Cultivated meat is known under many names: cultured meat, synthetic meat, slaughter-free meat, and lab-grown meat, to name a few. It promises a healthier, more sustainably- produced meat free from animal cruelty.
When it reaches full-scale production, cultivated meat could play an essential role in ensuring food security in the future. “The ingredients for the nutrition medium could be transported longer distances as a dry powder, so agricultural land is not necessarily needed close to the production facilities,” sustainable food systems researcher Hanna Tuomisto writes in an article from 2019. This depends, however, on whether customers are willing to eat the food.
Theoretically, cultivated meat can be made from any animal with stem cells that can turn into fat and muscle cells. Among the nearly 30 cultivated meat companies in Europe… a range of various types of meat are being developed, from beef and other red meat products to chicken filets and duck. French-based Gourmey has even taken it upon itself to create an animal-friendly version of the popular yet highly controversial foie gras. The company sent the first taste tests to selected people in 2021 with great approval rates.
