Food culture and cell-culture: technical, ethical and social frontiers

Abstract

As the FAO/WHO has completed the rigorous identification of food safety hazards of cell-based food, this article identifies remaining research gaps, particularly in the economic and social sciences, that need to be filled to better meet the expectations of cell-based food production.

Fig. 1. Research gaps that need to be filled to better meet the expectations of cell-based food production.

The research gaps in cell-based food production are summarized in this Figure, in particular: technical (scalability, cost-effective and animal-free culture media), regulatory (approval process, nomenclature), social (consumer acceptance, ethics, religion) and sustainability (resource use, environmental impact) challenges. These barriers highlight the key areas where progress is needed for the industry to grow. Image generated using a function of ChatGPT 4.0, an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based software, with all the texts provided by the authors with the prompt “a meat-on-a-plate image in the center”.