Economic Viability of Cultured Meat
Economic Viability of Cultured Meat
Date
2021
Authors
McConville, Lauren
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Abstract
Cultured meat is a promising prospect in the food industry. An increasing
population, combined with a correlating increase in meat consumption, further
facilitated by sustainability and food safety concerns in the meat industry have
been the key drivers for development of cultured meat. Cultured meat is still in
its early stages of development and requires much work in its scalability to bring
it to the marketplace and to make it an economically viable food product for
human consumption. While much theoretical and scientific background work has
been completed in this field, huge challenges remain in reducing production
costs. This research outlines the current state of the industry and presents the key
cost contributors to cultured meat production. Such costs include medium
components, bioreactors, building and equipment and labour, among many
others. Other technical aspects of the production process have been explored,
such as cell source and cell doubling time as they will ultimately contribute to
overall efficiency and production costs. Currently, cultured meat is not being
produced at a scale or cost that is affordable to the consumer and so, key areas
for cost reduction have been explored and presented as a means of making
cultured meat a more economically viable alternative to conventional meat.
population, combined with a correlating increase in meat consumption, further
facilitated by sustainability and food safety concerns in the meat industry have
been the key drivers for development of cultured meat. Cultured meat is still in
its early stages of development and requires much work in its scalability to bring
it to the marketplace and to make it an economically viable food product for
human consumption. While much theoretical and scientific background work has
been completed in this field, huge challenges remain in reducing production
costs. This research outlines the current state of the industry and presents the key
cost contributors to cultured meat production. Such costs include medium
components, bioreactors, building and equipment and labour, among many
others. Other technical aspects of the production process have been explored,
such as cell source and cell doubling time as they will ultimately contribute to
overall efficiency and production costs. Currently, cultured meat is not being
produced at a scale or cost that is affordable to the consumer and so, key areas
for cost reduction have been explored and presented as a means of making
cultured meat a more economically viable alternative to conventional meat.