Grown Meat?

Dive deep with us into a petri dish of innovation as we explore the science behind lab-grown meat. Join us as we discuss the implications of this animal friendly, environmentally sustainable, protein source and answer the question is this really the future of our food? 

Shownotes: yournutritionprofs.com

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Transcript

What if your next burger or chicken nugget wasn’t born on a farm, but in a laboratory? Explore the fascinating world of lab-grown meat with us as we unpack the science, sustainability, and future of this innovative technology. 

S: Welcome everyone to our 40th episode! Amazing!

M: We really enjoy making this podcast and we love hearing from all of you!

S: Yes we do, so thanks everybody for listening! 

M: And for your continued support!

S: Absolutely. So what’s on the menu today? 

M: Today we’re talking about something that some of you may not have heard of…yet. Some say it’s the future of food! But it’s coming! We’re talking about lab-grown meat.

S: It is definitely coming. I mean plant-based meat options are getting more numerous and more popular, you can see lots of them in the grocery store, and remember our seitan episode from a few weeks ago? 

M: Delicious!

S: Yeah that was a plant based protein source. There’s also, of course, tofu and tempeh, and lots of plant-based alternatives. You can buy Impossible Burgers, Beyond Meat, and there are lots of choices in your grocery store.

M: And of course, insects may also replace meat as a primary protein source in the not-too-distant future. 

S: Insects!

M: One of our first episodes was all about eating insects so definitely check it out if you haven’t listened!

S: Absolutely and try some crickets.

M: Yes.

S: But lab-grown meat is the newest iteration of meat substitutes. It’s also called cultivated meat or cultured meat. And everytime I think about lab grown meat, I think of those food replicators from Star Trek.

M: Well it definitely sounds like science fiction, but it’s not. I’ve heard that some people call it pharma-food or franken-food.

S: Yeah, I’ve heard that too.

M: And it’s crazy because it’s a “meat substitute” but not really because it’s actual meat! So just think in the next few decades it could be what we’re actually all eating!

S: Alright, let’s start at the beginning… Willem van Eelen, a Dutch researcher, is often considered the “godfather of cultured meat”. He was a POW during World War II, and like a lot of POWs he experienced significant cruelty and hardship and hunger. And he reported that he nearly died from malnutrition. And during this period he also witnessed the cruel treatment of animals and as a result of these things, he began to consider the idea of growing meat outside the animal, in a laboratory setting. 

M: So this way meat could be grown without inflicting pain on the animals that we’re eating – therefore it’s sometimes called cellular agriculture. 

S: So van Eelen saved money throughout his life and with the help of a few investors, he started the first cultured meat research company in the mid 1990s. 

M: And then on August 5, 2013, another Dutch scientist, Mark Post, showed the first cultured meat burger on live TV. We’ve actually linked the video on our website, YourNutritionProfs.com. And he also did a TED talk about the process…so if you’re interested, check that out too. 

S: Do you remember seeing that on live TV? 

M: I don’t, I missed it.

S: Oh I saw it!

M: Yeah, what did you think? 

S: I was intrigued.

M: I would have been too.

S: It’s reported that the burger that they ate on that TV clip had a similar texture to a regular hamburger, but the look and the taste wasn’t great. 

M: Well that’s unfortunate because that first lab-grown burger cost $330,000 and it took two years to make!

S: Wow! 

M: So in today’s money, adjusting for inflation, that would be $440,000 for one burger! 

S: Half a million for 1 burger! Wow!

M: Fortunately, the costs are coming down. Now there are over 150 companies on 6 continents backed by more than $2.5B in investments trying to decrease the cost and increase production… But why all this focus on lab grown meat?

S: Well we’ve discussed on this podcast before… The world’s population has grown to more than 8B people in the last several years, and we do have to figure out a way to feed everybody. According to some sources, in the next 50 years we’ll have to raise more food than we have in the last 10,000 years combined. 

M: I mean that’s a very good reason. 

S: Yeah, just to feed everybody. 

M: And with more people, there’s less land for agriculture, not to mention the effect of climate change making traditional agriculture much less predictable. 

S: Many groups have tried to convince people to eat more plants, but people still want to eat meat. And a meat-based diet, like most of us in the U.S. consume, is the most resource-intensive diet out there.

M: Yeah the planet could not support feeding 8B people if everybody ate the same way that Americans eat. Ninety percent of Americans eat meat regularly, about 337B pounds of beef per year. That’s another billion with a B! 

S: Holy cow! Get it?

M: Pun intended!

S: And, of course, traditional livestock production is not cheap. It costs about $1300 to buy a 550 pound 1-year-old steer and then another $800-1000 to feed it for another year before it becomes our burger. And it takes about 2.5 pounds of grain to produce a pound of meat. And about 20,000 liters of water.. That’s roughly the equivalent of a year’s worth of showers for one person. 

M: That’s so much water just for a pound of beef! 

S: And fresh water is becoming an issue planet-wide anyway.

M: And people eat more than a pound of beef in a day here in the U.S. so…. 

S: For sure. So that’s a lot of water. I mean it’s a little bit less for poultry and pork, but growing livestock for food is definitely resource-intensive. Those “factory farms” they take up a lot of land. And fact, 26% of ice-free land on the planet is used for livestock grazing.

M: A quarter?!

S: A quarter! 

M: Wow!

S: And in some places entire forests are cleared to make room for grazing which is again not environmentally friendly.

M: A third of crops grown are used to feed livestock, not people. And in the U.S. 70% of antibiotics are sold specifically for animal use. So massive livestock operations or these factory farms can be potential breeding grounds for harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria, not to mention the waste that the livestock produces that can pollute waterways and the environment. 

S: Ugh! And the livestock don’t have great lives either. I mean, their lives are pretty short, only about 2 years. And during their short lives they’re confined to small, cramped areas and are often standing in their own filth. 

M: It’s estimated that the current meat industry accounts for 14.5% of global carbon emissions. Livestock production excretes greenhouse gasses like methane and CO2. And the CO2 emissions from this industry are equal to those of 32 million cars per year. 

S: And then once you slaughter the steer for meat you don’t use the whole thing so there’s waste there. In fact, in one video that I watched, this man said “you know no one ever walked out of a livestock production, factory farm, or slaughterhouse and said I really like the process that we use to make meat.”

M: Yeah… 

S: Yeah… 

M: So why lab-grown meat? Well, proponents say they can be “carnivores without the guilt”.  

S: Hmm…. There are reduced greenhouse gas emissions when making meat in a lab. The meat’s also less prone to contamination with infectious pathogens so it could be safer to eat.

M: Yes. Animal foods like chicken and beef are common causes of foodborne illness.

S: And there’d be less waste because we’d only grow the edible parts. The nutritional content could potentially also be improved. 

M: But the process of making cultivated meats is still very energy intensive so some scientists don’t actually think the environmental benefits are really that great or maybe even exist at all. Of course, if the companies used renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and geothermal, that could definitely make a difference.  

S: So cultured meat companies tout themselves as more sustainable, more humane, more efficient, and the meat they make is safer for consumers. Sort of a “utopia” where we can eat as much meat as we want without harming animals and again, carnivores without the guilt..

M: I like it. So the way they make lab-grown meat is so interesting! 

S: Yeah it is. 

M: When we say meat we are including all animal products, so beef, poultry, and fish. There are also companies working on creating milk and companies using duck liver cells to make foie gras!

S: So interesting. Here’s how they do it. They harvest cells from a healthy animal. And different cells are used to make different types of products. 

M: For beef, the animals are given local anesthesia so they don’t feel any pain when the cells are removed, and it doesn’t cause any permanent damage to the animal. These could be muscle cells, organ cells, or others depending on the company.

S: That’s a much nicer process for the animal and obviously much more humane. They even anesthetize them which is so nice.

M: Yeah it is. Well, for chicken they use just a few stem cells from fertilized eggs. From just a few cells they can make a full line of chicken products. 

S: These cells then, from the cow or from the eggs, they go into a large stainless steel vat and that’s also called a bioreactor. And these look like what they brew beer in, if you’ve ever been to a brewery. 

M: Yeah. 

S: The vats probably hold about 3,000 liters. 

M: That sounds big, that makes me think of what 1,500 2 liter soda bottles all lined up on a counter.

S: It does sound pretty big on an individual scale but on a food scale 3,000 liters is pretty small. The bioreactors are also used to make pharmaceuticals – not obviously the same ones!

M: Hopefully..

S: But these types of bioreactors are used to make pharmaceuticals so they’re perfect for growing small batches of high value products, but they’re not so great at making a lot of cheap meat.

M: The cells are fed oxygen-rich cell culture medium which contains basic nutrients like amino acids, glucose, vitamins, minerals, and are supplemented with growth factors and other proteins.

S: This medium feeds the cells and triggers them to differentiate into skeletal muscle, fat, and connective tissues until the product is molecularly equal to conventional meat. 

M: The entire process takes 2-8 weeks depending on the type of tissue that you are making. 

S: Versus 2 years to grow a cow. 

M: Yeah.

S: The process doesn’t require any antibiotics although they do use a little bit of antibiotic at the very beginning when they pull the cells out just to make sure they’re ok.

M: Makes sense. 

S: But they don’t add any later in the process. And there is much less contact between the meat and humans which could make it safer for us to eat. 

M: And as you mentioned earlier, you could also alter the nutritional content of the product based on whatever is in the cell media that you feed it. 

S: And we don’t have to slaughter anything!

M: Best part! But it’s still pretty expensive. A burger no longer costs over $300,000, but it still costs about $100 to make, and a serving of chicken nuggets would cost about $50. There aren’t many people who would pay that much for either of these, I mean, I wouldn’t.

S: I don’t think I would either. The most expensive part of making lab-grown meat isn’t the labs themselves, it’s the medium you feed the cells to keep them alive and help them grow.. The costs have already come down substantially, but there is still a long way to go to make the meat cost-effective for most of us. 

M: They’re also trying to make bigger vats, but we don’t really know yet if the cells would grow in a much larger environment. 

S: Yeah, a lot of unknowns.

M: Mmm-hmm.

S: Several companies are trying to make work-arounds. They’re using the small amounts of lab-grown meats that they can make but they’re combining them with plant-based ingredients, or they’re using the lab-grown meat as flavoring but not the entire burger or the entire nugget. 

M: Other companies are growing fat instead of muscle. The fat’s pretty flavorful and it adds juiciness, so adding this lab-grown fat to plant-based products can improve the taste and texture.

S: And of course, you could just charge more for the product and some companies are doing that instead of trying to bring the cost down. There are a few companies that make tuna for high-end sushi. 

M: Interesting…

S: Apparently it doesn’t quite match the texture and flavor of wild-caught fish yet, but the company claims it will get there. And they’re charging a premium.

M: Well bringing down the cost to something most consumers could afford will be difficult in the current environment. I mean, even just going to the grocery store now– it’s out of control.

S: Oh, I just went today. I’m sad. 

M: Well government subsidies go to corn, soy, and wheat growers, making the cost of feeding livestock lower. 

S: Right. So,what we pay for meat in this country is artificially lower than really the cost to make it. If similar subsidies went to the lab-grown meat industry, the costs could come down too. But that’s likely not something that’s going to happen anytime soon. 

M: Probably not. Well, if you’re wondering where you can try some of this lab-grown wonder today you may have to go to Singapore. It’s actually been available there since December 2020.

S: I’m up for a road trip.

M: Oh! I am too.

S: I’ve never been to Singapore. 

M: We can report live!

S: Absolutely! But if we have listeners in Singapore and I hope we do, please check it out for us and let us know how it is!

M: Definitely! In June 2023, here in the U. S., the Department of Agriculture gave approval to two companies to sell lab-grown chicken products in the U.S. So, I mean, clearly they think it’s safe to eat.

S: These companies are Upside Food and Good Meat. Upside Food partnered with a restaurant in San Francisco called Bar Crenn and they hope to have their chicken on the menu sometime this year. 

M: Good Meat works with Chef Jose Andres and the chicken will be offered at one of his restaurants in Washington, D.C. It’s going to be called “cell-cultivated chicken”. 

S: To make the chicken, they take stem cells from a fertilized chicken egg like we talked about before. They check the cells for the ability to divide and create more cells, and they check them for taste, of course. Then they freeze the best cells, making cell lines for future use.

M: These cells are transferred into one of those vats filled with the nutritious media. The cells grow and divide and stick together to form proteins and eventually tissues. 

S: Then they mix, heat, and texturize it, and then they press it into the shape they want like a nugget or a cutlet. And voila, you have cell-cultivated chicken on the menu.

M: But it will be several years before we’ll be able to buy it in the grocery store as a stand-alone meat product. Upside Foods can only make about 50,000 lb per year now… while the total U.S. poultry industry produces 50 billion lb per year.

S: So there’s a long way to go before these tiny little lab-grown reactors make a dent in the chicken or the beef industry. 

M: Right. Scaling up even to 400,000 lb per year which is Upside Foods goal probably wouldn’t make much difference. 

S: Yeah, but we may be seeing those combos we talked about earlier… The lab-grown plus plant-based products, those might be on the market a little sooner. 

M: Nice. One of the big unanswered questions is – will consumers actually accept and eat it? Studies show a wide range of views on this. I’ve had students in class who are like “no way, not for me” and when I ask why, they’re just like “I don’t know it’s just unnatural”.

S: Yeah, but about 2/3 of the U.S. public report that they are at least willing to give lab-grown meat a try. But 35% of meat-eaters say the same thing your students say... they’re kind of disgusted by it. 

M: I mean I’d try it!

S: Oh for sure, me too! I can’t wait to try it. But for other groups it’s really not so clear. 

M: For sure! Some groups who keep kosher or halal, it gets a little muddy. Some say cultured meat would not meet the requirements of these diets, but there are others who are open to the possibility that processes could be put in place to make these meats kosher or halal depending on how the cells are harvested from the animals. 

S: And Israel is leading the way on lab-grown meat with about a quarter of the world’s funding. In fact, one company in Israel is applying for kosher approval for their products, so we’ll see.  

M: And what about vegetarians? Many avoid meat because of the cruel practices of growing and slaughtering livestock. So it makes me wonder if they might be willing to try it.

S: That’s a big maybe. Some vegetarians are excited about it, but others studies report that about half would prefer to avoid it. 

M: So what’s the downside to lab-grown meat? Well, right now because it’s all being done by private companies who don’t have to share their data, we really don’t know how much water, electricity, or feed it takes to make those nuggets. 

S: But lab-grown meat is probably here to stay. The market was only $2.3M in 2021 but is projected to reach at least $960.7M by 2030. And some say the market in 2030 could be several billion. I mean, the biggest drivers to the market are animal welfare concerns by consumers.

M: Cultivated meat start-ups raised almost $2B in 2021 worldwide, and since that $330,000 hamburger in 2013, costs have come down significantly – some say by more than 95% but again we just don’t know exact numbers. 

S: But big names are backing cultivated meat including Bill Gates, Ashton Kutcher, Mark Cuban, Leonardo DiCaprio, and those chefs we mentioned, Jose Andres and Dominique Crenn, and  even traditional meat giants like Tyson Foods and Cargill are getting in the lab-grown meat game.. 

M: Governments are also getting involved including the U.S. They’ve put $10 million toward the establishment of a National Institute for Cellular Agriculture.   

S: And the FDA and the USDA have agreed on a regulatory framework for products in the U.S. 

M: That’s a big deal!

S: It is a big deal. Labeling will also have to be considered once more cultured meats are approved for consumers.  

M: Right, what we call it will make a huge difference for consumers. 

S: Oh definitely!

M: Yeah. So some ideas for names include clean meat (not a fan), cell meat, fake meat, lab-grown meat, pure meat, cultivated cell product, meat 2.0, and in vitro meat. 

S: I like meat 2.0. And remember the “cell-cultivated chicken” that’s going to be sold in restaurants in San Francisco and D.C.? That name just seems to be a placeholder until they decide on what they’re really going to call it. 

M: And after lobbying from traditional livestock producers, many states have passed laws banning cell-cultured meats from being called ‘meat’ at all. 

S: Right and we just looked at an article that said some states want to pass bills that say you can’t have lab grown meat in school lunches.

M: Oh my gosh.

S: But at the DNA level, cell-cultured meat is identical to traditional meat. So it’s basically meat, but it’s getting complicated. 

M: It is. And what we described here isn’t the only type of meat innovation occurring. There are  3-D printed meat alternatives that use plants to print what looks and hopefully tastes like steaks.

S: I mean, 3-D printed meats! So crazy…You can find some videos on YouTube that show you how they do it, I mean you’ve gotta love science and technology!

M: Absolutely! And one company in California called Air Protein uses microbes to turn recycled CO2 from factories into meat alternatives. Another innovative way to make meat! And this technique reduces their environmental impact.

S: That is so cool!

M: Yeah, they use a process similar to yogurt or cheese fermentation but instead of feeding milk or sugar, they use CO2, nitrogen, and O2. 

S: Wow! I mean, what will they think of next? 

M: Right? Well another company, My Forest Food Company, uses farm grown mushroom mycelium to create whole-cut meat alternatives like steaks instead of ground meat. 

S: I’ll bet the mushrooms give it a much more savory flavor, like the umami–

M: Oh you’re right!

S: Yeah that might be missing in other plant-based alternatives. So might be worth a try.

M: Well apparently their MyBacon product has been well-received in the Northeast where they’re based. And while not exactly cell grown meat, it's another plant-based alternative to traditional meats. 

S:  It’s an exciting time for meat alternatives! I’m looking forward to trying ALL of these!

M: Me too! So what’s the bottom line on lab-grown meat? 

S: The bottom line… We will be seeing lab-grown meats on our grocery shelves soon. It’s going to be another option for consumers, and it could be a way to help feed the world’s growing population that uses fewer resources without harming animals. 

M: Countries like China, the EU, and Israel are much further ahead than the U.S. in terms of government support and regulation, but we’ll get there.

S: And the costs are coming down.. Innovation is booming in this industry, so… kind of crazy. Good stuff! 

M: There will always be a market for traditional meat–

S: Right. 

M: …but the future looks bright for lab-grown meat and chicken!

S: It does. Well, thanks for joining us today! This was a really fun episode to research!

M: I enjoyed it so much. Join us next time when we’ll tell you all about the surprising secrets of saliva.

S: Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. 

Both: Class dismissed. 

S: We hope you enjoyed this episode. You can find the show notes and a list of sources on our website, yournutritionprofs.com. 

M: Your homework is to follow us at your nutrition profs on Instagram and to listen to our next episode. You can listen on Amazon Prime, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere podcasts are found. We’d appreciate it if you’d “like” us, write a review, subscribe, and invite your family and friends to join us too. 

S: If you have a nutrition or health question you’d like answered, let us know! We may even do a show about it! Send an email to yournutritionprofs@gmail.com or click on the “Contact Us” page on our website.

M: Thanks to Brian Pittman for creating our artwork. You can find him on instagram @BrianPittman77

Both: See you next time!