Development of Artificially Cultured Meat with Higher Protein Than Beef and Chicken Breast

Professor Hong Jin-gi's Yonsei University Team "Protein Content Doubled"

Artificial cultured meat with a higher protein content than beef tenderloin or chicken breast has been developed.

Yonsei University announced on the 24th that Professor Hong Jin-gi's research team from the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering developed a new powdered cultured meat called high-protein cell powder meat.

Conceptual diagram of high-protein cell powder meat developed by the Yonsei University research team. Image source: Provided by Yonsei University

As meat consumption increases, various ethical, environmental issues, as well as resource and food shortages, are emerging. Accordingly, cultured meat is emerging as a clean and eco-friendly future food, but for its commercialization, the key challenges are the organization of cells to mimic real meat and reducing manufacturing costs.

The research team established cell culture conditions that achieve a high differentiation rate to contain high protein and cultured cells with about 76% higher cost efficiency compared to conventional culture conditions to produce a new powdered cultured meat. It is characterized by a protein content of 48.1%, which is much higher than that of well-known high-protein foods such as beef tenderloin (protein content: 20.7%) and chicken breast (protein content: 25.7%).

It has a scent similar to real beef, and flavor analysis confirmed that the molecules detected in beef tenderloin and those detected in the cell powder meat are compounds that produce similar flavors, verifying the reason for this aroma.

Beom-gyu Choi, the first author and a researcher at Yonsei University, said, “This study can serve as a foundation for the mass production and cost reduction of cultured meat in the future,” adding, “Among the various forms of cultured meat being proposed, the powdered form is expected to enable particularly rapid commercialization.”

The results of this study were published on the 11th of this month in the academic journal in the field of food science and technology, npj Science of Food.