April 16, 2025

expert reaction to study looking at lab-grown chicken muscle tissue chunks

A study published in Trends in Biotechnology looks at lab grown chicken chunks. 

Dr Rodrigo Amaro-Ledesma, Director of the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein,  Imperial College London, said:

“One of the key goals for cultivated meat is replicating the texture and structure of whole-cut products, such as chicken breast or steak.  Muscle tissue needs oxygen and nutrients delivered deep into the structure to remain viable.  As a result, most cultivated meat companies have initially focused on producing unstructured or ‘mince-style’ products, which are more feasible to produce at scale with current technologies.

“This new paper presents an innovative approach to addressing the whole-cut challenge by using a Hollow Fiber Bioreactor (HFB), which mimics a circulatory system to deliver nutrients and oxygen across thick tissue constructs.  What is unique about this system is the cell alignment and muscle cell differentiation, showing potential for fibrous aligned products generated by the cells themselves.

“It’s a meaningful technical achievement that they have produced a cultivated chicken meat several centimetres thick.  If you combine that with the research we’re conducting at the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein – fine-tuning flavour profiles and exploring alternative, cost-effective raw materials – we’re comfortably on track towards an exciting and appealing new range of products.

“While the study highlights remaining hurdles such as the use of edible or food-safe materials and improving oxygen delivery at scale, broader challenges for the field remain.

“Cultivated meat is a promising alternative to conventional meat because it offers the potential to reduce environmental impacts (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use), eliminate the need for animal slaughter, and improve food safety by avoiding the use of antibiotics and reducing the risk of zoonotic diseases, amongst other advantages.

“In order for cultivated meat products to hit the supermarket shelves in a big way, they need to also be a hit with consumers.  In the UK, we have the legacy of alternative proteins like Quorn, which are already more popular here than abroad.  More widely, there’s not only a taste, texture and nutrition barrier, but cultural, religious and habitual factors can prevent people trying new products no matter how appealing they can be.  At the Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein at Imperial College London, we are combining cutting edge research, innovation, education and gastronomy to make headway on safety, quality and consumer acceptance.”

Prof Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre and Co-Director of the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre, The James Hutton Institute, said:

“The science on display here is solid and robust, with a significant level of supplementary material to support the conclusions.  This is an exciting advance in the alternative protein sector and specifically culture meat, and addresses many of the challenges that were seen as stumbling blocks such as aligned cell growth to deliver the meat texture sensory experience as well as the fundamental issues of getting nutrients and oxygen to the growing solid meat tissue.  The use of hollow fibre supports (in essence scaffolds) and the advances herein will open up many areas of allied research (and undoubtedly investment) with scaleup options now seemingly achievable with the progression from this paper in terms of better sensors, robotics and ultimately AI for control.

“Limitations of the system presented are identified with the need to create better conveyable oxygen in the nutrient media, pressure control in media deliver in scaled up systems and the precise removal of the hollow fibres to deliver a uniform and appetising cut of whole meat.  However, these issues seem solvable.

“As for all cultured meat production, the issues of energy use and associated sustainability need to be addressed but the proliferation of renewables and private wire connections could be a route to solving that conundrum.”

‘Scalable tissue biofabrication via perfusable hollow fiber arrays for cultured meat applications’ by Minghao Nie et al. was published in Trends in Biotechnology at 16:00 UK time on Wednesday 16 April 2025. 

DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2025.02.022

Declared interests

Dr Rodrigo Amaro-Ledesma: “Nothing beyond that I am the Director of the Bezos Centre.”

Prof Derek Stewart: “Prof Stewart has no conflicts of interest in relation to this research.”