Engineered and Cell-Based Meat and Seafood

A special issue of Foods (ISSN 2304-8158). This special issue belongs to the section "Meat".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 October 2020) | Viewed by 20955

Special Issue Editors

Virginia Tech, Food Sci. and Technol., Seafood AREC, Virginia Seafood AREC, 102 S. King Street, Hampton, VA 23669, USA
Interests: aquaponics; seafood safety; bio-based sanitizers; novel sanitizers; foodborne pathogens; cellular agriculture; insects; alternative proteins; bioprocessing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, USA
Interests: food manufacturing; food safety; food laws and regulations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It has been estimated that the world population will reach 9 billion by 2050, for which food production must increase by 70% and meat production must increase 100% to meet the global demand. The current agricultural practices and food production systems are unsustainable. Particularly, in the seafood supply chain, due to overfishing, pollution, harmful algal bloom, climate change, emerging diseases, antibiotic-resistant pathogens, marine debris, and microplastics, there is an unmet need to develop alternative seafood products. Aquaculture is the most sustainable seafood production system. However, emerging diseases, a lack of clean freshwater resources, the complexity of legal issues, public perception, chemical and drug residues, and fishmeal availability and prices have a huge impact on the viability of aquaculture sectors for certain species and in specific regions of the world. The seafood industry also faces issues with product mislabeling and a lack of traceability from production in emerging economies, which are two important components of sustainability. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop and adopt new technologies for seafood and meat production including cell-based and plant-based meat and seafood. In-vitro cultured muscle from meat-producing animals is an emerging technology that may be able to address some of the environmental, financial, and health concerns that plague conventional production methods. Cell-based products could be produced as disease and pathogen-free products resulting in foods without chemical and drug residue. Furthermore, cell-based products could provide clear traceability and solve the mislabeling issue.

Although the cell-based and plant-based meat and seafood industry is growing rapidly, this industry is still very new and requires extensive investment and research to be able to meet the market requirement sand compete with harvested meat and seafood, in terms of texture, flavor, appearance, and price.

Prof. Reza Ovissipour
Dr. Barbara Rasco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Alternative proteins
  • cellular agriculture
  • plant-based proteins
  • insect proteins
  • functional proteins

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2780 KiB  
Article
European Markets for Cultured Meat: A Comparison of Germany and France
by Christopher Bryant, Lea van Nek and Nathalie C. M. Rolland
Foods 2020, 9(9), 1152; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/foods9091152 - 21 Aug 2020
Cited by 67 | Viewed by 20281
Abstract
The negative impacts of meat consumption for animals, the environment, and human health are more pressing than ever. Although some evidence points to an ongoing reduction in meat consumption in Europe, consumers are overall unwilling to cut their meat consumption in a substantial [...] Read more.
The negative impacts of meat consumption for animals, the environment, and human health are more pressing than ever. Although some evidence points to an ongoing reduction in meat consumption in Europe, consumers are overall unwilling to cut their meat consumption in a substantial way. The present study investigates dietary identities and perceptions of cultured meat in nationally representative samples from Germany (n = 1000) and France (n = 1000). Participants were recruited through an Ipsos panel to answer an online survey, which included questions about their current and intended consumption of conventional meat, as well as questions about their opinions of cultured meat. We find that, whilst rates of vegetarianism were relatively low in France, unrestricted meat-eaters were a minority in Germany, and concern for animal welfare was the most common reason given for meat reduction. Substantial markets for cultured meat exist in both countries, although German consumers are significantly more open to the concept than the French. Strikingly, cultured meat acceptance is significantly higher amongst agricultural and meat workers, indicating that those who are closest to existing meat production methods are most likely to prefer alternatives. We found some evidence that pro-cultured meat messages, which focus on antibiotic resistance and food safety, are significantly more persuasive than those that focus on animals or the environment. Furthermore, consumers project that they would be significantly more likely to consume cultured meat that does not contain genetically modified ingredients. Overall, we find substantially large markets for cultured meat in Germany and France, and identify some potential ways to further increase acceptance in these markets. We conclude by highlighting the most promising markets for cultured meat, and highlighting a lack of antibiotics as a potentially persuasive message about cultured meat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineered and Cell-Based Meat and Seafood)
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