Journal Article

Enhancing the palatability of cultivated meat

Yip, Queenie, Lambert, Ella G., O’Keeffe, Christopher J., Newman, Peter L.H., Ward, Alexander O., Anderson, Tim A.

2024

Overview

Select cultivated meat (CM) products have been approved for sale and consumption in Singapore, the USA, and Israel.Palatability, a term encompassing the taste, texture, and aroma of foods, plays a central role in the appeal of foods.Currently, the consumer appeal of CM is relatively low, including low perceptions of palatability and a variable willingness to try.The palatability of meat arises from the unique chemistry and structure of its cellular constituents: muscle, fat, and stroma.Natural post-mortem processes, deliberate post-processing modifications, and various cooking methods are crucial in determining the palatability of agricultural meat (AM); replicating these processes could improve the palatability of CM. Cultivated meat (CM) has transitioned from a futuristic concept to a present reality, with select products approved for consumption and sale in Singapore, Israel, and the USA. This evolution has emphasized scalable, cost-effective, and sustainable production, as well as navigation of regulatory pathways. As CM develops, a crucial challenge lies in delivering products that are highly appealing to consumers. Central to this will be refining CM palatability, a term encompassing food’s taste, aroma, texture, tenderness, juiciness, and color. We explore the scientific and engineering approaches to producing palatable CM, including cell-line selection, cell differentiation, and post-processing techniques. This includes a discussion of the structural and compositional properties of meat that are intrinsically coupled to palatability. Cultivated meat (CM) has transitioned from a futuristic concept to a present reality, with select products approved for consumption and sale in Singapore, Israel, and the USA. This evolution has emphasized scalable, cost-effective, and sustainable production, as well as navigation of regulatory pathways. As CM develops, a crucial challenge lies in delivering products that are highly appealing to consumers. Central to this will be refining CM palatability, a term encompassing food’s taste, aroma, texture, tenderness, juiciness, and color. We explore the scientific and engineering approaches to producing palatable CM, including cell-line selection, cell differentiation, and post-processing techniques. This includes a discussion of the structural and compositional properties of meat that are intrinsically coupled to palatability.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Amino acids / Animals / Aroma / biotechnology / Cell differentiation / cellular agriculture / color / consumer appeal / Consumers / Cooking / cost effectiveness / cultivated meat / Cultured meat / Differentiation (biology) / Enzymes / evolution / Factories / Fibroblasts / food science / Humans / In Vitro Meat / Internal Medicine / Israel / juiciness / Meat / odors / Palatability / Proteins / Singapore / Sustainable development / Sustainable production / Taste / texture