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A £38 million UK-wide centre has been established to research and develop alternatives to animal proteins. The centre, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Innovate UK and three universities, aims to create “acceptable and planet-friendly alternatives to animal proteins.”

Launched by the University of Leeds, the virtual research centre will look into lab-grown meat as well as plant and fungus-based meat alternatives to determine the health, sustainability and feasibility of moving away from traditional meat.

Further reading:

New £38m UK Centre to Research Alternatives to Animal Proteins

The following was originally published by Farming UK on 28 August 2024.

A new £38m UK-wide centre is set to research alternatives to animal proteins, particularly from plants, fungi, algae and meat grown in labs.

The National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre (“NAPIC”) has a mission to develop “acceptable and planet-friendly alternatives to animal proteins.”

Funding has come from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (“BBSRC”) and Innovate UK, as well as three universities and the James Hutton Institute.

A statement by the organisations said supplementing traditional agriculture with alternative protein sources was “critical if we are to meet increasing demands sustainably.”

Alternative proteins are derived from sources other than animals and include terrestrial and aquatic plants, insects, proteins derived via biomass or precision fermentation and cultured meat.

Over 30 researchers from the institutions will work with the farming industry, regulators, investors and policymakers to create a “vibrant alternative protein innovation ecosystem.”

The organisations said:

Animal agriculture is estimated to produce up to a fifth of planet-warming emissions, and with the global population projected to reach nearly 10 billion by 2050, the demand for protein is expected to rise significantly.

Some sources, such as the UN Environment Programme, estimate meat consumption alone could grow up to 50 per cent by 2050.

We need to find more sustainable sources of protein and thankfully there is a huge biodiversity in non-animal sources of protein, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of this.

The Science of Cultivated Meat

The following is extracted from an undated article published by Good Food Institute (“GFI”). GFI’s largest donor is Open Philanthropy, a co-founder of which is Dustin Moskovitz who is also the co-founder of Facebook (now Meta), As of 2021, Open Philanthropy is one of the three key organisations that fund 21 US universities.  You can find articles related to Open Philanthropy on The Exposé HERE.

Dutch scientist Mark Post unveiled the first cultivated meat burger on live television in 2013. Two years later, the first four cultivated meat companies were founded. The industry has since grown to more than 150 companies on 6 continents as of late 2022, backed by $2.6B in investments, each aiming to produce cultivated meat products. Dozens more companies have formed to create technology solutions along the value chain.

Decades of accumulated knowledge in cell culture, stem cell biology, tissue engineering, fermentation, and chemical and bioprocess engineering preceded the field of cultivated meat. Hundreds of companies and academic laboratories worldwide are conducting research across these disciplines to establish a new paradigm for manufacturing commodity meat products at industrial scales.

According to an industry survey conducted in 2020, cultivated meat manufacturers are using a variety of starter cells, including skeletal muscle stem cells (i.e., myosatellite cells), fibroblasts, mesenchymal stem cells, induced pluripotent and embryonic stem cells, and adipose-derived cells. Starter cells can also sometimes originate from specific organs to create other products. For example, cells from mammary glands can be used for milk production, and cells from livers for foie gras.

The most common method to acquire starter cells is by taking a cell sample from a live animal, which can be performed using minimally invasive methods. In some cases, these cells may also be acquired by biopsying a recently slaughtered animal where the tissue is still viable.

The Darker Side of Lab-Grown Meat

The following was originally published by Beef Central on 13 February 2018.

Despite all the popular media frenzy that’s circulated about prospects to produce “lab-grown” conscience-free meat for your burger patty sometime in the next few years, there’s a darker side to culturing muscle cells in a laboratory for food production.

Beef Central published THIS article yesterday [12 February 2018] on claims of environmental “benefits” surrounding lab-grown meat, which attracted considerable reader comment.

Fake meat, synthetic meat, test tube meat, franken meat, clean meat – call it what you will – is the trend to grow meat artificially in a laboratory, and has been attracting some impressive billionaire investment backing and media interest in recent times.

What has been interesting in this era of “fake news” and fact-checking is the number of media articles about fake meat that repeat claims by its commercial proponents that real meat is bad for just about everything, while lab-grown meat is without ethical or environmental baggage – with no apparent attempt to verify those claims.

Beyond the perception that lab-grown meat must be “better for the environment,” another fundamental premise put forward by its animal rights supporters is that it conveniently does away with the need for an animal to die, in order to produce a meal.

Unlike traditional beef production, culturing animal cells in a petri dish causes no harm or pain to a sentient animal, they insist.

But what’s not yet being discussed in any of the “gee-whiz” publicity about lab-grown meat is the back story behind the medium needed to produce it.

According to a prominent Australian animal scientist spoken to by Beef Central, multiplying animal cells to create a form of meat protein in a lab requires the use of a medium based on foetal blood plasma.

Foetal blood is produced by slaughtering a pregnant cow, removing its unborn calf from its uterus, and harvesting the blood from it. While a synthetic alternative to foetal blood does exist, it is apparently prohibitively expensive to produce, the meat scientist said.

So much for “mortality-free” lab-grown meat production.

It’s messages like these that need to be put before consumers to ensure they make more balanced judgements about the future potential for laboratory-grown meat.