What is cultured meat and how is it made?

Cultured meat is a genuine animal product created by cultivating animal cells in labs, potentially eliminating the need for traditional animal farming. While the market is projected to reach $25 billion by 2030, growth depends on overcoming price parity and consumer acceptance through innovations in bioprocess design, tissue engineering, cell lines, culture media, and scaffolding.

• Cultured meat is defined as a genuine animal meat product produced by cultivating animal cells in a controlled laboratory environment, which almost entirely removes the necessity of farming animals for food.
• The cultured meat market is estimated by McKinsey to reach $25 billion by 2030, provided the industry can resolve challenges regarding consumer acceptance and price parity.
• Producing cultured meat at scale requires innovation in five key technological areas: bioprocess design (specifically bioreactor design), tissue engineering to mimic textures, the development of diverse cell lines, the optimization of nutrient-rich cell culture media, and the creation of sustainable 3D scaffolding.
• Current scaffolding materials, such as collagen and gelatin, are animal-derived, which contradicts the purpose of cell-based products; consequently, plant-derived alternatives are being investigated.

APA

Jones, K. (2022). What is cultured meat and how is it made? World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/science-behind-cultured-meat-production/

Chicago

Jones, Katie. What is cultured meat and how is it made? World Economic Forum, 2022. https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/science-behind-cultured-meat-production/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Jones |first1=Katie |title=What is cultured meat and how is it made? |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=30 May 2022 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/science-behind-cultured-meat-production/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{jones2022what, author = {Jones, Katie}, title = {{What is cultured meat and how is it made?}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2022}, month = may, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/food-water-air/science-behind-cultured-meat-production/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }