Large-scale production of edible scaffolds and effective culturing methods for fat tissues — both crucial for replicating the texture, flavor, and nutritional value of meat — remain a technical challenge for the commercialization of cultivated meat.
Scaffolds provide structural support for cells to multiply and develop into tissues. But they are typically made from synthetic or animal-based materials, which are expensive and inedible.
But a research team led by Professor Huang Dejian from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has successfully cultured pork fat using a new kind of plant protein scaffold. The scientists identified secalin, a protein extracted from rye and barley, both common crops, as a suitable source to create edible scaffolds. They then developed a template-leaching method for creating sponge-like scaffolds using commercial sugar cubes as a reference.
The patent-pending technology is said to overcome previous limitations in scaffold manufacturing, including cost, functionality, and scalability, presenting a new opportunity for the cellular agriculture industry. The research findings are disclosed in a paper published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Successful culturing of pork fat
The scientists explain that the secalin scaffolds have high porosity (85–90%), fully interconnected pores, and high water stability for culturing adipose tissue. In addition, their mechanical characteristics can be adjusted to desired parameters by changing the sugar-to-protein weight ratio and applying post-water annealing treatments. Moreover, by customizing larger sugar cubes, their production can be scaled up to meet commercial needs.
After 12 days of culturing porcine adipose cells on these secalin scaffolds, the resulting pork fat tissue was comparable to conventional pork subcutaneous adipose tissue. According to the paper, both murine preadipocytes (3T3-L1) and porcine adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) were able to infiltrate, adhere, proliferate, and differentiate on these secalin scaffolds, mimicking natural fat tissue in appearance, texture, flavor, and fatty acid profiles.
The research team is also exploring a differentiation medium containing food-grade ingredients to control the fatty acid composition, aiming to enhance the nutritional value of the cultivated pork fat.
Last year, Prof. Huang’s team also successfully 3D-printed edible scaffolds made of cereal prolamins (corn, barley, and rye) and tested them with pig stem cells to cultivate a piece of meat (the image above).
Prof. Huang told NUS, “Cereal prolamins are promising natural sources for scaffold development, and they can be reclaimed from spent grains such as spent barley grains generated locally. Our simple and green method using sugar cubes as templates should facilitate the scaled production of edible scaffolds for cultured meat while contributing to the local sustainable and circular economy.”
