Researchers say they have succeeded in mass production of processed adipose tissues with tunable amounts of fat molecules, potentially allowing lab-grown meat to finally capture the taste of real meat. Because lab-grown fat has the same molecular structure as natural fat and can be produced on a large scale, it could have the potential to be used in the same processes as currently lab-grown meat production.
Scientists have been quite successful in producing lab-grown meat, and new companies have already begun mass production, hoping to compete with animal-derived options. However, although muscle tissue can be produced well, the fat needed to produce tasty meat is still not produced. Much of the flavor of meat comes from its fat, and the most important characteristic of expensive meats like Wagyu beef is its critical amount of fat.
Scientists have been able to produce adipose tissue in the lab for some time, but repeating it on a large scale has been a major obstacle to its entry into the reared meat market. When adipose tissue develops in humans and animals, a large vascular network also develops that supplies this tissue with oxygen and nutrients. Because this network is not easy to replicate in a laboratory, only a few millimeters of adipose tissue can be produced to avoid the death of cells trapped inside.
So instead of growing a single large mass of fat and hoping they wouldn’t run into trouble, researchers in Massachusetts began their work by growing fat cells in a two-dimensional layer and then stitching them together into larger three-dimensional masses using an edible and already common food-grade binder. they brought. The combined mass was similar to the type of fat found in animal meat.
“Our goal was to develop a relatively simple method to produce bulk oil,” lead author John Yuen Jr., a graduate student at Tufts University’s Center for Cellular Architecture (TUCCA), Massachusetts, said in a statement. Since adipose tissue is predominantly cells with few other structural components, we thought that combining cells after growth would be sufficient to reconstruct the taste, nutrition and texture profile of natural animal fat,” he says. It only works when building tissue for food purposes, as there is no need to retain it.”
Experiments revealed that the new adipose tissue withstands a similar amount of pressure as natural fat (also has a similar softness) and can be arranged to have the desired texture. The cellular composition of lab-grown mouse fat was slightly different than natural mouse fat, but grown lard was much closer to the truth, and the researchers believe they could make the grown fats much more similar by supplementing them with lipids. Basically, it is believed that this oil can be flavored like real oil and have the feel of real oil.
In their quest to move away from the now climate-damaging and ethically questionable mass market for meat, the researchers hope the technique can be applied on a larger scale to make farmed meat more viable.
The research was published in the journal Cell Biology, Stem Cells and Regenative Medicine.
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