Cultured meat: What we know and what we should know. Part A: Principles and intrinsic qualities

Produced from proliferating cells cultivated in bioreactors, "cultured meat" is touted as a solution to the growing demand for animal protein without the drawbacks of livestock. This first article aims to describe its health, nutritional and organoleptic properties based on available knowledge. Particular attention is paid to the composition and the cost of the culture medium, in particular concerning the alternatives to foetal calf serum. The safety of this new food is a matter of debate among scientists, with some affirming that the consumption of "cultured meat" would be safer than that of conventional meat, and others considering that the health risks are not fully known. In view of our current knowledge, it seems unlikely that we will be able to reproduce meat given the complexity of the biological process. Even if the enrichment of the culture medium with micronutrients (iron, vitamin B-12, etc.) is envisaged by various startups, the nutritional properties of this new food remain to be studied, especially as the bioavailability of these nutrients extracted from their original matrix is still unknown.(c) 2023 Societe francaise de nutrition. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.