NEW TECH FOODS

Advancements in cultivated meat are reshaping the future of the protein industry, as consumers demand realistic texture, taste, and sustainable production. Simona Fehlmann, CEO and co-founder of Sallea, explains how scaffold innovation is enabling manufacturers to produce structured whole cuts like steaks and fillets, overcoming key technical challenges in lab-grown meat production.

The idea of creating cultivated meat, real meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors, was not born overnight. Already in 1931, Winston Churchill envisioned escaping "the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing, by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium" in his Fifty Years Hence essay.

Advancements in the field and technology led to the assembly of the first lab-grown burger in 2013 by Mark Post, currently CSO at Mosa Meat. 20’000 muscle fibres grown in petri dishes were pressed together to resemble a meat patty. While these milestones highlight remarkable progress in science, the resulting products lacked structure and textured tissue. There was no technology that would allow for the growth of textured and thicker whole-cut meat products.

In a 2022 analysis, BCG and Blue Horizon reported that the cultivated meat value chain had already begun to concentrate investment and commercial activity around cell bioprocessing and medium development (figure one), while scaffold technologies were identified as a largely overlooked segment at the time.

In addition to major challenges such as cost-effective scaling and a regulatory environment in development, the cultivated meat industry faces the challenge of meeting consumers’ expectations for realistic texture and taste of the final product, just as these factors have limited broader adoption of plant-based meat alternatives.

With meat consumption being closely linked with cultural and family traditions, enabling the familiar texture and culinary experience is critical for success. It goes without saying that the industry has made significant progress in producing meat without animals, but it has not yet managed to grow textured meat that can compete with its farm-grown alternative. For now, products like premium beef cuts or sushi-grade fish filets are off-limits.

The architecture of cultured meat

First generation scaffolds

It was common knowledge that without modification, mammalian cells are adherent. Thus, a first generation of scaffolds was developed early on and was strongly influenced by pharma or regenerative medicine applications. This first generation often relied on animal-derived proteins and was not addressing the need for larger cross-sections, which is not as crucial in pharma/MedTech.

After an initial focus on biology and proving the feasibility of cultivating cells, the importance of meeting culinary expectations of consumers was acknowledged. Yet the first generation of scaffolds could neither enhance texture nor the nutritional profile of a potential end product. Additionally, the difficulty in handling these materials made them unsuitable for large-scale production and there was no answer provided on how to integrate them into existing processes.

In practice, the limitations of the first generation scaffolds kept the industry anchored in minced formats, postponing the attempts at thick, fully structured cuts.

Breakthroughs in scaffold innovation

Innovation in scaffold design led to products that not only overcome the limitations of the first generation products but also demonstrated that scaffolds can deliver far more than three-dimensional tissue growth.

The authentic texture comparable to conventional meat is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the advantages of second generation scaffolds.

Today, it is possible to produce high-protein, plant-based and fully edible scaffolds that enhance the nutritional profile of the end product, matching the amino acid composition of conventional meat while remaining neutral in taste (figure two).

This second generation of scaffolds has the potential to drive major cost reductions by reducing downstream processing. They also act as a functional filler, providing nutritious, textured volume that can be tailored and reduced if desired, at a lower cost than the biomass itself.

Beyond the nutritional value of scaffolds and the relevant texture, second generation scaffolds are tackling the challenge of limited cell migration and diffusion limitations.

Growing a thin sheet of cells is one thing. Growing a thick, juicy steak beyond several centimeters, however, is far more challenging. Without a vascular system, dense cell aggregates starve at the core (cell necrosis) because nutrients and oxygen cannot diffuse far enough.

The second generation scaffolds help solve this by acting like artificial capillaries: their porous networks allow culture medium to penetrate the structure and reach cells throughout the tissue. Dynamic tests with Sallea’s scaffolds have demonstrated the potential to grow tissues thicker than 5cm, opening the door to larger and more structured cuts.

With these scaffolds, instead of being limited to ground-meat textures, it becomes possible to culture cells into products that look, feel and taste much closer to familiar cuts of meat. Over time, better scaffolds mean better hybrid products at lower costs, allowing producers to limit the share of biomass in the end product without compromising on texture or nutrition.

A call to (re)build meat’s future

The future of meat depends on collaboration and shared innovation. Scaffolding specialist companies emerged and are building ready-made, edible scaffolds and hardware systems that cultivated meat producers can seamlessly integrate, accelerating progress industry‑wide.

By focusing on collaboration, we believe that better, more sustainable products can be cultured faster and shorten time‑to‑market, similar to how open platforms transformed the software industry. As a next step, Sallea is about to launch the first consortium project for textured whole cuts in Switzerland.