Meat alternatives have been in the news a lot lately. A
certain Royal burger chain has recently launched a burger that was once
considered Impossible, and I can’t open my inbox or walk through a crowd at a
conference without hearing something about lab-grown meat. So, it’s about time
that I write something about it.
First. Is it
Impossible?
We are really talking about two completely different
products here.
1.
Plant based meats – Products made to taste and
feel like meat, but made from plants.
2.
Lab-grown meats – Meat grown in a petri dish
from cells and media. Not from plants, but not really from animals either.
One is out in the market, the other is still in the
development stages.
Plant based meats
 |
| Some plant-based meats I found at a grocery store in Texas. |
The science behind the Impossible burger is actually pretty
cool. They looked at meat and asked themselves, “What makes meat so tasty?”
They felt like the answer was heme, a source of iron found in muscle and blood.
Heme can also be found in soy and some other plants. So they isolated the heme
producing DNA out of the soy plants and inserted it into yeast. Now the yeast
can grow the heme through fermentation. They combine that with soy and potato
proteins, coconut and sunflower oils, salt and some other ingredients. From
there, they make burgers or sausage or whatever they want. If you look at the
nutrition information (calories, fat, etc…) of the Impossible burger, you’ll
see that it’s pretty similar to a beef burger.
There is another plant-based meat product called Beyond Meat
that uses peas, mung beans, fava beans, and brown rice as their protein
sources. They also use coconut and sunflower oils as well as cocoa butter and
canola oil. Coconut oil is more saturated than other oils and likely gives
these products a mouthfeel that is more similar to meats. Beyond Meat prides
itself on not using GMOs and instead using beet juice extract, apple extract,
and other ‘natural flavors’ to produce the meaty flavor. From what I can tell,
the nutrition information on this one is also similar to a beef patty.
Lab grown meats
Meat products made from cells grown in a lab are being
developed by over 40 different start-up companies. The most popular and
well-funded of those is probably Memphis Meats, out of Berkley, CA. Others
include Blue Nalu, Future Meat Technology, Finless Foods, Wild Type, and Aleph
Farms.
I’m sure all these companies have their own spin on the
process, but in a very basic way, they are using cells isolated from animals,
either satellite cells or embryonic stem cells to grow more cells in a lab
rather than growing them in an animal.
The cells are grown in what’s called a Bio reactor. Rather
than feed and water, the cells need media, which is a combination of salts,
sugars, and amino acids. Just like feeds change as animals grow, the needs of
the cells change as they grow and differentiate. The scientists control the
growth of the cells with hormones and provide them with scaffolding, which is a
structure for them to grow on.
This technology is quite expensive. The first cell-based hamburger
that was prepared in 2013 cost approximately $278,000, but today that cost is
down to about $100. A company called Eat Just, Inc. has chicken nuggets that
only costs $50 a piece.
A few of these companies are moving from lab-scale up to
pilot plants, but the most ambitious timeline has products available for
consumers no earlier than 2022. Most are after 2025.
Certain cell-based products will be easier to develop than
others. Comminuted products like ground beef, hot dogs and chicken nuggets will
be quicker to develop than those that are trying to produce whole-muscle cuts
like a steak, a chicken breast, or a pork chop. The correct texture of a
marbled steak will take a little longer to develop than a ground beef burger.
Another hurdle for these products will be regulations. In
the US, meat products are regulated by USDA and call-based and plant products
are regulated by FDA. The two agencies have agreed to work together to develop
food safety regulations and labeling standards for cell-based meats.
One big question is what will it be called? The USDA has
standards of identity for labels like ground
beef, ham, and chicken nuggets. Currently, it is not clear if beef grown in
a lab outside of a cow meets those standards. (I don’t think so, but no one has
asked me.) Regardless, cell-based meat or lab-grown meat doesn’t have a very
good ring to it.
So, lab-grown meats are still a long way from our dinner
plates. As a rancher, a meat scientist, and as a mom, I’m not really worried
about feeding them to my family any time soon.
