A scalable lab-grown meat with tuneable fat content using tissue engineering techniques

Meat is a food staple that is consumed and enjoyed worldwide. Global meat consumption has grown by with population growth and increase in per person consumption accounting equally for that increase. Further economic development is expected to further increase demand for meat and meat products. Livestock production to meet this insatiable demand is unsustainable due to high water consumption, greenhouse gas emission, accelerated soil erosion and pollution of waterbodies. Although solutions such as promoting low-meat diet style or switching to plant-based proteins have been suggested, their implementation hasn’t been very successful. Here, tissue culture methods developed originally for regenerative medicine have been repurposed for growing meat aggregates (minced meat type granules) in the lab as a way to address this environmental challenge.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ravi Selvaganapathy

Student:

Alireza Shahin-Shamsabadi

Partner:

I-INC Foundation for Business Development

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McMaster University