2024 Author: Adelina Croftoon | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 02:07
Scientists from Massachusetts are experimenting with muscle cells of cows, adding substances useful for the human body, which are found in vegetables and fruits such as watermelons, tomatoes, pink grapefruit and others
Researchers and from Tufts University experiments are under way in Massachusetts to enrich beef with plant nutrients at the genetic level. They add to cow cells beta carotene, lycopene and phytoenefound in fruits and vegetables. Their goal is to make healthier beef available to everyone.
Currently, their technology is too expensive even for wealthy buyers, but in the future they expect that even such expensive meat will be in demand due to its health benefits.
In addition to the vitamin goal of introducing plant cells into the muscle tissue of cows, Massachusetts scientists hope that it will also reduce the content of cancer-causing agents in beef.
The team was inspired by the development of golden rice in the 1990s, which was created with the addition of beta-carotene.
Researchers say they have already made progress in adding lycopene to cultured cow muscle cells, a substance found in tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit, as well as a phytoene found in peppers, carrots and oranges.
A report on this study was published in the November issue of the scientific journal Metabolic Engineering.
"These phytonutrients have overall nutritional value and protective effects against diseases associated with the consumption of red and processed meat, and thus offer promising proof of concept for nutritional engineering in cultivated meat," the paper says.
Andrew Stout, lead author of the study and PhD student in biomedical engineering at Tufts University, said the results were very encouraging.
“Cows do not have genes that make beta-carotene. We engineered cow muscle cells to produce this and other phytonutrients, which in turn allows us to transfer these nutritional properties directly to a cultured meat product in a way that is probably not possible with transgenic animals and traditional meat production,”said Stout.
Another advantage of the cells they created was the reduction in the number of carcinogenic compounds.
“We saw a decrease in lipid oxidation when we cooked up the small pellets of these cells when they expressed and produced this beta-carotene. Since lipid oxidation is one of the key proposals for linking red and processed meat to diseases like colorectal cancer, I think that there is a pretty strong case that it could potentially mitigate that risk, Stout said.
These studies come amid a huge surge in demand for healthy meat substitutes such as those made by companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.
According to a Fortune Business Insight report released last month, the market for meat substitutes will be worth $ 8.6 billion a year by 2026.
Experts warn that cultured meats such as those produced by the Tufts team are prohibitively expensive at the moment.
“It will likely be difficult to get competitive prices for cultured meat versus factory farmed meat,” says David Kaplan, professor of engineering at the Stern Family.
But the health benefits of this product could make the price more affordable, he said.
"A cultured product that provides consumers with additional health benefits can convince them to pay more."
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