In Vitro Meat

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the concept and applications of producing meat by culturing edible animal muscle in vitro. The in vitro production of processed meats is probably feasible with existing tissue engineering techniques and may offer health and environmental advantages over existing meat production systems. The production of highly-structured, unprocessed meats faces considerably greater technical challenges. In the short term, cultured meat production is likely to remain economically impractical except, perhaps, for long-term space travel.