Technologies

Before devising technologies to create slaughter-free meat, it is important to understand the nature of meat and what are its distinctive qualities.

All meats, regardless of animal species, consist primarily of muscle tissue, as well as connective tissue and fat. Muscles, which comprise a bulk of the meat, are in turn made of muscle fibers that are bundled together in a hierarchical fashion with connective tissue and fat. The diameter, length, and tensile strength of muscle fibres vary between species. Chicken muscle fibres, for instance, are typically thinner and longer than those of fish, and also have greater tensile strength.

Muscles are hierarchically structured. Muscle fibres are bundled to form fascicles which in turn are grouped together into layers of muscle tissue. These layers are stacked to form muscle, which varies across both species and cuts of meat from the same animal. The connective tissue that binds them together at various levels (endomysium, perimysium and epimysium) and the fats contained also vary across cuts from the same animal. The figure below is a cross section of a chicken breast which shows the muscle layers, fascicles and fibers, as well as the connective tissues (epimysium, perimysium and endomysium).

When an animal is slaughtered and a specific cut of meat is cooked, the complex texture, chewiness, and mouthfeel of meat are defined not only by the live muscle tissue and associated connective tissue and fats, but also the freshness of the meat and the manner in which it is cooked. As temperatures rise, the tensile strength of muscle fibers change, connective tissues (like collagen) break down, fats melt, and complex flavours that give meat its distinctive taste and aroma are released.

Replicating slaughtered meat by employing plant materials and/or animal cells grown outside an animal is challenging for three major reasons:

1. While our naked eye can perceive objects as small as 20 microns, our mouth can discern food materials even further down to 5 microns with our tongue and palate. Muscle fibers have a diameter in the tens of microns and are therefore perceptible by humans. Any technology that attempts to mimic traditional slaughtered meat must therefore be able to create muscle fibers that have a diameter in the tens of microns, and should have a precision down to 5 microns.

2. When meat is chewed, the lower level structures of meat - muscle layers, muscle fascicles and muscle fibers are progressively revealed and broken down. This process is responsible for the distinctive evolving texture, chewiness, juiciness and mouthfeel of meat from the first chew to the last chew. Precisely replicating this intricate hierarchical structure is vital to mimicking traditional slaughtered meat.

3. When meat is cooked, the muscle tissue and associated connective tissue and fat thermally transition at specific temperatures. This changes the texture of meat, exudes juices, and releases distinctive flavours. Any technology that attempts to mimic traditional slaughtered meat must therefore be able to precisely replicate these thermal transitions.

Our flexible patent-pending Gen3 slaughter-free meat manufacturing platform has been designed to address the above three challenges. Additionally, it has the option of utilising both plant materials as well as animal cells cultivated outside an animal.

To address the first challenge we have successfully created muscle fibers using our patent-pending “protein chaining” technology. This technology allows us to precisely replicate muscle fibers for a variety of animal species, and to do so at scale. This technology and its associated manufacturing processes do not use heat, which helps protect the proteins in our muscle fibers from denaturing. Replication includes mimicking the visual properties (size, color, and transparency), mechanical properties (tensile strength, juiciness, and chewiness), flavor (taste and aroma), and the nutritional profile of muscle fibers.

To address the second challenge of precisely replicating the intricate hierarchical structure of meat, we have developed a second patent-pending “precision structuring” technology. This can mimic the hierarchical structure of slaughtered meat and can create meats with an arbitrary number of (1) muscle fibers per fascicle, (2) fascicles per muscle layer, and (3) muscle layers for the cut of meat in question. These structures also incorporate connective tissues and fats of varying properties.

Finally, to address the third challenge of precisely replicating the thermal transitions of cooking slaughtered meat, we have developed a set of “thermal transitioning” technologies. These make our meats alter texture, melt fats, breakdown connective tissue, and release juices and flavours in specific temperature ranges.

We have been successful in creating a 100% plant-based chicken breast with these properties using our Gen3 platform which has an equivalent nutritional profile to that of slaughtered chicken. The manufacturing process is stable, repeatable and scalable.

We also recently created a rudimentary prototype of a cultivated chicken hybrid. The muscle fibres are made of plant protein, but the connective tissue is made of chicken fibroblasts that are grown on these muscle fibres. A microscopic image of this is shown below.