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from the I-prefer-my-microcarriers-medium-rare dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Researchers at UCLA have created an edible particle that helps make lab-grown meat, known as cultured meat, with more natural muscle-like texture using a process that could be scaled up for mass production.
Led by Amy Rowat, who holds UCLA's Marcie H. Rothman Presidential Chair of Food Studies, the researchers have invented edible particles called microcarriers with customized structures and textures that help precursor muscle cells grow quickly and form muscle-like tissues. Edible microcarriers could reduce the expense, time, and waste required to produce cultured meat with a texture that appeals to consumers. The results are published in the journal Biomaterials.
[...] Mass production of cultured meat will involve surmounting several challenges. Current methods can produce a cultured steak that mimics the structure of T-bone, but not at the volume needed for food production. In an animal's body, the muscle cells most commonly eaten as food grow on a structure called the extracellular matrix, which determines the shape of the mature tissue. Animal tissue can be grown in a lab using scaffolds made from collagen, soy protein or another material to replace the extracellular matrix. This process, necessary to produce whole tissues resembling steaks or chops, is labor intensive and takes weeks, making it hard to scale up for industrial production. It takes about 100 billion muscle cells to produce a single kilogram, or 2.2 pounds, of cultured meat.
Growing larger volumes of cultured meat at a faster pace involves making a paste or slurry of cells in a container called a bioreactor. Unfortunately, without a stiff substrate, meat grown this way lacks the muscle-like structure and therefore, texture and consistency, of what people are used to eating.
[...] The internal structure of the tissue grown on edible microcarriers looked more like natural muscle tissue than that grown on inedible carriers, suggesting that the edible microcarriers encouraged more natural growth. Norris, who is a postdoctoral scholar, was surprised to find that cells and microcarriers spontaneously combined to form microtissues that contained a significant amount of myotubes, which are precursors to muscle fibers.
[...] To harvest the tissues, a centrifuge separated the cell clumps from the growth medium. They were rinsed to remove traces of growth medium, compressed into a disk two centimeters, or about 3/4 inch, in diameter, and cooked in a frying pan with olive oil. The cooked patty had the rough, brown surface texture and overall appearance of a tiny hamburger patty.
Journal Reference:
Sam C.P. Norris et al, Emulsion-templated microparticles with tunable stiffness and topology: Applications as edible microcarriers for cultured meat [open], Biomaterials (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121669
(Score: 3, Flamebait) by Snotnose on Friday August 19 2022, @08:57PM (2 children)
1) It should be tasty
1a) Fake beef doesn't need to taste like beef, fake chicken doesn't need to taste like chicken
1b) If fake foo doesn't taste like foo you should probably name it something else, like bar
1c) Some 20 years ago I grabbed one of my step daughter's veggie burgers. It was tasty as hell, would eat again.
2) It should be same price or cheaper than the real thing
2a) If you don't call it "beef", "chicken", "pork", "fish", etc this doesn't apply
3) It should be as un/healthy as the real thing
1) If your fake beef hamburger has a days worth of sodium, you lose.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 4, Funny) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 19 2022, @09:14PM
Mutually exclusive:
1) It should be tasty
1) If your fake beef hamburger has a days worth of sodium, you lose.
You want your honey chicken with no MSG, ah yessir, no MSG in this honey chicken, ENJOY! (hint: there is a TON of MSG in the honey chicken, that's why it tastes like it does, restaurant owner think: what customer don't know won't hurt me.)
Fast food is an artful blend of salt and fat, in pretty (and low cost) packaging. French fries may have started as potatoes, but the good (tasting) ones are freeze dried and have the water replaced with oils. The carbohydrates left over get crisped in the deep fryer, then thrown in a tray to mix with carefully crushed salt - just the right particle size and shape/roughness to maximize flavor impact (at minimal cost).
So, while they are growing meat in a lab, they will no doubt be focused on market acceptance (maximal return on their investment) first: overcoming the objections of as many vegans / vegetarians / pescatarians / gluten-free / nut-free / keto / fad-o-the-day as possible with their product(s). After that, the flavor / texture impact needs to be optimal for positive word of mouth, especially from first time tasters. Health impacts? Yeah, yeah, X percent better than meat, parasite free (oooh, steak tartare without the risks) but I doubt that has anywhere near the impact on sales that the objections and mouth-feel experience does.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 5, Insightful) by HammeredGlass on Friday August 19 2022, @09:38PM
I appreciate you including sodium in your eval.
On a related note, I read a funny the other day that went like this:
"I once heard a cook say that restaurant food is good because they cook like they hate you.
They don't care about your arteries or your sodium intake, just "Enjoy your salty, oil-crunchblob you horrible person" and boom. Tasty."