Cultured meat

Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat among other names, is a form of cellular agriculture wherein meat is produced by culturing animal cells in vitro; thus growing animal flesh, molecularly identical to that of conventional meat, outside of a living animal. Cultured meat is produced using tissue engineering techniques pioneered in regenerative medicine. It has been noted for potential in lessening the impact of meat production on the environment and addressing issues around animal welfare, food security and human health.

Jason Matheny popularized the concept in the early 2000s after he co-authored a paper on cultured meat production and created New Harvest, the world's first non-profit organization dedicated to in vitro meat research. In 2013, Mark Post created a hamburger patty made from tissue grown outside of an animal; other cultured meat prototypes have gained media attention since. In 2020, SuperMeat opened a farm-to-fork restaurant in Tel Aviv called The Chicken, serving cultured chicken burgers in exchange for reviews to test consumer reaction rather than money; while the "world's first commercial sale of cell-cultured meat" occurred in December 2020 at Singapore restaurant 1880, where cultured chicken manufactured by United States firm Eat Just was sold.

Most efforts focus on common meats such as pork, beef, and chicken; species which constitute the bulk of conventional meat consumption in developed countries. Some companies have pursued various species of fish and other seafood, such as Avant Meats who brought cultured grouper to market in 2021. Other companies such as Orbillion Bio have focused on high-end or unusual meats including elk, lamb, bison, and Wagyu beef.

The production process of cultured meat is constantly evolving, driven by companies and research institutions. The applications for cultured meat havе led to ethical, health, environmental, cultural, and economic discussions. Data published by The Good Food Institute found that in 2021 through 2023, cultured meat and seafood companies attracted over $2.5 billion in investment worldwide. However, cultured meat is not yet widely available.

Besides cultured meat, the terms cultivated meat, clean meat, in vitro meat, cell-based meat, synthetic meat, slaughter-free meat, craft meat, healthy meat, and schmeat have been used to describe the product. Although it has multiple meanings, artificial meat is occasionally used. The term lab-grown meat has been used in news media, but has been criticized on the basis that as production reaches market-scale, it won't be grown in laboratories but rather larger-output facilities which Bruce Friedrich compares to "meat breweries".

Between 2016 and 2019, clean meat gained traction. The Good Food Institute (GFI) coined the term in 2016, and in late 2018, the institute published research claiming that use of clean better reflected the production process and benefits. By 2018 it had surpassed cultured and in vitro in media mentions and Google searches. Some stakeholders in cultured meat production, seeking to work with conventional meat producers as allies, felt that the term clean meat unnecessarily tarnished the latter, and went on to prefer cell-based meat as a neutral alternative.

In September 2019, GFI announced new research which found that the term cultivated meat is sufficiently descriptive and differentiating, possesses a high degree of neutrality, and ranks highly for consumer appeal. A September 2021 poll indicated that the majority of industry CEOs have a preference for cultivated meat, with 75 percent of 44 companies preferring it.

The theoretical possibility of growing meat in an industrial setting has long been of interest. In a 1931 essay published by various periodicals and later included in his work Thoughts and Adventures, British statesman Winston Churchill wrote: "We shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium."