LAB-GROWN MEAT:

PROS AND CONS

AKINLEYE GRACE OLUWABUSOLA

 OUTLINE
Introduction
Meat
Meat alternatives
Lab-grown meat
Trend in lab-grown meat
Lab-grown meat production
Consumers’ perspectives of lab-grown meat
Pros of lab-grown meat
Cons of lab-grown meat
Conclusion
References
 INTRODUCTION
 In spite of the benefits derived from meat consumption,
certain growing concerns over some consequences have
been expressed by consumers
 Increased demand for meat consumption globally has
birthed the need to explore beyond our conventional meat
sources (agriculture) (Goodwin and Shoulders, 2013)
 MEAT
 Meat is the edible tissue from an animal consumed as food
(Boler and Woerner, 2017)
 Meat samples include beef, fish, pork, chicken, mutton,
venison, etc
 Meat is consumed because it has desirable nutritional
benefits and supports human health (O’Connor et al., 2017)
Meat also contributes to food security
MEAT

Figure 1: Meat samples

Source: https://meatsandeats.com.mt/collections/meat-
shop
 MEAT ALTERNATIVES
Alternatives to livestock production for the purposes of
meat are warranted because of concerns associated with
sustainability, environmental impact, and animal welfare
associated with conventional production of meat (Boler and
Woerner, 2017)
 Conventional meat alternatives include plant-based (e.g.
tofu), fungal-based (e.g. mushroom, mycoprotein, etc), lab-
grown meat, insect-based (e.g. beetles, caterpillars) etc
Figure 2: Oyster mushroom from the mycological unit, Figure 3: Mycoprotein
Department of microbiology, Osun State University, Source:https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoprotein
Osogbo
Figure 4: Tofu
Source: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/ingredient-
focus-tofu
 LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Lab-grown meat is also referred to as cultured meat or as clean meat
 Lab-grown meat production involves a multidisciplinary approach
that includes biotechnology, tissue engineering, and molecular biology
to create a new design to produce proteins and fats, and tissues
(Suthar and Devkatte, 2020)
 Lab-grown is developed via stem cells obtained from muscle tissue
harvested from a live animal.
 In 2013, a group of Dutch scientists cooked and consumed the first
“lab-grown” hamburger (Hocquette, 2016)
 Figure 6: Lab-grown chicken meat
Figure 5: Lab-grown meat
Source: https://www.
Source: https://synthego.com/blog/lab-grown-meats
google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/business-
55155741.amp
Figure 7: Lab-grown meat Figure 8: 1st hamburger patty made from lab-grown meat
Source: Source:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/sc https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/science/2
ience/2013/aug/05/world-first-synthetic-hamburger- 013/aug/05/world-first-synthetic-hamburger-mouth-feel
mouth-feel
 TREND IN LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Alexis Carrel managed to keep a piece of embryonic
chick heart muscle alive and beating in a Petri dish in
1912
SymbioticA harvested muscle biopsies from frogs and
kept these tissues alive and growing in culture dishes
(Catts and Zurr, 2002)
 TREND IN LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Benjaminson et al. (2002) cultured muscle tissue from the
common goldfish (Carassius auratus) in petri dishes aiming to
explore the possibilities of culturing animal muscle protein for
long term space flights or habituation of space stations
 In 2013, the world’s first lab meat based burger was cooked
and tasted by a sensory panel in Riverside Studios in London.
The burger contained five-ounce burger patty produced by using
laboratory grown beef worth more than $330 000. It took only
three months to grow the beef in the laboratory, using stem cells
harvested from a cow’s shoulder (Zuhaib et al., 2015)
LAB-GROWN MEAT PRODUCTION

Figure 9: Lab-grown meat production

Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Figu
re1-Scaffold-based-cultured-meat-produc
tion_fig1_2666093991
Figure 10: Lab-grown meat production
Source:
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Sc
hematic-of-cultured-meat-production_
fig1_32387565
CONSUMERS’ PERSPECTIVES OF LAB-
GROWN MEAT
 People who are more willing to try new food were more
likely to eat lab grown meat as well as see the benefits of the
technology (Wilks et al., 2019)
Figure 11: First impressions, perceived relevance, and appeal of cultured meat
in Belgium (2019 and 2020 combined).
(Bryant and Sanctorum, 2021)
Figure 12: Willingness to pay a premium for cultured meat in Belgium (2019
and 2020 combined).
(Bryant and Sanctorum, 2021)
 PROS OF LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Reduce environmental pollution and water and land use
associated with current meat production systems (Mottet et
al., 2017; Tuomisto and de Mattos, 2011)
 Reduce animal use, suffering, death significantly
 Ensure sustainable production of meat products,
chemically safe and disease-free meat
 Engineer meat to be healthier and functional by
manipulating composition e.g. fat control
 Reduce zoonotic and foodborne diseases
 PROS OF LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Quick production
 Reforestation and wild life
 Availability of exotic meat
 Vegan meat
 Alternate protein source
 CONS OF LAB-GROWN MEAT
 Product characteristics- colour, appearance as
compared to conventional meat
 High cost of production
 Economic disturbances – employment, meat export,
etc
 Social acceptance and ethical concerns
 CONS OF LAB-GROWN MEAT
Alienation to nature
 Religious view
 Lack of hormones and growth factors to support
growth and development (Bedanta et al., 2021)
 CONCLUSION
 Lab-grown meat production is undergoing further
processes to make it better affordable, accessible, reliable
and sustainable
 Though lab-grown meat remains not globally and totally
accepted by people, measures are taken to enlighten people
and to improve on available and future varieties to aid
acceptability
 REFERENCES
 O’Connor, L.E., Kim, J.E., and Campbell W.W. (2017). Total red meat intake of ≥ 0.5
serving/d does not negatively influence cardiovascular disease risk factors: A
systematically searched meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. American Journal
of Clinical Nutrition. 105:57–69
 Bedanta Roy, Abbhirame Hagappa, Yanesha Devi Ramalingam, Nandikha
Mahalingam, and Asra Banu ShaikAlaudeen (2021). A review on lab-grown meat:
Advantages and disadvantages. Quest International Journal of Medical and Health
Sciences. 4(1):19-24
 Boler, D.D., and Woerner, D.R. (2017) What is meat? A perspective from the
American Meat Science Association. Animal Frontiers. 7(4) doi:10.2527/af.2017.0436
 Hocquette, J.F. (2016) Is in vitro meat the solution for the future? Meat Science.
120:167–176
 REFERENCES
 Mottet A, de Haan C, Falcucci A, Tempio G, Opio C, and Gerber P. (2017). Livestock:
on our plates or eating at our table? A new analysis of the feed/food debate. Global Food
Security. 14:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2017.01.00118
 Tuomisto HL, and de Mattos MJT (2011). Environmental impacts of cultured meat
production. Environmental Science Technology. 45:6117-23.
https://doi.org/10.1021/es200130u
 Zuhaib Fayaz Bhat, Sunil Kumar, and Hina Fayaz (2015). In vitro meat production:
Challenges and benefits over conventional meat production. Journal of Integrative
Agriculture. 14(1): 241-248