Lab-grown meat created with algae
PARIS, Feb 7 — It’s an area that is currently witnessing a lot of innovations: cellular meat. We have seen recipes based on barley and even tobacco.
But, in the Czech Republic, a start-up is working to make the economic model of this meatless meat a viable reality, turning to algae to make the process cheaper.
To understand the various and numerous innovations in cellular meat — also known as lab meat or in-vitro meat — one must understand the main principles of this new scientific technology. It starts with taking cells from the animal whose meat is set to be reproduced.
To activate the multiplication of these harvested cells and obtain muscle fibres, not only nutrients are necessary.
Hormones are also required. Since cell meat protocols have been in existence, foetal serum has been used to provide the growth factors needed to make the process happen. In addition to the cost of this technique, there are also ethical problems with respect to animal welfare.
To solve this problem, a start-up based in the Czech Republic says that it has found another solution: cultivating microalgae that enables bypassing the use of foetal bovine serum.
In short, lab-grown meat could be produced by combining cells from an animal with those from microalgae.
The Mewery company claims to be the first to make 100 per cent cellular meat.
According to the company, other products of this type incorporate soy and peas to fine-tune their recipes, which consist of “only” 30 to 50 per cent cellular content.
In the case of Mewery, which chose pork as its star product, it mixes 75 per cent animal cells with 25 per cent cells extracted from microalgae. In concrete terms, this results in sausages, meatballs, minced meat and even pork tenderloin.
Malay Mail
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