A team at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP) has developed a promising alternative to fetal bovine serum—a high-cost ingredient used in producing lab-grown meat from animal cells—by instead using plant-based byproducts. Meanwhile, researchers from the Federal Center for Technological Education of Minas Gerais (CEFET-MG) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) have discovered a way to create structured meat resembling a steak using biodegradable plant-derived polymers instead of collagen, the animal-based protein traditionally used for this purpose.
As this research progresses, it could help scale up production and drive down the cost of cultured meat, an alternative protein that is not only healthier—potentially with less fat yet the same protein content—but also more sustainable, as it demands fewer environmental resources compared to conventional animal protein sourced from pasture-raised livestock. While the prospects are encouraging, researchers in both academia and industry recognize that several hurdles still need to be overcome before these innovations can make their way into restaurants and grocery-store coolers.
In March, the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (ANVISA) implemented Resolution No. 839, laying out a framework for the registration of innovative foods and ingredients. “The new regulatory framework puts Brazil in a leading position globally and paves the way for investment in sustainable food innovations,” says Raquel Casselli, director of corporate engagement at The Good Food Institute (GFI) Brazil, a nonprofit that supports alternatives to animal-based proteins. So far, only three countries—Singapore, the US, and Israel—have approved the production and sale of cultured meat.
Since 2013, when Dutch physiologist Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands introduced the first prototype of a lab-grown burger, investments in the sector have reached US$3.1 billion, according to GFI. The US leads the field, home to 45 of the 174 companies specializing in cell culture for meat production or related technologies. Brazil is also on the map, with three startups, two meatpacking giants—JBS and BRF—and 21 research groups. However, no country has yet achieved large-scale production.
“The technological readiness of cell-based meat is still low,” notes Carla Molento, a professor of veterinary medicine at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR) and coordinator of the New Research and Innovation Program in Alternative Proteins (NAPI PA), funded by the Araucária Foundation, Paraná’s research funding agency. Technological readiness is a measure of the maturity of a technology as it progresses from development through to production and marketing. “It’s still more in the research phase than in production.”
Alternatives to fetal serum
Food engineer Rosana Goldbeck from the School of Food Engineering (FEA) at UNICAMP began exploring alternatives to fetal bovine serum, one of the major challenges in the field, in 2021. Widely used in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, fetal bovine serum is extracted from the blood of fetuses of pregnant cows sent for slaughter. While it is highly effective for cell growth, it is prohibitively expensive for industrial-scale production. “Serum raises production costs as well as ethical issues, given the suffering caused to animals during its extraction,” says Goldbeck.
During her doctoral research under Goldbeck, chemical engineer Bárbara Flaibam identified a potential alternative: plant-derived byproducts such as soybean, peanut, and sunflower meal, brewer’s yeast, and corn ethanol byproducts. “These materials, known as protein hydrolysates because they undergo a process called hydrolysis that breaks down proteins, are rich sources of amino acids and peptides for animal cells and could replace the protein component of fetal bovine serum,” Flaibam explains.
In experiments reported in May in Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies, these protein hydrolysates proved highly effective as partial substitutes for bovine serum. However, serum is a complex mixture containing other essential components like growth factors and hormones needed for cell proliferation. “Hydrolysates could fully replace serum if the culture is supplemented with other essential components, which are already commercially available,” says Flaibam.
Even so, she argues that this substitution would be financially advantageous, as the cost difference between fetal serum and plant-based alternatives is significant. Whereas fetal bovine serum costs between US$70 and US$170 per gram (g), in Flaibam’s experiments—still at lab scale—the protein extract from soybean meal would cost US$1.10/g, and hydrolyzed soybean meal only US$0.17/g. Goldbeck notes that fetal bovine serum accounts for 95% of the cost of producing lab-grown meat.
Some companies in the industry, like Dutch-based Mosa Meat, Israel’s Aleph Farms, and US-based Upside Foods, claim on their websites that they already produce serum-free products, though without disclosing the alternative substances they use.
Muscle cell (blue nuclei) multiplication in a protein culture medium (yellow) by Mosa Meat; and cellva’s cultured pork fat (right)Mosa Meat | Natália Alves / Cellva
Meanwhile, in Minas Gerais, a team at CEFET has tackled a different challenge: creating lab-grown meat that resembles a steak, with a more complex three-dimensional structure than the protein mass used to produce nuggets or burgers. The most common strategy for this involves the use of scaffolds—artificial, 3D-structured matrices—typically made from collagen.
A team led by physicist Aline Bruna da Silva and chemist Roberta Viana developed an alternative made from biodegradable polymers enriched with an extract from annatto (Bixa orellana) seeds, known for their regenerative and antibacterial properties. This research led to the creation of a spin-off, Biomimetic Solutions, to produce and market these materials. The team tested a variety of polymer materials, including cellulose acetate nanofibers, as described in a January 2024 article in Frontiers in Nutrition.
Although the company failed to take off, two of its founders, Silva and materials engineer Lorena Viana Souza, launched another startup, Moondo, in 2022 to develop lab-grown fish meat. “White meat, because it has less intramuscular fat, is less complex than red meat,” explains Silva. In 2023, as a researcher at CEFET, she helped develop one of Brazil’s first structured meat prototypes—a small piece of chicken fillet—in collaboration with researchers from UFMG. According to Souza, Moondo’s COO, the team is currently working on fundraising and finding an incubator to host the company’s lab. In the meantime, Moondo’s research is being carried out in collaboration with UFMG and CEFET.
Other companies are further ahead, such as cellva, which plans to begin industrial-scale production of lab-grown pork fat in two years. “Since early last year, we’ve increased our production capacity tenfold, and by the end of this year, we’ll be producing 1 kilogram [kg] of cultured fat per month,” says Bibiana Matte, cofounder and chief scientific officer of cellva.
After moving from her doctoral research in dentistry into biotechnology, Matte had originally founded the startup Núcleo Vitro in Porto Alegre in 2019 to develop skin models for drug and cosmetic testing (see Pesquisa FAPESP issue nº 335). Later deciding to enter the cultured meat space, she launched another startup, Ambi Real Food, in 2021, serving as chief scientist for both ventures. With support from the Rio Grande do Sul State Research Foundation (FAPERGS) and in collaboration with researchers from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and Vale do Rio dos Sinos University (UNISINOS), the startup developed one of Brazil’s first lab-grown beef burgers from cultured cells.
In 2022, Ambi Real Food merged with cellva, shifting its focus from burgers to pork fat. “Today, we’re a team of 10 people with diverse expertise ranging from biology and veterinary medicine to pharmaceutical and food engineering and dentistry,” says Matte. cellva is also developing plant-based microcarriers (tiny structures to which cells adhere when placed inside the bioreactor during the cell expansion phase) and microspheres (which encapsulate substances to enhance flavor and nutrients in the product). “We plan to supply inputs and ingredients to other companies,” explains Matte.
In 2021, during a GFI-funded project to create a sustainable lab-grown chicken fillet, food engineer Vivian Feddern, who led the initiative, and veterinarian Ana Paula Bastos, both from the Swine and Poultry unit at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA) in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, identified the need for a cell bank to support the cultured meat industry.
The idea was floated during the First Cultured Meat Symposium hosted by EMBRAPA in Santa Catarina in August 2022. “Several delegates mentioned how difficult it is to obtain cells, and others pointed out that a biobank could speed up the process, both for researchers and startups,” says Feddern, the lead author of a report published in December 2022 that analyzed the cultured meat market in Brazil and globally. According to Bastos, the cell bank could be operational within five years: “We already have a large stock of chicken cells, and we’re starting to work on pig and cattle cells.”
As chair of the Brazilian Association for Cellular Agriculture (ABAC) and the professor behind the first graduate cellular agriculture program at UFPR, Carla Molento stresses: “Now is the time to share information. Without collaboration, we could miss a unique opportunity to enter an emerging field of biotechnology.” According to an estimate by US consulting firm AT Kearney, by 2040, 35% of the world’s meat consumption will come from cultured meat, 25% from plant-based meat, and 40% from conventional meat.
Cultured meat has yet to become commercially available in Brazil, but is already sold in stores and restaurants in Singapore and the US
Upside Foods’s cultured chicken filletUpside Foods
For now, a Brazilian looking to try a cultured meat dish in a restaurant would need to travel nearly 17,000 kilometers. Singapore hosts the only two restaurants serving Forged Parfait, a high-end pâté product developed by Australian startup Vow from Japanese quail cells. The product mimics the appearance of foie gras (goose or duck liver pâté), and is served as an ingredient or garnish in gourmet dishes.
Another option available in Singapore is Good Meat-branded cultured chicken in the frozen section at Huber’s Butchery. Made by California’s Eat Just, this product is a hybrid: 3% cultured meat mixed with 97% plant-based meat. Launched in May this year, it is sold in 120-gram packages for the equivalent of R$28.
Singapore was the first country to greenlight the sale of cultured meat back in December 2020. The US followed in June 2023, approving chicken from Upside Foods and Eat Just for marketing. These products made brief appearances in one Singapore restaurant and two US restaurants. In February 2024, however, the companies paused their restaurant partnerships to focus on scaling production and lowering costs.
In January this year, Israel approved Aleph Farms to market its Petit Steak, potentially making it the first country to sell cultured beef. The company’s website promises the product will hit the market “soon.”
The story above was published with the title “Reinventing meat” in issue 343 of September/2024.
Scientific articles
FLAIBAM, B. et al. Low-cost protein extracts and hydrolysates from plant-based agro-industrial waste: Inputs of interest for cultured meat. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. Vol. 93, 103644. May 2024.
SANTOS, A. E. A. et al. Random cellulose acetate nanofibers: A breakthrough for cultivated meat production. Frontiers in Nutrition. Vol. 10. Jan. 4, 2024.
YUN, S. H. et al. Current research, industrialization status, and future Perspective of Cultured Meat. Food Science of Animal Resources Food. Vol. 44, no. 3, pp. 570–85. May 1, 2024.
BATTLE, M. et al. 2023 State of the industry report: Cultivated meat and seafood. The Good Food Institute. 2024.
BENSON, L.; GREENE, J. L. Cell-cultivated meat: An Overview. Congressional Research Service. Sept. 2023.
FEDDERN, V. et al. I Jornada de Carne Cultivada: uma visão sistêmica sobre terminologias, aspectos legais, nutricionais, considerações sobre consumidor e mercado potencial, métodos e meios de cultivo. Embrapa Suínos e Aves. Dec. 2022.
