Tissue engineering approaches to develop cultured meat from cells: A mini review

Abstract

Cultured meat production is an innovative and emerging process to produce animal meat in laboratories, using tissue-engineering techniques. This novel approach to produce meat involves in vitro culture of the animal muscle tissues rather than rearing whole animals to obtain animal flesh for consumption. Conventional meat production results in several adverse consequences such as poor nutritional value of meat, food-borne diseases, depletion of environmental resources, pollution etc., associated with animal slaughter. Cultured meat, on the other hand, is essentially an animal-free harvest produced in controlled conditions. Cultured meat can provide healthier, safer, and disease-free meat to consumers, as well as mitigate the negative environmental effects associated with traditional meat production. Academically, this new method is considered adequately efficient to supply meat and meat products to consumers. However, in vitro cultured meat production is still in the early stages of development and requires in-depth research and advanced technical skills for optimized production and commercialization. This review focuses on the history and development of cultured meat production, with insights on the advantages, consequences, and potential of animal-free meat harvest.