Who Said No Food in the Lab? The Science and Development of Cultivated Meat

In labs around the world, scientists have been growing real meat without raising animals, which is called cultivated meat. As global meat demand is expected to increase by 73% from 2010 to 2050, cultivated meat can address challenges in sustainability, ethics, and food safety (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2011).

From Cells to Meat

Scientists first take a small sample, or biopsy, from a living animal and isolate muscle stem cells. These cells are then cultured in bioreactors filled with media containing proteins, vitamins, and growth factors that encourage cellular reproduction (Good Food Institute, n.d.).

Figure 1. A bioreactor by Ark Biotech designed specifically for cultivated meat (Houser, 2024).

The cells are grown on an edible scaffold that structurally supports their assembly and is responsible for the final texture of the meat. The scaffold provides the cells with oxygen and nutrients. Bioengineers typically design scaffolds to resemble the structural and biochemical properties of the extracellular matrix, which supports the cells in natural tissues (Levi et al., 2022).

Advantages

Cultivated meat solves problems across many areas. Environmentally, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 78-96%, water consumption by 82-96%, and land use by 99% compared to conventional meat production (Tuomisto & de Mattos, 2011). Ethically, it eliminates the need for animal slaughter while reducing suffering, as animals would only provide the initial biopsies through minimally invasive procedures.

From a food safety perspective, production in sterile, controlled environments dramatically reduces contamination risks from pathogens like E. coli or Salmonella (Powell et al., 2024). Additionally, scientists may eventually customize fat and protein content or modify the composition in other ways, potentially creating healthier meat products (Heid, 2016).

Industry Outlook

Currently, the cost of production is high, resulting in products more expensive than traditional meat. One reason for this being the cell culture media and scaffolds are difficult and expensive to obtain for producers. The first lab-grown beef burger in 2013 cost $325,000 to produce, though production costs have been decreasing. As of 2023, lab-grown beef costs an average of $17 per pound to produce. Additionally, despite advances in technology, cultivated meat still differs from conventional meat in taste and texture. Many consumers also consider lab-grown meat to be unnatural, with 50% of respondents in a June 2023 survey indicating they were not interested in trying cultivated meat (Fabino, 2023).

Figure 2. The first lab-grown beef burger, cooked with butter and sunflower oil (Jha, 2013).

In 2023, there were 156 companies worldwide involved in the cultivated meat industry. Two countries, the United States and Singapore, allow for the sale of cultivated meat (Benson & Greene, 2023). Still, there are significant challenges in its commercialization, both in the technology and in its perception by consumers.

Key takeaways

Cultivated meat integrates biotechnology and food science to possibly address major global challenges. However, technical, economic, and consumer acceptance barriers suggest it may be years before cultivated meat becomes mainstream. For now, cultivated meat remains more dormant in the field of experimental technology.

References

1. Ahuja, V., Brinkley, C., Gerosa, S., Henderson, B., Honhold, N., Kramer, S., Makkar, H., McLeod, A., Miers, H., Muehlhoff, E., C., O., Opio, C., Rosenthal, J., Slingenbergh, J., Starkey, P., Steinfeld, H., & Tasciotti, L. (2011). World Livestock 2011 Livestock in food security. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

2. Cell-Cultivated Meat: An Overview. (n.d.). [Legislation]. Congress.Gov. Retrieved January 24, 2026, from https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R47697

3. Fabino, A. (2023, October 17). Lab-Grown Meat Prices Expected to Drop Dramatically—Newsweek. Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/lab-grown-meat-cost-drop-2030-investment-surge-alternative-protein-market-1835432

4. Heid, M. (2016, September 14). You Asked: Should I Be Nervous About Lab-Grown Meat? TIME. https://time.com/4490128/artificial-meat-protein/

5. Houser, K. (2024, April 26). This startup is trying to solve lab-grown meat’s biggest problem. Freethink. https://www.freethink.com/science/bioreactor-cultivated-meat

6. Jha, A., & correspondent, science. (2013, August 6). First lab-grown hamburger gets full marks for “mouth feel.” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/world-first-synthetic-hamburger-mouth-feel

7. Levi, S., Yen, F.-C., Baruch, L., & Machluf, M. (2022, August). Scaffolding technologies for the engineering of cultured meat: Towards a safe, sustainable, and scalable production—ScienceDirect. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924224422001790?via%3Dihub

8. Powell, D. J., Li, D., Smith, B., & Chen, W. N. (2025). Cultivated meat microbiological safety considerations and practices. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 24(1), e70077. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-4337.70077

9. The science of cultivated meat | GFI. (2021, January 27). https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/

10. Tuomisto, H. L., & de Mattos, M. J. T. (2011). Environmental impacts of cultured meat production. Environmental Science & Technology, 45(14), 6117–6123. https://doi.org/10.1021/es200130u

Thumbnail image: (Jha, 2013)