Sep 15, 2024 10:20 PM
https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/202...-its-cost/
INTRO: We have the tools and innovation to make cultured meat: what we lack is the ability to do it at scale. That has held back the technology and made it unaffordable for commercial production. But now researchers have found a way to leapfrog this hurdle, upscaling the production of lab-cultured chicken, and bringing it down to the price of organic meat.
Their success relies on a new method of culturing animal cells that allows their continuous growth, setting it apart from more laborious methods that drive up costs. Typical cultures are made by growing animal cells in bioreactors that are constantly stirred. These bioreactors are huge—about 15,000 liters each—yet cells can’t be grown at huge densities because the waste from their production accumulates too quickly, limiting production.
An alternative the researchers explore in the Nature Food study is a method called perfusion, which enables a continuous flow of a liquid medium through a membrane on which the cells are growing: this refreshes them with a constant flow of the nutrients that they need to survive, and also allows waste to be moved along and cycled through the system. Researchers can also build growth membranes in a stacked formation, increasing their surface area... (MORE - details)
INTRO: We have the tools and innovation to make cultured meat: what we lack is the ability to do it at scale. That has held back the technology and made it unaffordable for commercial production. But now researchers have found a way to leapfrog this hurdle, upscaling the production of lab-cultured chicken, and bringing it down to the price of organic meat.
Their success relies on a new method of culturing animal cells that allows their continuous growth, setting it apart from more laborious methods that drive up costs. Typical cultures are made by growing animal cells in bioreactors that are constantly stirred. These bioreactors are huge—about 15,000 liters each—yet cells can’t be grown at huge densities because the waste from their production accumulates too quickly, limiting production.
An alternative the researchers explore in the Nature Food study is a method called perfusion, which enables a continuous flow of a liquid medium through a membrane on which the cells are growing: this refreshes them with a constant flow of the nutrients that they need to survive, and also allows waste to be moved along and cycled through the system. Researchers can also build growth membranes in a stacked formation, increasing their surface area... (MORE - details)