Scientists
have grown rabbit and cow muscles cells upon edible gelatin scaffolds in order
to try to mimic the texture and consistency of meat. The initial results appear
to demonstrate that realistic meat products could be produced without the need
to raise and slaughter animals.
In
the near future, based on successful studies, food technologist will be able to
mass-produce meat directly from animal cells. Based on research
conducted by CBInsights, alternative meat products represent potential big
business. For this reason, major food giants from Tyson to Cargill are
researching and investing in a future where most people will obtain their
protein from sources other than traditional animal-based products.
The
adoption of artificial meat has many advocates from the non-financial
perspective, such as
Christopher Bryant of the University of Bath who reckons such products offer
many advantages for society. As he tells Laboratory Manager magazine: “Cultured
meat has the potential to reduce the ethical, environmental, and public health
burdens associated with conventional livestock farming”.
One
limitation with lab-grown meat is that while ‘taste’ is being perfected,
consumers who have been allowed to test out products often report that the
‘texture’ does not always resemble meat.
A
new study from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences uses edible gelatin scaffolds to try to better represent the texture
and consistency of meat.
The
reason for the complexity over this aspect of creating laboratory -cultured
meat is because animal meat consists mostly of skeletal muscle together with
fat tissue. This grows in long, thin fibers. Attempts to reproduce these fibers
has become the biggest challenge in bioengineering meat.
He
follows this up by saying: “This is our first effort to bring hardcore
engineering design and scalable manufacturing to the creation of food."
The
new technique which seems to work is called immersion Rotary Jet-Spinning
(iRJS). This method deploys a centrifugal force in order to spin long
nanofibers of specific shapes and sizes.
In
studies, the scientists successfully spun food-safe gelatin fibers so they
could form the base for growing cells. The fiberswere able to mimic natural muscle tissue's extracellular
matrix (the ‘glue’ that holds the tissue together and contributes to its
texture).
The
study has been reported to the journal npj
Science of Food, with the associated paper headed “Muscle tissue engineering in fibrous
gelatin: implications for meat analogs.”
Posted by Dr. Tim Sandle, Pharmaceutical Microbiology
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