Cultured, 3D-printed ‘Frankenmeat’ has a long road ahead, but can’t be ignored

When I first heard of 3D-printed and “cultured meat,” I was once again thankful that when I die, I will not be leaving behind any children to live in this crazy world. Having had so many years of experience in the plant-based, meat-alternative business, however, I also decided that I still should educate myself on these matters.

The companies selling these meat alternatives have some very trendy arguments for why they are a good idea. They say these products can be created with a smaller footprint, meat protein can be grown in an incubator much faster than on the hoof, animals are not put down for the process, and well, gosh golly darn it, we just have so many more people that need to be fed nowadays.

I can see how these products could be considered useful in some of those respects: For example, if you lived on a small island or perhaps a space station, that all sounds good. However, lots of things look good on paper until they hit the real world. You can find people who all thought Communism, extended warranties and New Coke sounded good at one time or another — just saying.

To create 3D-printed meat, you start by removing stem cells from an animal, placing them in a petri dish and putting them in an incubator to replicate. Once enough cells are present, they are then made into a paste, which is put into a printer cartridge then placed in the printer — much like a typical ink cartridge — and printing begins.

The process of “printing meat” reminds me of cake decorating. As a matter of fact, the process can create some interesting shapes, but so far, I haven’t seen any that look like a chicken breast or steak. So, perfection/improvement of appearance and texture are still on the drawing board. The first finished product printed was a breaded chicken nugget. Did I fail to mention that Kentucky Fried Chicken is championing this research? No word yet on whether Colonel Sanders is rolling in his grave.

Anyhow, taste testers reported that it tasted just like a traditional chicken nugget, but when cut open you could see that it was a mass of goo that had bubbled during the cooking process. I do not think that alone would deter chicken nugget fans though, because it really doesn’t look all that different from a cooked, meat-taken-from-the-bird McDonald’s McNugget.

When it comes to beef, they would likely follow the same process to make a paste and are working on a beef burger. As you might imagine, the companies competing for this market share are very protective of their processes, so I was unable to find footage on how they were trying to achieve the coarse-ground look.

Naturally, printing burgers isn’t the only target for these entrepreneurs. (Writer’s note: Naturally? Printing burgers? I’m not sure those go together!)  Some companies are already growing steaks. At the point of this writing, it had been reported that the cost of a piece of cultured steak the diameter of a credit card and about twice as thick is around $60,000 — and doesn’t feature the fibrous muscle tissue look of real steak. The ultimate goal would be to produce Wagyu in a lab setting, which clearly is going to be a few years away.

None of these products are ready to hit the market yet, nor are they approved for sale in the United States. On March 7, 2019, the USDA and the FDA agreed to jointly share regulatory oversight of these products. Two years later, the details are still being ironed out. What I do know is that my own state, Missouri, passed a law saying that meat cannot be called meat unless it comes from a traditionally raised animal. This gives me hope. What the labels on these cultured-meat products will say in the future is anyone’s guess at this point. My only concern is that it must be clear to the consumer. 

This new technology could prove to be a challenge for the meat industry, although I do not see that happening very soon. I also see that there could come a time when traditionally raised meat is much more expensive and sought after. Whatever happens, this is an issue to keep an eye on, and it is important that each state get on the Missouri bandwagon and pass laws now that require meat to be defined as traditionally raised.

— Martha Gore, food safety consultant, We R Food Safety!

Product claims: Common sense, education must prevail

As a 22-year-old who spends her fair share of time on the Internet and is employed in the food industry, I have come to notice a lack of knowledge the average consumer has about food. Indeed, I’ve noticed that consumers are in the dark about what some ingredients are, how things are processed, and which health claims actually hold value.

But is this gap in knowledge due to the secrecy that often comes with the food industry, or is it ignorance on both sides of the aisle, i.e., consumers think they shouldn’t have to take the time to understand how things are made and what different claims mean, while processors might not believe it is their responsibility to inform consumers? This gap causes a lot of confusion and misinformation to be spread.

One common problem that comes from this gap are consumers who get worked up over the ingredient lists and nutrition labels on so-called health foods. Labeling requirements as they are, these so-called health foods do contain quite a lengthy list of ingredients. Compounding matters, when companies utilize ingredients fortified with other ingredients, they must all be listed in order, creating long labels with ingredients that can sound mysterious or be difficult to pronounce.

Recently, I came across a tweet about a surprise finding in a box of cereal. The post was tweeted by a comedian who claimed to have found shrimp tails in his Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Based on how cereal is produced and the assumption that General Mills’ quality-management strategies aren’t in question, I didn’t believe it. Furthermore, anyone who fell for it must not have thought through this very much. It had to be a joke, I thought.

Unfortunately, consumers who post social-media messages like this — maliciously or not — often have little idea the serious ramifications of their claims. Doing an entire recall for a social-media practical joke would be a nightmare! The fact that some consumers truly believed this comedian found shrimp tails in cereal, even for a second, is one scary thought. Because of a select few consumers who didn’t do their own research and/or use common sense, General Mills had to expend effort to manage a phony crisis.

Even with external groups creating misleading claims about products, it doesn’t mean processors aren’t always innocent of making unsubstantiated claims. It amazes me the product claims a processor can make that have little backing or value, even. I have friends who have been misled as to what a “healthy” product is because of many of these nonsense claims, and such labels have become a pet peeve of mine. The most annoying claim so far has been the term “natural.”

For meat and poultry products to be labeled “natural,” the USDA states they must be minimally processed and contain no added artificial ingredients. If that wasn’t vague enough for you, for other foods, the term has no clear meaning and is not even regulated by a government agency! Because of that wide-reaching definition, there’s no perfect way for science to even show that “natural” products are better for you (or not). Thus, they are marketing tactics processors use to convince consumers they are being healthy, a deception that increases the knowledge gap and mistrust the average consumer has with the food processing industry.

All is not lost, however. There are TikTok, Facebook, YouTube users who are bringing the science of food production to the forefront for those consumers who will listen. Although I believe it is the consumer’s duty to be more in the know about food processing, as a food industry employee, I feel a sense of responsibility to debunk some of these myths and add transparency wherever possible. Do you feel the same about educating your consumers? Maybe you should …

— Sam Bibbs, Food Safety Consultant, sam@werfoodsafety.com