An overview of In-vitro meat production and its limitations

Abstract

Meat is a one of the highly demanded article and its demand is increasing steadily day by day. The demand of meat of continuously growing human population cannot be fulfilled by conventional methods of meat production which are having various disadvantages. The In-vitro meat has been developed by the researchers using tissue engineering/ stem cell technology in laboratory without using an actual animal. Stem cells can grow in culture media and new muscle fibres are developed which can be used to prepare various meat products. Cells, scaffolds, bioreactors, culture medium, growth factors and fields are required to grow in-vitro meat in laboratory. No significant differences in sensory qualities were reported between products prepared from lab-grown meat and products prepared using conventional meat. The in-vitro meat is grown in sterile environment hence it is better for human body. It is better for the environment also as overall environmental impacts of in-vitro meat production are comparatively lower. While production of in-vitro meat, emission of greenhouse gasses are less than conventional methods. In-vitro meat can be produced with less energy, land and water. In-vitro meat is also considered as vegan meat and there are other advantages like fat content can be controlled, healthy meat, diseases can be controlled, chemically safe, reduce waste production etc. Therefore one can say that the in-vitro meat can be worked as an alternative to conventional meat.